Wake up the echoes

Couple of quick notes from Edsall's call today.

• No new injuries, everyone is full-go aside from Bennett, Endres, Frey, Dabney and Yurek who are all done for the season.
• Running backs coach Terry Richardson won't make the trip to Notre Dame. His mother lost her battle with cancer earlier this week, and the funeral is this weekend. Condolences to coach Richardson.
• Edsall said Jordan Todman has been running much better and hinted that Todman has a foothold on getting the bulk of carries. "He's been very productive and is developing into a really nice running back," Edsall said. "What I mean by that is he's understanding what has to happen...it's patience to the line and speed to the hole. If he continues to do that, he'll be very productive as a running back.

Edsall said UConn leaves at 2 p.m. for South Bend Friday and will head directly to Notre Dame Stadium for 15 or so minutes to see the locker rooms, field and to get their bearings.

Here's how I envision the scenario. The UConn team buses pull in front of Notre Dame Stadium, and the players make their way into the belly of the park, eventually hitting the field through the locker room tunnel. Randy Edsall notices his players gazing around at the surroundings with jaws agape as they exit. The 80,000-plus seats. The Golden Dome. Touchdown Jesus.

He pulls a tape measure out of his jacket pocket.

"Desi," he says. "Put this end on the goal line."

Edsall, holding the other end, walks to the opposite end zone. (Hey, it's a long tape measure).

"What's it say?" Edsall asks.

"100 yards," Cullen says.

"100 yards!" Edsall repeats for all to hear.

He walks back to the opposite end zone.

"Mike Hicks, put Jordan on your shoulders," Edsall says. He hands Todman an end of the tape measure.

"Put this on the cross bar."

Edsall holds the other end on the turf beneath the goal post.

"How far?" Edsall asks.

"10 feet," Todman says.

"10 feet!" Edsall repeats. "I think you'll find they're the exact same measurements as our field back in East Hartford! OK. Let's get dressed for practice."

Who am I kidding? That would never happen. It'll probably unfold more like this.

The team walks past a yellowing photo of the Fighting Irish's 1929 national championship team. A few players stop to look.

"Undefeated?" someone says.

"Yep. They were unstoppable back then," Edsall replies. "Great teams year in and year out."

Edsall keeps walking. The players look a little longer.

"Notre Dame's biggest guy is 210 pounds," someone else says. "Our punter weighs 210."

"And what's with those leather helmets? Are they playing football or flying World War I bi-planes? They don't even have face masks."

"We'd beat those guys by 50. Maybe more."

They nod in agreement, and move on. Tradition doesn't win football games.

Oh yeah, and in the background, a burly groundskeeper can be heard yelling at a smallish, nerdy kid in a weather-worn Notre Dame jacket. "You're 5-foot nothing! You weigh 100 and nothing! You have nary a speck of athletic ability! And you hung in with the best college program in the land for two years!"

Only play Notre Dame once...got to get it all out of my system. Deep breath...OK. On to the picks:

Game 1: BOSTON COLLEGE (-3.5) over North Carolina - Half of the ACC's 12 teams are dreadful this year. Five of the remaining six range from 'OK' to decent. Only Georgia Tech can say they legitimately belong in the top 25, and even then it looks like the Yellow Jackets will be an underdog in their BCS Bowl game. But no one on ESPN ever says the ACC doesn't deserve its auto bid.

Game 2: SOUTH FLORIDA (-11.5) over Louisville - Last week I compared the Louisville-Syracuse game to the chimp victim photos. It was an inaccurate analogy. Our twisted curiosity made us want to look at the chimp lady. No one (outside of said fan bases) wanted to watch the game, which, as predicted, was every bit as gruesome as those photos.

Game 3: Ohio State (-12.5) over MICHIGAN - Rich Rodriguez says his log problem is fixed, and everything is just fine now.

Game 4: TEXAS TECH (+6.5) over Oklahoma - Sooners score three against Nebraska, and then 65 against A&M the next week. Your guess here is as good as mine.

Game 5: Connecticut (+6) over NOTRE DAME - "Paul Hornung isn't walking though that door, Notre Dame fans. Johnny Lujack is not walking through that door. George Gipp is not walking through that door. If you expect them to come walking through that door, they're going to be old and gray. Or dead for, like, 84 years. What we are is young, exciting, hard-working, and not nearly as good as we should be considering the blue-chip talent we recruit every year."

Game 6: Louisiana State (+4) over OLE' MISS - Hate this spread, but just not buying into what Ole' Miss is selling.

Game 7: Rutgers (-10) over SYRACUSE - Considering the Orange haven't scored more than 10 points in a game in nearly a month, it seems this spread is a tad low.

Game 8: MICHIGAN STATE (+3) over Penn State - How long before Joe Paterno pulls a Bud Adams and jogs off the field wielding double birds? I applaud Adams, 86, for his two-fingered salute directed at Bills fans last weekend, if only because I look forward one day reaching an age where I don't give a damn anymore, either. I'll be icing down my middle fingers on a nightly basis.

Game 9: STANFORD (-7.5) over Cal -It's been 27 years since the great kickoff return. Oh, I could watch that tromboner get knocked over in the end zone all day. What's so funny? Do you have a problem with the word 'tromboner'? Anyway, here it is once again.


Game 10: TEXAS (-27.5) over Kansas - Swear I saw Mark Mangino at Stop & Shop last night, riding around on one of those electric grocery carts and yelling at the deli counter worker because she sliced his salami too thin. Then I realized I was in Milford, Connecticut and not Lawrence, Kansas. Besides, the real Mangino is much angrier.

Game 11: Oregon (-6) over ARIZONA - Talk about your overrated conferences. The Pac-10 is making the ACC look like the NFC East circa 1991.

Game 12: Harvard (-15) over YALE - It happens every other year around New Haven. Traffic for the Yale Bowl backs up on Route 34 for miles. A couple of years ago, people were parking on my street and walking to the game. I live in Orange, and my house is almost three miles from the bowl. But it's still "The Game", even if it's not a great matchup.

Last week's results:
1. Vinny from East haven 11-0 (first undefeated week we've seen in the blog's four-year history)
2. caleb mandrake 7-4
3. uconn bob 6-5
gary 6-5
govphalen 6-5
6. chip 5-6
sammy 5-6
8. pete 4-7
wil 4-7
rick c 4-7
mcfred 4-7

Standings
1. calebmandrake 69
2. UConnbob 68
3. Wil 67
governorphalen 67
5. Chip 66
6. SeanO63
Pete 63
Sammy 63
9. Vinny from East Haven 61
10. Rick C 57
11. Gary 56
12. mcfred 53
13. rich 39
14. JZ 20
15. Mike B 13
16. big donny 11
17. ian 9
G-Five 9
19. DanO 8
20. salami 6
21. joba 4

Get your picks in by clicking "comments" link below. See you on the live chat at 2.