They’re Tired of Irish Just Bobbing Along

Skip Bayless of the Chicago Tribune writing on the underachieving Notre Dame football team’s 5-7 record and Coach Bob Davie:

“Notre Dame is virtually stuck with a coach who acts as if he’s at Rutgers. Davie’s sole area of dramatic improvement is excuse making.

“He eloquently refers to academic demands, injuries and ‘the toughest schedule Notre Dame has ever played’ while his dwindling apologists lament that not enough black recruits care for the social life on campus or in South Bend.

“But Irish fans want to hear only the Victory March.”

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More Davie: Jay Mariotti in the Chicago Sun-Times: “They won’t admit their mistake. They can’t reach into their copious vaults, dust off a few bills, buy out the overmatched Davie and hire a coach worthier of the echoes.

“They are stubborn men, these Notre Dame priests, ignoring the urgent calls of alumni and media who can’t believe a program with so much life is dying.”

Well, the Irish did beat USC, 25-24, after the Trojans squandered a 21-0 lead.

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Trivia time: When did Notre Dame last win college football’s national championship?

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Time running out? Even though Joe Paterno, 72, is expected to lose 13 starters from this year’s Penn State team that faltered at the end of the season, he’s still upbeat about himself and the future.

“I just want to go out and coach a football team and have us be competitive. I’m not in it for anything other than that,” he told Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I’m not vainglorious. Look that word up in the dictionary.”

Cook did. It means being extremely self-proud and boastful.

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How about the postgame show? Scott Ackerson, producer of Fox’s NFL pregame show, said of all the active players in the NFL there is one whose TV potential is above all the others. “Deion would be the best,” he said. “It’s not even close.”

Comment from Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News: “Maybe Deion Sanders could double up next season. You know, work the pregame and then play cornerback.”

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Hose him down: Houston Rocket rookie guard Steve Francis is still sour at the Chicago Bulls for taking Elton Brand over him in the NBA draft.

“I’m going to light them up,” Francis said. “I’m going to be all gasolined up, and I’m going to light y’all up.”

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Mark your calendars: Houston at Chicago on Jan. 15.

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Trivia answer: In 1988, when the top-ranked Irish defeated No. 2 USC, 27-10, at the Coliseum on Nov. 26. Notre Dame went on to defeat West Virginia, 34-21, in the Fiesta Bowl.

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And finally: Texas football Coach Mack Brown blasted treatment of his players at College Station, Texas, where they spent the night before their 20-16 loss to Texas A&M; on Friday.

Someone at the hotel posted the room numbers of the coaches and players on the Internet, he said, prompting a series of harassing phone calls that started at 4 a.m.

“If I’m driving through College Station and there’s room at that hotel,” Brown said, “I’m going to stay in my car.”