There's a lot of stuff to talk about here--

Let's begin with Notre Dame football. The Sugar Bowl was a terrbily disappointing game, especially considering that it was tied with 2 minutes left in the first half. The thing that may have bothered me most was that Walker and the offensive line had their best game of the year and ultimately it meant nothing.

Until this game, I'd been straddling the fence on whether or not to give Minter another year. However, the woeful defensive performance has sealed it for me: he needs to go. The defense couldn't stop either the run or the pass. The tackling was poor, the coverage was worse, and the schemes achieved nothing. I'm certainly no expert on defensive scheming, but it seems crazy to me that a 10-2 team has absolutely no answers for a 10-yard out pattern.

Another great disappointment was the play of the safeties. Zbikowski and Ndukwe's shortcomings are well-chronicled, and I've come to accept them as a fan. I know neither guy is never going to be able to the best cover safety. However, for two guys that are touted as strong run stoppers, they consistently take bad angles and end up out of position. I hope Zbikowski comes back next year, but without a true free safety playing across from him, he will continue to be a liability.

As much as it pains me to say it, I'm kind of glad to see this season end. The preseason expectations made watching games less fun and more of a chore. I was constantly anxious, hoping the team would perform up to its potential, but fearing that they wouldn't. Next year should be similar to Weis' first, in that Notre Dame graduates a lot of key players and no one will be expecting too much from the team. Hopefully that combination will give them the motivation they need to kick some ass.