Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses: A combination of bad luck, poor judgment and a horrendous allocation of the South Bend and Indiana police force have ended Will Yeatman's season, a .02 BAC delivering the critical blow:

Tuesday afternoon, the university's Office of Residence Life suspended the 20-year-old San Diego product from all football activities, including practice, for the remainder of the season, including any potential bowl game.

Yeatman's father, Dennis, confirmed the punishment Tuesday night. Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis was unavailable for comment and isn't scheduled to speak to the media again until next Tuesday, due to ND's open week.

The Irish are 4-2, with their next game a road date Oct. 25 against former ND coach Tyrone Willingham and winless Washington (0-5).

The bold headlines that have branded Yeatman in the national spotlight over the past three weeks connect to a Sept. 21 arrest at an off-campus party in which Yeatman and 36 other Notre Dame students were arrested during an early-morning raid by several police agencies. He was originally charged with minor consumption of alcohol, resisting arrest and false informing. The latter two charges were eventually dropped. Quietly.

 

When you drive anything drunk, even a golf cart [Ed. note - Or a car.  I have no idea what it is for sure.  Let's not drink and drive, though, okay?], you put yourself in dangerous territory so that even attending a random off-campus party is dangerous.  Yeatman has the opportunity to come back, and it seems like he will, but this takes a tight end corps that was ridiculously deep last season and trims it down to pretty much Kyle Rudolph.  Konrad Reuland transferred, John Carlson moved onto the Seahawks and Mike Ragone went down with a preseason injury, leaving Rudolph in a very precarious position as the only tight end with any sort of experience (as a true freshman!).

If you told a knowledgeable Notre Dame fan in the 2007 preseason that the Irish tight end depth chart would be this limited a 14 months later, they would have laughed at you.  Then when you told them about the season they were about to have, they would have cried, but laughter first.

Mike Brey can be proud: Due to the restrictions of roster size and some talent limitations, it appears Rob Kurz will not be kept on the Golden State Warriors roster, but he has made a game try at getting himself on that damn team.

As a training camp invitee, rookie Rob Kurz is a long shot to make the Warriors' 15-man roster before the regular season begins early next month. But with the way the first week of training camp has gone, Coach Don Nelson hasn't completely ruled it out.

 

Nelson said Saturday that Kurz, an undrafted forward out of Notre Dame, has been the Warriors' best rookie since camp opened last Saturday.

 

Kurz and other young players figure to get a decent amount of playing time in preseason games, starting with Sunday's opener at New Orleans.

 

"His outside shot is good and he's been my leading rebounder," Nelson said. "He's not pretty, he doesn't jump high, but he's been my leading rebounder in this camp. And it's not even close, including (Andris) Biedrins.

 

"He rebounds, he shoots, he's always in the right spot, you tell him something once and it's done. He's been a delight. I don't know that he can make the team, but I don't know that he can't."

 

The Warriors brought in Kurz, 23, during the summer essentially as another body to fill out the roster. But in nine games with the Warriors' summer league team, he averaged 7.1 points and 4.5 rebounds in just over 16 minutes per contest.

 

Kurz played all four years at Notre Dame. In his last two seasons, he averaged better than 12 points and seven rebounds per game.

 

"I wanted to work hard and be a guy that came in and rebounded and defended, and try to make plays when they're available," Kurz said. "I think that's an important guy for every team to have, somebody that comes off the bench, brings a lot of energy and is willing to do all of the little things to help the team win."

Kurz's Warriors were taking on the new-look Milwakee Bucks yesterday morning in China, and Kurz got to play the final eight minutes of the game and twenty overall.  It wasn't exactly a pretty sight sometimes, as Kurz performances tend to be, but there was the Irish alum bodying up former number one pick Andrew Bogut and collecting rebounds from the missed shots of Richard Jefferson.  Also going against the Dubs was lottery pick Joe Alexander, who Kurz helped stifle back in the winter before he became a Morgantown folk hero. 

If you want some entertainment, go through the comment thread at Golden State of Mind for yesterday morning's game searching for "Kurz guard rotation on a NBA team, anything is possible. ."  Highly entertaining stuff, and hopefully Rob will get a chance elsewhere in the league if things don't work out in Oakland.  If Chris Quinn can earn his way into the point

A Woman of Questionable Reputation: After some completely unnecessary, over-the-top things were written about Charlie Weis and the 2007 Irish last year from a specific corner of the Michigan blogosphere, I found it odd that no one in Wolverine Land could see what was coming this season.  They witnessed what happened to Notre Dame all last season - a massive loss of personnel unable to be overcome by idiot fans screaming in the preseason "We'll still win nine games, we're [INSERT NAME OF SCHOOL HERE]!" - then looked that fate in the eye and made another asinine comment.

The magical 2007 Notre Dame season was a lethal combination of awful coaching and awful talent. Michigan has excellent coaching and okay to good talent. I'm not saying you should make plans for New Year's Day, but this ain't gonna happen en route to 3 and 9:

 

 

Clearly, there will be growing pains. A season like Tressel's initial foray at Ohio State -- a bleh 7-5 that would have been 6-6 without JohnNavarre's exceptional generosity -- is well within the realm of possibility. And by that I mean "is the most likely outcome."

Mmm, the sweet delicious karma tastes so good.  Matt even pointed out back in July how strikingly similar 2007 Notre Dame was to 2008 Michigan using stupid things like math, citing the fact both units had to replace over 86% of their offense the following year while trying to install new systems with new quarterbacks.  Regardless of how this year ends up for the Wolverines - and using that same scary math, it could be even worse that 3-9 - no sane fan would call for the head of a first year coach trying to replace every key position player on offense, right?

Not exactly.  Civil War has been declared in Ann Arbor, with people who are sane (those who think "Let's not fire the coach who has been successful everywhere else along the way because he is not excelling in the worst situation imaginable for him.") and those who deserve to be shot ("Our crappy quarterbacks seem inherently unable to complete a high percentage of passes to the no-name receivers and fumble-happy running backs. . .can the coach!").  If every Michigan Man isn't keeping a list of their idiot friends who want Rodriguez fired now so they can deny them the chance of celebrating any sort of future success he potentially will have, they should be.

Do I want Rodriguez to fail?  Miserably, and if he jumps to Clemson I would have a go-to "This will make me laugh" thought for months, if not years.  Do I think he's going to fail?  No, not at all, and Michigan fans (and outside observers, like f'n Gregg Easterbrook) who want to fire him after six games, to ignore his entire career in lieu of focusing on a half dozen disastrous results, are idiots.

Notre Dame 2007 and Michigan 2008 can serve as an interesting learning experience to other programs in the future.  If every outside observer is going "Hey, you lost a lot of talent and don't seem to have a lot to replace it," they're probably right.  You are far more aware of the inner workings of your program than that outsider, but they also don't get the exaggerated practice reports that make every back-up seem ready to not only replace that guy who just went to the NFL, but outperform him.  Sometimes things are just a lot simpler than you think they are: Lose your NFL quarterback, his receivers and your best running back, and the offense will struggle, especially if the offensive line is a still-smoking scrap heap of what it was the previous season as well.  There is such a thing as too much information, and it clouds the judgment of every college fanbase in the land.

(Michigan can still eclipse the 2007 Irish team, and I expect them to, as nothing says "Spartan" like blowing that game, plus come on, Minnesota and Northwestern?  I know the records are solid, but I'm skeptical.  Is this whole aside being used as a potential counter-jinx?  I don't know what you're talking about.)

And finally, like a vampire but with dogs: This is a Politics Free Zone, but I think this bipartisan look at November 4^th is certainly okay to link to, albeit a little late. . . the BYU at TCU game tonight should be a great litmus test for the Cougars, and even the baseball fans out there will be free to watch it after the Rays touch up Dice-K for 6 runs in the first three innings . . .  Mike Anello knocked UNC wunderkind Brandon Tate out for the season, only adding to his incredible legend and dealing a tough blow to the Tar Heels.