Christian Zavisca

Catching up with Notre Dame's Harrison Smith

Last week I filed a story for my former employer, the Knoxville News Sentinel, on Knoxville's Harrison Smith, a football player for the University of Notre Dame. He's a junior starting on the defensive side of the ball for the Fighting Irish.

The parallels are many. Smith, the subject of a recruiting battle between Notre Dame and the University of Tennessee, picked ND and moved three years ago to South Bend, Ind., my hometown. I lived in Knoxville for nearly five years, and in mid-September moved to Valparaiso, Ind., an hour east of South Bend. And I'm freelancing for notredame.scout.com covering football, so it was a natural to write a story for the News Sentinel on Harrison, who was a good sport.

I agree with him 100 percent on one subject.

Smith does admit that he's struggled a bit to adjust to one aspect of life in the Midwest: the much colder weather.

So in his third year in South Bend, 100-some miles east of Chicago, has he gotten used to the bone-chilling winters?

"No," he replied. "That was one thing I kind of worried about when I was getting recruited, and then I thought, 'It's not a big deal.' But actually, it's kind of worse than I thought.

"And it lasts until summer pretty much. You're in April and it's snowing."

USC 34, Notre Dame 27: The latest Game of the Century

I covered one of the bigger games in recent Notre Dame football history on Saturday in South Bend.

If you're a fan or not, you probably already know the story.

The atmosphere befitted a big-game setting. Traffic was heavier than usual. The neighborhood where I normally park on game days across the street from campus on the Angela side was completely overrun by folks with the same idea. The week before for the Washington game, I had my choice of spots.

There were celebrity sightings (Will Ferrell and Spike Lee, the South Bend Tribune reported), and press-box spots reserved for Lou Holtz, Ara Parseghian and Gerry Faust.

It didn't go Notre Dame's way, but it was a great game that came down to the final play. As a disinterested observer, that's what you hope for.

Yes, I'm YouTubing

I've gotten into the video thing a bit with my new iPhone, which seems to have a decent recorder. I've got three videos posted on YouTube, two of them from just after Notre Dame's football victory over Washington on Saturday.

Recent freelance work

notredame.scout.com: Game story on 24-21 win at Purdue.

notredame.scout.com: ND-Purdue followup (subscription).

Post-Tribune high school football: Chesterton 34, Portage 31.

Notre Dame football goes 12-1, disappoints fans

In my inaugural season of "NCAA 10," I was cruising to a national championship, driving Notre Dame to a 9-0 record, when all of a sudden the train got derailed by Pitt, 42-38. I thought we might win it all. Despite the loss, the Irish went on to finish 11-1 to end the regular season, and trounced Cincinnati 38-13 in the Fiesta Bowl.

I'm sure many virtual fans were quite happy, while an equal number were wondering why exactly we didn't win the national championship.

To that, I reply: There's always next year.

Notre Dame 38, USC 35

I'm exhausted, even though I never left my recliner: Notre Dame over USC, 38-35, in overtime.

If you're confused, check out this post.

Yes, I know the actual season hasn't started. But it's a good feeling to defeat the Trojans nonetheless.

Notre Dame trailed 7-0 early, and then got some really bad news. QB Clausen: Out 4 weeks — turf toe. Great. Super-recruit Dayne Crist stepped in and did just fine, throwing for more than 300 yards and offsetting three interceptions with two rushing touchdowns.

"We" trailed throughout: 28-14 before a field goal at the half cut the lead to 11, and 35-24 after three quarters. But a field goal, an Armando Allen touchdown run with 16 seconds left, and a 2-point conversion run, again by Allen, tied it up. A missed USC field goal in overtime set up the game-winning 3-pointer by Brandon Walker from 31 yards out. Ballgame. Celebration time.

I'm going to increase the difficulty level to Heisman from here on out. So if I lead Notre Dame to the national championship, we'll really deserve it. Sorta.

Notre Dame football starts 5-0!

The University of Notre Dame football team is rolling after a fifth straight victory, 31-13 over visiting Washington.

OK, in real life the season hasn't started yet. I'm talking about "NCAA Football 10." In honor of my ND fan friends, I'm playing a season at the second-toughest difficulty level.

I'm thinking I should ratchet up the A.I. difficulty, but we'll see how "we" do against USC this week.

It's been a great start: 34-7 over Nevada, 34-0 at Michigan (I don't see that happening in real life, unless the Wolverines are even more terrible than they were last year), 31-13 over Michigan State, 31-24 at Purdue, and the aforementioned Washington win.

The only bad news so far is that star sophomore wide receiver Michael Floyd, who missed time with injury last year, is out for six weeks with a strained back (yep, injuries in "NCAA 10" are pretty realistic).

The big offensive star has been running back Armando Allen (395 yards rushing on 5.8 yards a carry, 318 yards receiving with 3 touchdowns, and a kick return TD — I think he's a bit overpowered in the game).

I'll report back with a breakdown of the ND-USC showdown. Coming soon!