ESPN CFB Reporting: Lazy, Uninspired.......

......and insert any other synonyms of the like that you wish.

Earlier I listened to Kirk Herbstreit as he posited that while Notre Dame had top recruiting classes, they weren't on the level of a USC. That's cute, Kirk, but it misses the point as to why Notre Dame has struggled as of late. When are these so-called experts going to realize that talent comes secondary to coaching in college football? In the pros, that argument flies because it's more difficult to coach a team full of 20 and 30 somethings with their own minds and lives. In college, coaching is the single most important element in determining wins and losses. Don't believe me? Go ask Bronco Mendenhall if a lack of talent is stopping BYU from climbing in the polls week by week. Go ask Chris Petersen if lack of talent stopped his Boise State Broncos from beating a ranked Oregon team at Autzen stadium. If you want an example in reverse, go and ask Bobby Bowden how all that Florida talent's doing for him lately. There's no way to be nice about this, because it's been proven time and time again that it's coaching, not talent, that wins the day. Otherwise, Paul Johnson doesn't parlay his job as Navy's head coach into one at Georgia Tech. Dan Hawkins doesn't go from Boise State to Colorado, either. We've seen teams with lesser talent hang with more talented ones with increasing frequency as time goes on; Troy hung 34 points on Georgia last year and lost by 10. Boise State beat Oklahoma and Oregon State two years ago. Wake, one of the smallest teams in the ACC, won the conference two years ago, and held a far more talented Florida State team to a mere 3 points this past weekend. There are far more examples, but listing them all would be an exercise in redundancy. Note to the talking heads out there: you don't need a team full of NFL-ready players to win games.

And what the hell is up with the constant talk of Notre Dame? Has any other irrelevant team gotten so much press? They went 3-9 last year; who, besides people in South Bend, cares about Jimmy Clausen or Charlie Weis? Is the media that eager to see them back in top again?