Irish Rout Over Sooners Should Quiet the Critics

The Irish certainly have reason to celebrate

Navy. Purdue. Michigan State. Michigan. Miami. Stanford. BYU. And now, Oklahoma. With a rousing victory over the Sooners in Oklahoma last night, the Fighting Irish appear to have finally quieted all of those critics. Where are you now, Mark May, with your prognostications that Notre Dame is overrated? Where are you now, Rick Reilly, with your ridiculous notion that Notre Dame is irrelevant? And where are the rest of the rank and file college football pundits with their belief that Oklahoma, favored by double digits even though ND was ranked higher, would put Notre Dame in their "rightful place" by relegating them to the back of the pack with a foregone conclusion that the Irish would be thrashed by the Sooners?

Illini Hit Rock Bottom in Loss To Indiana

Homecoming. Every alumnus looks forward to the weekend, as it means reuniting with friends from college, spending time on a campus that you enjoyed some of the best years of your life on, pretending you're a college student again, and generally making a fool out of yourself at every turn. It's usually a blast, starting with the tailgate before the football game and continuing on through the day. When the football team is bad, though, the tailgating usually just turns into a party the rest of the day and the game  is ignored. This is the status of our program right now, as from the looks of it yesterday with a half-empty stadium, droves of alumni decided to continue tailgating rather than watch the nightmare that is Illinois football.

One Year Ago Today

Today is the one year anniversary of the start of this blog. I understand that really, in the grand scheme of things, a single year of writing a sports blog isn't high in the pecking order. But for me, it's been great  to watch this process evolve. I've been pushed for years to try and articulate my thoughts in some way shape or form, and I finally took the plunge a year ago today. Since then, I've had the pleasure of hearing feedback from friends, family, and even strangers.

It's just one thing I love about our society and modern technology - everyone has a voice if they so choose. Whether it's facebook, twitter, blogging, or anything else, we've all been afforded the opportunity to voice our opinions so that everyone can see it. It has a way of bringing us all together, and if I can be just a tiny, microscopic portion of that in the Chicago sports world then that makes me happy.

I just wanted to thank all of you who read any of my posts, whether it was one or all of them, for taking the time to do so. It means the world to me. If you ever have any ideas for improving this blog, or want to leave any feedback whatsoever, it is all more than welcomed. I started this blog because of my love for Chicago sports and the near constant discussions I had regarding it with those around me. If anything, writing on those same subjects for the past year has only reinforced my love for these same things, and hopefully brought some of the same to some of you.

Thanks again for reading this past year. It has been a great ride for me, and I look forward to continuing to do.

Our First Glance at the New Look Bulls

Our image from last season

It hurts to think about where we left off with the Bulls last season. Derrick Rose had blown out his knee, Joakim Noah was suffering through a bad ankle injury, and the beloved Bulls bench mob had coughed up a Game 6 in the final minute to lose to the 8th seeded Philadelphia 76ers. From there we entered an off season that saw the jettisoning of several players, including CJ Watson, Kyle Korver, Omer Asik, and Ronnie Brewer. When some of the faces that were brought in to not only supplement the loss of Rose for the majority of the year, but also replace those key figures of the bench mob, were, how should I say this, rather unfulfilling, reports of the Bulls' demise this upcoming season dominated the reports of Bulls beat writers and the Bulls blogosphere.

Irish Run All Over the Hurricanes

Maybe, just maybe, we'll look back at this game and realize this is the moment Notre Dame football was "back." Sure, we've heard it several times before, from a fast start under Ty Willingham to a couple great seasons under Charlie Weis, but this time it's different, right? This Irish team, with an emphasis on team, just feels different. The way they go out and dominate on defense like elite teams do, the way the coaching staff has recruited, schemed, and grouped these players together, and the way these players come out and play hard, tough, physical football for 60 minutes every game - it all just feels like the old Notre Dame teams that were perennial contenders. I know there's a long way to go, and trust me, I feel like I'm jinxing it right now, but something about this team makes me feel like ND is back.

Bears Put Together a Complete Game in Thrashing of Cowboys

Flash back to last season. The Bears, after convincing victories over Phildelphia, Detroit, and San Diego, looked poised to make a deep run into the playoffs before Jay Cutler's injury ended those hopes.  Had Cutler not gone down, though, the Bears were clicking enough on both sides of the ball that there was no telling where the team could have gone. Now, the reason I bring this up now is that I hadn't seen that same type of play from the Bears since then until this past Monday's game against the Dallas Cowboys. The Bears dominated that game in all facets from start to finish. The offense was clicking, the defense was their usual turnover forcing selves, and the special teams played well as well. All in all, it looked like the Bears were starting to click as a team in all the right ways.