That probably helped.

I had the best... seats... ever.

It's amazing that Manti Te'o visited for that game and still wound up committing.

and it's not even close. I think you can legitimately rationalize (to some extent) his other losses:

2005: lost to MSU in a hard-fought game; lost to two top 5 teams (USC & OSU)

2006: lost to three ranked teams, including two in the top 5

2007: you could write off the whole slate due to having the youngest team in ND football history, including first time starters at nearly every key position.

2008: MSU (9-4) was pretty tough. UNC (8-5) and Pitt (9-4) came down to the wire. BC (9-5) had a legtimate top-10 defense. USC was USC.

Then there's 2-8 Syracuse. There is no possible way to rationalize that game: not on young talent, not on strength of the opponent, not on fluke plays, not on the refs, not on the weather.

I just finished re-watching the ND-Syracuse game (what better time than Lent?) for some defensive stuff we're looking into doing on BGS some time in the future.

Anyway, while nothing can or should excuse that loss, I guess I didn't notice the first time around just how much ND was playing the 2nd string on defense. It's not as surprising in retrospect that Syracuse was able to wear down the defense. We were already playing all the subs.

For nearly the entire second half, our defense consisted of Justin Brown, Ray Herring, Gary Gray, Toryan Smith or Steve Quinn, and Ian Williams along with more regular starters in Kuntz, H. Smith, Neal, Bruton (playing with a bulky arm brace), and McNeil. Scott Smith even got in to replace Harrison Smith on a play (and would have played more, but he forced a fumble on his first play!) That's a lot of backup guys.

Hopefully this spring ND can fill up a legitimate two deep of guys on defense that don't make you hold your breath when they come in (too be fair, Herring and Gray didn't play too poorly against 'Cuse.)