"You wait all year long for football season, and then it comes and it just flies by."

--Dayne Crist

Five days! Or four, or three, or whenever the hell you read this--it's almost here. It's so scintillating I had to write another preseason football rant.

Crist -- the second coming! (Oh wait. Too irreverent?)

So most of us ("us" being crazy rabid Irish fans) were not overly shocked by the announcement that Dayne Crist would be the starter for this year. Although as this article in the Observer points out, it wasn't necessarily a foregone conclusion that Crist would be named the starter.

"Call it whatever you want," Coach Kelly said. "I've got two really good quarterbacks who are ready to play championship football."

Crist and Rees are so statistically even that it became "very cloudy" trying to determine the #1 and #2 QB based on numbers. This is a good problem to have. Kind of like waking up in the morning and asking yourself, "Which car do I want to drive today? The Ferrari, or the Lamborghini?"

Not such a hard choice when you know you can switch off at your leisure. Much harder when you've got to make a commitment.

But we've made the choice, and now we've got the Ferrari. Or the Lamborghini. Whichever. You decide.

High-Octane overdrive

After naming Crist as the starter, Coach Kelly noted, "He overcame a knee injury to start the [2010] season, then underwent another knee injury and infection for the spring. He didn't have a great spring, but fought through it and had the kind of summer and preseason camp you want your players to have. He's a much better football player, a much better quarterback. He's the kind of guy I wanna coach. He's tough mentally. He handles himself in that leadership position the way I want our quarterbacks to handle themselves. I didn't know Dayne very well last year. But I do now."

Crist has plenty of tenacity, but he owes a lot of his improvement in the off-season to Rees. Both quarterbacks would have worked hard in any case, I'm sure--that's just the kind of strapping, stalwart youths they are--but nothing makes you run fast like the knowledge that you're being chased. They were both forced to play smarter, work harder, and get better faster. They couldn't have done it on their own, and the best part is they know it. Crist himself said after winning the starting job: "I told Tommy--you gotta keep pushing me."

Just as long as you don't bust your knee again, Dayne, I think we'll all be happy.

Goooooooooooo--oooooooooooo--ooooooooo--ooooooooooOOOO! Irish!

So I've been neglecting the special teams, but the good news is Coach Kelly hasn't. In fact, he's talked a lot about them during fall camp, particularly in terms of player development and the overall direction of the program.

First things first, in case you were wondering who's going to be in the backfield waiting to receive punts and kickoffs this year, the answer is "Theo Riddick, Theo Riddick, Theo Riddick." (Yes, that is a direct quote.)

Second, freshman kicker Kyle Brindza will be handling kickoffs. (Possibly also punts.) I think Ruffer's still getting the nod for field goals and extra points, but it's definitely Brindza on kickoffs. I'm quite enthused to hear this, considering Kyle is the first great kicker we've actually recruited in, oh, I don't know, FOREVER.

Of course, it's difficult to determine whether a kicker will remain consistent (and who can tell whether they'll be "great"), because the quality of their game is mostly in their head and their playing time largely consists of nothing...nothing...nothing... OMG SO MUCH PRESSURE DON'T SCREW UP ...nothing...nothing...nothing.

However, if you take a look at the first three lines of Brindza's player bio, you will likely feel reassured:

Set Michigan state high school record with 19 made field goals as a senior in 2010, including six of nine from 50 yards or more ... averaged 43.2 yards per punt and 60 of 63 kickoffs resulted in touchbacks in 2010 while handling kicking and punting duties for Plymouth High School in Canton, Mich. ... rated ninth-best player in Michigan by Detroit Free Press

Ninth-best player. A kicker. Ninth-best. In the state.

I love our recruiting staff.

Thirdly (or is it sixth and lastly?), Coach Kelly noted that he's been utilizing special teams to help younger players gain valuable game-time experience. Both Bennett Jackson and Lo Wood played on special teams last year, and this year they're expected to aid Gary Gray and Robert Blanton at cornerback. This year, freshmen running backs Cam McDaniel and George Atkinson III are slated to play on special teams so they'll be ready to contribute next season--or even this season, if need be.

This is a common enough strategy--widely used to break in NFL rookies everywhere--but things are different when your players have limited eligibility. Although this system works for now, Kelly would eventually like to abandon it. "I'd prefer that we have enough strength and depth in our program that we didn't have to play guys in special teams roles to get them game-time experience. Down the road, we won't have to do this, because freshmen won't be expected to play as second-year starters."

Whoa, guys.

Whoa.

I've grown so accustomed to witnessing the career arc of players like Brady Quinn, Golden Tate, and Manti Te'o from freshman year onward that the concept of an all-upperclassman team now seems strange. No more four-year starters? Really? That's kind of...sad.

Except that it's not.

If you're starting freshmen, that means you haven't got any upperclassmen who can play the position better. And that doesn't mean your freshmen are so spectacular--that just means you've got some serious holes in your depth chart. Very rarely do you get a player like Julius Jones or Denard Robinson (try not to gak on the maize-and-blue here), who are so straight-up good you'd be crazy to keep them off the field. (Although between you and me, I think Coach Kelly's trying to build the kind of team where you could keep those players off the field for a year. If you wanted to.)

I'm sure it's agonizing for players who were brilliant in high school to come to college and have to wait years before they can start. But if you've got the right system in place, it's much better to give players time to redshirt than it is to just throw them in and let them learn as they go. Game-time experience is valuable, but you shouldn't be getting playing time as a starter when you're still trying to learn the plays. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but the end goal is to build a team where freshmen don't have to start. Not unless you want them to.

Looks like that's the road we're headed down once more.

Let's hope so.

Tidbits

Right. I've waffled on longer than I intended to (everybody's shocked), so in closing I'm going to provide you with some favorite quotes and tidbits I've picked up from interviews, articles, and und.com videos in the last week or so:

Movin' on up. The Irish were ranked #18 in the USA Today preseason poll, #16 in the AP preseason poll, and #14 in Sports Illustrated's college football preview. These are the highest preseason rankings since 2006, when the Irish opened at #2 in the AP poll. (Wow, that seems like a zillion years ago.)

Great Expectations. Most pundits' predictions have the Irish headed to a BCS Bowl game with a nine-win season. My favorite matchup so far has the Irish playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl--although actually I'd love to see us play in the Sugar Bowl again. (Any excuse to go back to New Orleans, really.)

We're number...4? Sports Illustrated is fond of rankings. In this year's college football preview, they ranked the best gameday traditions, best overall gameday experience, and best coaches in college football. Notre Dame appeared on all three of these lists, coming it at #10 on the coach rankings with Brian Kelly; #9 on the best game day traditions with the postgame alma mater; and #4 on the best overall Game Day experience, behind Texas A&M, Wisconsin (really? Wisconsin?) and LSU.

Coach Kelly on accountability and the 'Canes: (if you haven't heard about the NCAA's investigation of Miami this might not make sense to you) "That's not to say that the guys at Miami didn't want to go to school--but they had other things in mind, too. As a coach, as a program, you recruit guys who understand that they're coming to a university to get a degree--and understand the value of that degree and what it costs--and play football. The rest of the stuff--we're gonna have to be more vigilant, everybody. Everybody says, 'well, that's just the NCAA.' I think it's a cop-out. I think it's the NCAA, the institution, the coach. I think it's everybody."

Manti Te'o, man-beast. Junior linebacker and All-American candidate Manti Te'o is currently listed on four presason watchlists for awards (Lombardi, Butkus, Bednarik, Nagurski), following a sophomore season in which he recorded 133 tackles--the most since Notre Dame's single-season record of 147 was set in 1983. (Better go ahead and gird your fibers for the season, kids. There's gonna be grass stains.)

ND's version of the Gameday Bus. Apparently this year, the football team is changing up its pre-game traditions. They'll attend mass in the Basilica as usual, but instead of walking to the stadium afterwards, they'll walk back to the buses, which will then drive pretty much all the way around campus before ending up in the tailgating lots south of the stadium and heading back to the Gug. There, the team will have a final pre-game meeting to go over the game plan. After the meeting (a little over 2 hours prior to kickoff), they'll walk from the Gug to the library, swing by the statue of Fr. Hesburgh and Fr. Joyce, admire their reflections in the reflecting pool (this part optional), and then walk down stadium quad to the stadium. Lest we forget, stadium quad is where Cartier Field used to stand--home to Knute Rockne, the Gipper, the Four Horsemen, and the first fabled notions of that blue-gray sky. This is also the part of campus where the Navy trained when they came and saved our school from closure. Fans are encouraged to line the route and cheer.

Season Opener Stats. (courtesy of und.com)

Notre Dame and USF will meet on the gridiron for the first time in the 123-year history of Irish football. The Bulls are the 140th different opponent in Notre Dame football history. The Irish own an all-time record of 117-19-3 (.853) when facing an opponent for the first time.

The Irish are 102-15-5 (.857) in season openers and have taken 20 of the last 24.

The 102 seasons Notre Dame has won its opener, the Irish went on to post winning records 93 times (91.2%), with four losing seasons and five .500 records

Revenge of the Skip? (okay, I don't think Skip Holtz wants revenge, but I'm tired, so just go with it - these are more tidbits from und.com)

Skip Holtz, a former member of the Irish football team and assistant coach and son of former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, returns to Notre Dame Stadium as he leads USF Bulls into Saturday's season opener for both teams.

Holtz's playing career at Notre Dame lasted one season, 1986, where he predominantly saw action with the special teams unit. Following graduation, he worked as a graduate assistant under Bobby Bowden at Florida State and a wide receivers coach at Colorado before returning to Notre Dame as an assistant coach under his father, Lou (1990-1993).

During Skip's two seasons as offensive coordinator (1992-1993), the Irish posted a 21-2-1 record and averaged 37 points per game, good enough to earn them a top-10 ranking nationally in total offense.

Last one -- a quote from the golden boy...

Crist, on confidence: "If you're not confident, it's because you're not prepared. I think we're gonna prepare better than anybody in the country."

Damn skippy.

GO IRISH BEAT BULLS!

Notre Dame's Starter for 2011...

Dayne Crist!

Notre Dame Football 2011: Let's Make the Coach Bald edition

Giddy like a gilded bagpipe

It's been a busy summer, thank goodness, or I'd be jumping out of my pants right now at the thought of fall training camp and the knowledge that football season is a mere three weeks away. I've been so distracted by work and weddings and the weather lately that I've practically lost track of everything.

It's been so stinking hot and humid in Chicago that I've gotten used to walking out my front door into what feels like an instant sheen of sweat. But last weekend we mercifully had a storm blow through, and all this past week the mornings have been stunningly cool. And then one day I walked out my front door to discover that it was suddenly Perfect Football Weather. I about keeled over.

It's almost here. That crispness of fall, that scent of burning leaves, that tangible feeling of possibility that lurks around preseason like a set of bagpipes, blaring hopes and expectations that reverberate giddily through the eardrums of the faithful.

I am so--freakin'--pumped.

If you're as crazy (read: awesome) as I am, you've probably been watching the fall practice reports on und.com. Jack Nolan and the und.com team have been highlighting a different unit during each practice every day; so far they've covered the running backs, wide receivers, tackles, guards, center, defensive line, cornerbacks, and I think quarterbacks. (There have been nine practices so far, so probably there's another unit they've highlighted, but off the top of my head I can't think which.) The reports include practice footage, as well as snippets of interviews with the players, assistant coaches, and position coaches. Coach Kelly has also given two lengthier interviews with the media, both of which are available via streaming video, and one of which has a written transcript posted online as well.

The following is a series of ruminations, extrapolations, and cogitations based on these five-minute pieces of absolute GOLD.

QB Shuffle

Let's start with the question that is surely burning in the minds of all Irish faithful who like to see the offense score touchdowns: Who the eff is our starting quarterback going to be?

Except that this is not really a question, because the answer is Dayne Crist.

Oh, what's that? Sorry? You read some article that looks a lot like this one here?

That's nice. The answer is still Dayne Crist.

I know Coach Kelly is saying there's a battle going on, and I would not be surprised to see both quarterbacks get significant playing time, because the spread offense definitely allows for that sort of thing--and as we know from Kelly's tenure at Cincinnati, he will rotate as many quarterbacks in and out as he has to if he feels like it's the right thing to do.

But I don't think he wants to.

I think he wants solid, consistent leadership at the helm--someone who can not only go in there and play, but who has the ability to help guide the offense to the next level. Not that I'm casting any aspersions on Tommy Rees; he did a great job as a freshman playing in some very high-pressure games. I think he took up the helm better than most freshmen could have, and he definitely looked better out there than freshman year Jimmy Clausen or (much as it pains me to say it) Brady Quinn.

Part of that is due to Rees's own skill and leadership. Part of that is due to the tremendous effort made by the rest of the team to come together after losing not only Dayne Crist, but also lead RB Armando Allen, All-American TE Kyle Rudolph, and (for a split second) Michael Floyd. But I think the biggest part of Rees's success is definitely due to Coach Kelly changing his scheme to accommodate the knowledge base and skill set of his freshman QB--using a contingency plan that would not have been in place if Dayne Crist hadn't gone down for the second half of the Michigan game and alerted the head coach to the fact that none of his backup QB's were anywhere near as prepared as they needed to be for a game-time situation.

If you've been tracking the quarterback buzz in Coach Kelly's interviews from the time Dayne Crist was injured last season up until now (which clearly, why wouldn't you? doesn't everybody do this?), you'll notice that in almost every conversation, Coach Kelly makes some reference to how he wants to get Crist back at the helm. It's possible that the coach's opinion has changed a bit since last fall, considering Rees finished the last four games of the season with twelve touchdown passes, a 61% rate of pass completion, and a bowl victory, but nevertheless...Crist is still older, more experienced, and has a mental edge in understanding the intricacies of the offense, considering he played the spread in high school. There's slightly less need for development and a greater chance of introducing some finesse if Crist is the guy in the pocket. And (just channeling my psychic powers here) I'm pretty sure this is exactly what Coach Kelly wants.

However, like I said, I would not be surprised to see the #2 QB get significant playing time this year. Not only because I'm hoping we're going to kick everybody around so much on the field that we'll have no choice but to give our beloved starters a much-needed rest during the second half, but also because Kelly's "next man in" philosophy supports the development of a real depth chart.

Lots of comments are being made during fall practice about how "you don't want to have such a drop-off" between your #1 and your #2 guy. You want to be able to sub people in. You want to know you have multiple playmakers at any given position. (Kind of like if you get a flat tire, you want the reassurance that you're going to get a replacement for the tire that's just as good as the one you lost, if not better--because you'd really rather not be driving around with a donut for the rest of your life.) This is slightly more applicable to defense, of course, where the subbing in and out of players is practically a necessity if you're running the kind of fast-paced offense that's likely to keep the D out on the field longer. (And even if you're not--defense is tiring, man. You've gotta make sure you've got some juice left for that fourth quarter.)

Plus, with the quarterback position especially, there's always that fear of injury. I hate to bring it up because it seems like bad luck, but come on: two years in a row Crist gets injured? On practically the same date? Crist has another year of eligibility after this, but if he gets injured again this season, I'd say Tommy has a much better shot at taking the helm all the way through that oh-so-crucial third season. Not that I want anybody to get injured. (FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, NO MORE INJURIES PLEASE.) But this year is make-or-break for Crist. He's gotta stay healthy, and I think the job is his. If not, Rees can probably look forward to a little more underclassman record-breaking.

I guess we'll see.

So right, the rest of the offense

They're going to actually play the spread this year, guys! Not just something that resembles the spread, not something that looks like a bunch of guys trying to figure out how to run an up-tempo no-huddle offense, but the actual spread offense. Coach Kelly has already commented that he believes this year we'll be able to go out there and not only increase the speed at which we play the game, but also control the speed of the game. (It's kind of like we bought this new-fangled high-tech TV a year ago and we've only just now found the remote control. And the remote control has slow-motion settings. Right, this is a metaphor that makes sense. Moving right along...)

We've got an extremely capable center in senior Braxston Cave, and we're lucky to have Michael Floyd back after that seriously distressing, semi-mind-boggling, what-the-hell-there-are-like-fifty-cab-companies-in-South-Bend-and-you-should-have-at-least-five-drivers'-personal-numbers-programmed-into-your-phone-by-now-aren't-you-supposed-to-be-a-senior-or-something-how-did-this-happen??? DUI charge in the spring.

Cave, Floyd, and whoever our beloved quarterback turns out to be have it in their power to give us some flashy ZING! BOOM! POW! VICTORY CLOG! this season. If they're all on top of their games, I think we're gonna see a lot of replay-worthy touchdown passes. I mean, let's hope we get a lot of touchdown passes this season anyway; there are going to be a lot of younger wide receivers out there with something to prove, and I hope they prove it--especially the flashy-fast Theo Riddick. (C'mon Theo! You're one of the fastest guys on the team, and you're a WR converted from a RB. Channel the spirit of Golden Tate already, will you?!) But Michael Floyd is an anchor and everyone knows it. With him on the field, we are 70% more likely to be totally badass. (Our opponents will hit the ground so hard trying to chase after him they'll get grass stains on their EYEBALLS.)

With the final departure of Armando Allen and Robert Huuuuuughes, we've got some gaps in the run game to fill. (Ha. Gaps in the run game.) But we've still got Cierre Wood back there, and he picked up the bulk of the carries after Allen got injured last season. And if he can just settle in and stop playing like he's trying to win the Heisman (Coach Kelly's comment, if I recall correctly), he'll probably start playing a lot more like he's capable of winning the Heisman. Plus we've got up-and-coming Jonas Gray, who has shown flashes of brilliance, and who I hope continues to get better until he just is brilliance . (Kind of like Huuuughes at the end of last season, who went from being inconsistently good to just straight-up solid like a freight train.) Also they are talking about switching Theo Riddick in and out of the backfield / WR slot if necessary, which I can't complain about. (C'mon Theooooo.)

Let's just hope our offensive line is getting to be as good as the coaches say it's getting. It's easy to be optimistic during pre-season (OBVIOUSLY), and although it's true that our O-line held defenses to 1.5 sacks per game last year--the lowest total since 1998--I'm still kind of itching for a run game that, you know, looks like a run game. By which I mean I want to see holes open up along that line big enough to drive the College GameDay bus through. Or, in a pinch, I'd settle for the next coming of Julius Jones. (Hey, remember when Julius Jones made our offense look like an offense even when our defense was the highest-scoring unit on the field? Sometimes I drool a little thinking about the possibility of having a running back like that playing with a unit that actually knows how to score touchdowns.) But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's talk about the defense.

D! D! D! -- Diaco!

Can I just say that Coach Diaco is probably my favorite of all the Notre Dame coaches? I love watching his interviews. He's so keyed into his players and so passionate about his job he kind of makes me wish I were a college football coach. (Okay, so I kind of wish that anyway. But that's beside the point.) And particularly in his most recent interview, all of the things he said were just so dead-on I wanted to hug him, or...run around and spike a football in the endzone, or...something.

Anyway, many of the comments he made in this interview are things I've heard echoed by the players and coaches throughout fall camp. One of the best comments I've heard all week is that "The players are happy to be back together. They really like each other." One of the other defensive coaches even referred to the D-line as a "brotherhood."

HOT FRESH CANNOLI, CAN IT BE TRUE?!

Is our team a team? Are they starting to act like a--wait for it--family?

(FAMILIES WIN CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES. JUST WATCH MIRACLE. IT'S TRUE.)

This is such a far cry from a couple years ago when the guys were coming into practices and getting into fights with each other. Probably out of sheer frustration over how non-cohesive and non-team-like our team was.

Another favorite moment in Coach Diaco's interview is when he mentioned this quote from Gandhi: "Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory."

This is such an excellent quote to begin with, and Coach Diaco's tie-in to our team was that "We're interested in focusing on full effort, and that's tough because there's a lot of questions. So there needs to be insulation, a focus on what needs to be done today."

And indeed it is difficult to keep focused on the task at hand when you've got a zillion questions and opinions zooming in from all sides--particularly when expectations for the team have now been raised so high. We're talking BCS bowl this year. And by "we" I don't mean just me and my wishful thinking--we're talking fans, the media, Coach Kelly himself. Coach Kelly has actually promised to shave his head this year if Notre Dame wins a BCS Bowl game. (Technically the head-shaving will be to support cancer research, but nevertheless it's quite a promise.)

The bar has been set. We're climbing toward the possibility of a national championship game--or at least we're trying. (C'mon guys! Let's make the coach bald! You can do it!)

But none of that matters if you can't keep focused on what needs to be done now to allow that to happen. And in watching the interviews this week, it's easy to see that the coaches and the players are all on the same page about things. The coaches in particular are doing the best they can to keep the players focused on one day, one thing, one task at a time. The upperclassmen seem cognizant of the importance of how the players conduct themselves in practice, in meetings, in the weight room, etc., and by recognizing their role as leaders they're working to pass that all down to the younger players.

Which is true of any football program worth its salt, to be sure. But I just cannot get over how excellent it is that so much attention is now being paid to the little things. How you conduct yourself, how you carry yourself, how you approach your work--these things are just as important as the work itself. These things are what make the work possible. And these are the qualities you take away that in the end are the most valuable. Teamwork. Focus. Dedication.

******THIS IS WHY SPORTS ARE SO VALUABLE. NOT BECAUSE YOU CAN WIN BIG SHINY TROPHIES AND MAKE LOTS OF MONEY PLAYING THEM.*******

So I'm glad our players are learning these key attributes of sports / life. I'm as glad about this as I am about all this talk of a BCS Bowl this year. In the words of Kronk, "Oh yeah. It's all comin' together."

So about this actual season we're going to be playing

Right, so I realize I didn't talk about the actual defense much, but my general opinion is that they're going to be straight sick this year, what with most of our starters returning and Manti Te'o being a man-beast and Harrison Smith developing into an outrageous ball magnet and all.

But of course this is all pre-season drivel so make sure you ignore it as soon as the actual season starts.

Speaking of which...let's take a look at the hapless victims (I mean, opponents) on our schedule:

September
vs South Florida
@Michigan
vs Michigan State
@ Pittsburgh

October
@ Purdue
vs Air Force
--Bye Week--
vs USC
vs Navy

November
@ Wake Forest
vs Maryland ("home game" in MD)
vs Boston College
@ Stanford

Not a lot of breathing room in this schedule, is there? No "cake" game for the season opener--not facing a USF team with six straight bowl appearances and Skip Holtz as the head coach. And no walk in the park for the next couple weeks in September, either, as we head up to Ann Arbor for our first-ever night game in the Big House, followed by a continuation of our grudge match with MSU at home.

I don't think Michigan's looking at a particularly stellar season, but freaky things always seem to happen when Michigan plays Notre Dame, and one or the other of the two big Michigan teams we play every year always seems to get under our skin when we're not expecting them to. It's been a good long while since we've beaten both Michigan and MSU in the same season. I would cascade into ignoble paroxysms of delight if that we managed to do it this season. As it is, however, I think we're probably looking at at least one stupid trip-up in the first three weeks of the season.

I think the D will be solid enough to manhandle our next couple games--because whatever, Pitt, we're not afraid of you or the Big East; and Purdue is probably the surest win we can point to out of the three night games we're playing this season. Plus, by the time we get to weeks 4 and 5, we will have had time to smooth out some of the wrinkles our first three match-ups will have caused. I'm not going to get my panties in a twist over Air Force (no offense to AF, but if we don't beat them that means there's some serious trouble going on in paradise), so hopefully we'll notch one more win and then--whew!--bye week.

Hate to say it, but last two weekends in October could be kind of a blood bath. Night game vs USC in Notre Dame Stadium for the first time since 1990 = turn me into an emerald and stick me in the jeweled shillelagh, I'm done.

And as achingly depressing as it is to have to worry about Navy--they've beaten us three times now (aughhhhhh), we couldn't stop the option last year, and if we don't watch out we could be toast. (But let's assume that Coach Diaco won't be overlooking anything with the defensive preparations this season, eh? We did manage to handle Army later last season...)

The two big games in November will be Senior Day (really? Boston College on Senior Day??? REALLY???????) and Stanford. Since our program seems to be back on the up-and-up (I know we've said that with the last couple head coaches, but just go with me here), and we somehow managed to pull out a win against Utah on Senior Day last season, I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic about protecting our house against those pesky Eagles.

But eurghhh...Stanford. I think most people are looking at Stanford as a definite loss this season, but I don't know. We improved a lot last year over the course of the season, and I'm expecting us to do that again this year. If all goes the way I hope it's going to go, the beginning of the season will be more at risk for upset losses than later in the season. I expect Stanford to be the best team we play this season, but I also expect our team, by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, to be ready to play them.

Anyway, I think this rambling has run its course.

T-minus three weeks til we meet again, football season. In the meantime, there's only one thing left to say.

GO IRISH BEAT BULLS!

News from the Bend

Hey, remember when I said Michael Floyd is Notre Dame? And then he got that DUI and....

Never mind that. Here's the word from Spring Practice:

Q. That's been a theme for you, you're more comfortable; is there anything after looking back at last year that you'll do differently, now that you know what goes into the day to day life of being a Notre Dame coach?
COACH KELLY: Win more games. I think definitely win more games.

Sold. I am on board for 2011, Coach Kelly.

I might post a real update in the near future....but for now, let's just let the coaching staff git 'r done.

Floyyyd

I am so incredibly behind that it's embarrassing. I never wrote my glowing reaction to the chilled-out Sun Bowl. I made only a cursory mention of my despair when Kyle Rudolph declared for the NFL Draft. I never fully expressed my gratitude for Michael Floyd's decision to return for Senior year.

But seeing as National Signing Day is upon is, I hope to remedy some of that.

So can I just start by saying: Michael Floyd is Notre Dame.

Just in case his performance on the field doesn't speak for itself--just in case you weren't convinced when he called and personally encouraged you to buy tickets for the Sun Bowl--just in case his decision to stay isn't reason enough alone--

Lo and behold this quote from his presser back in January:

I'm returning to Notre Dame for three reasons: to earn my degree, return Notre Dame to the top and improve myself as a player. First, I promised my mom I would graduate from Notre Dame and I am 40 credit hours shy of attaining that goal. I chose to attend Notre Dame in part because I knew it was a 40-year decision and not a four-year decision. Graduating from Notre Dame will help me for the rest of my life. Second, I want to get Notre Dame back to a BCS game. I believe we are very close to returning the Irish to where we belong and I want to be part of something great. Lastly, I want to show everyone in the country that I'm the best wide receiver in college football in 2011. There are many things I need to improve, but I feel with the coaching I have at Notre Dame, I can become the best at my position in this game.

That paragraph, right there, is pretty much the thesis statement of Notre Dame football. What's been done or not done in the past will cease to matter when every player on the team buys into these three inevitable truths:
1. You come to Notre Dame to get an education
2. You play football because you want to win a national championship
3. You work to be the best player at your position. Not just on your team, but in the entire f*ing country

Number three has to come last, though. After the education. After the team.

And it's not like being the best f*ing player in the country is going to be possible for every player on the team--but shit, shouldn't they try? Why not try? Even if you fall short, being not-quite-the-best-in-the-country is still pretty f$#@ing good. It's just like Brian Smith says--"You've got to play like you're the baddest mother on the field, even if you aren't."

Lucky for us, Michael Floyd is. And he's coming back.

This is way too late to matter, but: Rejoice!

ND Bowl Game preview: Go Irish Beat 'Canes edition

Let me just start by saying that I had every intention of doing some actual research and composing an in-depth, well-structured, fact-based diatribe about tomorrow's game.

But instead I ran out of time, so I'm just going to ramble for a bit about all the reasons we ought to win tomorrow. And hopefully somebody actually reads this before the game starts, otherwise there's just no point to this at all, is there?

Catholics vs Convicts renewed

One can only hope that the players themselves have only a fleeting understanding of what this whole "Catholics vs Convicts" thing really entails. I mean, don't get me wrong--I love watching footage of the 1988 tunnel fight as much as anybody--but I don't think there's any real need to try to bring back the feeling of that 80's rivalry. It seems to me as though the main perk of this matchup is that we get to reminisce about the old days without having to actually call forth the demons of yesteryear and renew the desire for bloodshed that got the whole ND-Miami series canceled in the first place.

There was a good piece by Jeff Carroll in the South Bend Tribune this week detailing the end of the ND-Miami series. You can read the whole thing here, but for the purposes of this rant, here is the most pertinent excerpt:

Many people seem to trace the demise of the series to before kickoff in the 1988 contest, when the two teams locked up in a ferocious brawl near the tunnel leading to the locker rooms beneath Notre Dame Stadium. Holtz fueled that conjecture, with comments after the game that it might be time for the schools to take a break from one another - effective immediately.

But the truth of the matter is that the next two meetings between the teams went off largely without a hitch. They were both hard-fought, cleanly contested battles between two programs that had developed a grudging mutual respect.

In actuality, crowd control was a much greater factor in the series' cancellation than player control. Although the CATHOLICS VS. CONVICTS T-shirts are today entrenched as an indelible piece of Notre Dame football lore, the university was not pleased at the time with the image they portrayed.

[...]
During the week leading up to the '88 game, an article in the Observer, ND's student newspaper, parodied Miami: “You intellectual snobs like to poke at .... our academic program. Now, we may not have any Rhodes Scholars, but I'll have you know that we have the nation's leading programs in intramural bowling, gator wrestling, drug running, and sports car appreciation.”

Notre Dame's campus did not have a monopoly on ugliness.

The 1989 game was played in primetime at Miami's Orange Bowl, and the school put in 3,400 extra seats to accommodate a rare overflow crowd. Irish offensive lineman Justin Hall recalled that his family members, who flew to the game from Texas, were spit on as they tried to make their way to their seats.

“That was the most vile, vicious venue for a college football game that I've ever been in,” said long-time Notre Dame beat writer and columnist Tim Prister, then working for Blue & Gold Illustrated. “They weren't there for Miami. They weren't there just to see Miami win. They wanted blood from Notre Dame. There was a nastiness - I would even call it an evilness - in the crowd that night. You could cut it with a knife.”

Hot damn.

It is safe, however, to assume that the heat generated between the two teams, and particularly the two fan bases, were a product of their place and time.

True.

I think it's going to be a fun game to watch, scrappy and gritty and superimposed with old ghosts. Kind of like watching ND vs Army in Yankee stadium, only there are going to be a lot more people watching this game who actually remember Catholics vs. Convicts. (You know--people who still have all their teeth.) And speaking of which--if you've never seen this video of Rocket Ismail describing the 1988 tunnel fight, you should definitely go check it out right now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq1PXq2egMg

(Also, if you have an extra 8 minutes to spare and really enjoy nostalgic films with cheesy old-school-sports-music and voiceovers, this is the video for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcRNUFbwPiE&feature=related)

But of course, as both Notre Dame and Miami fans know all too well, this isn't exactly a renewal of the rivalry that sparked tunnel brawls and 14.3 Nielsen ratings. This is something else.

This is the chance for the Irish to start their climb back to the top.


The Echoes

I don't want to attach undue importance to a matchup between two 7-5 teams, one of which just lost its head coach and the other of which is relying on a freshman quarterback who turned the ball over four times in his regular-season finale...but nevertheless.....

This is big, yo.

This is a Moment for us. Or it could be, if we play it right.

Remember back at the beginning of the season when we were 1-3 and everybody was like "Ah, f*ck"?

And then later after we lost to Navy and everybody was really like "Ahh f*ck"?

And then when we lost to Tulsa a week after that and everybody was like "F*** it, the season's over"?

And now we're all 7-5 and going to a bowl game and we won on Senior Day and beat USC and shit. So it's like "F*** yeah, bowl game!"

Except that we still got no respect. We've still got shit to prove.

I was listening to some rambling idiots over on Yahoo! Sports the other day (these were actual sports pundits, mind you, and not just the crazy-asses who hang out on college football message boards), and they were hating on Notre Dame so hardcore I almost couldn't even believe it. It was all that horseshit again about how Notre Dame "lacks team speed" and "doesn't have the athletes" to keep up with Miami and all that other statistical bullshit that may in fact be true, but did not, for example, prevent us from beating USC.

Miami has some tremendous athletes on its squad, this is true. On paper, we may very well be screwed. But luckily football games are not played on paper. And as USC so heartily proved on Thanksgiving weekend, it doesn't matter how fast you are if you can't catch the damn ball.

Furthermore, talent doesn't mean shit if you can't play as a team. I'm not trying to insult Miami here; I'm just laying out some facts. We had plenty of occasion to say this to ourselves under Charlie: With all the talent we have on this team, why the f*ck aren't we winning more games? (All last season we have Jimmy-to-Golden and we still only scrape together six wins? Are you shitting me?) And just look at what Coach Kelly did last year. 12-0 with Cincinnati. (Seriously, who the f*ck plays for Cincinnati?) Yet another reminder that football is a team sport.

And let's not forget it.


The Hunger

One of the Yahoo! Sports pundits also pissed me off by saying that Miami is the "hungrier" team.

The hell they are.

Have you been paying any attention to Coach Kelly at all this season? (Of course not, because all you know about Notre Dame is whatever bullshit ESPN's been feeding you all year. Which means you've been listening to Kirk Herbstreit. Which explains where you're getting all this "Notre Dame lacks team speed" nonsense.) Coach Kelly wants to win a national championship, okay? That's why he came here. That's what he's working toward. He's got the hunger. And I think the team's got that hunger, too.

We've still got a lot of doubts to assuage, though, and at this point we've got a lot of disrespect being thrown in our general direction.

-Is the defense for real?
-Was that Utah win a fluke?
-How good do we really think USC is this year, anyway? (Answer: Not that good. But still good enough that it matters that we beat them. Especially since, you know, they were the best defense we've faced all season. And probably USC's players were too fast for us to keep up with. Although I'm pretty sure Robert Hughes didn't notice this while he was busy plowing through people like a human juggernaut.)

I've got no idea what the Miami players have had to put up with this year, but what with their head coach being fired and all, we can assume there's some frustrating shit going on down there, too. So perhaps they will enter this game with some hunger. But a hunger they can't focus, if their end-of-season loss to South Florida is any indication.


The 'Canes

To be honest, I haven't watched Miami play a single game all season and I have no idea how they're likely to fare as a postesason unit. As mentioned, the Hurricanes ended the season with some disappointing losses, and then their coach got fired. My best guess is that they are not exactly in the most unified state right now.

You never know, of course. Sometimes teams use these things to bond together. Leaders step up, the team miraculously gels, they go out there and win one last one for the coach (or...the Gipper or whoever), yada yada yada.

But, more likely, they lose their focus and sense of leadership, head into the postseason feeling uncertain and tank out big in their bowl game. (Re: Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl last year.)

My guess is that Miami will lie somewhere between these two extremes. It's difficult to say.

I still think we ought to win. I don't like to make predictions, really, but I will say this:

Our defense is so hot right now. I mean, for serious. Only allowing two touchdowns in the last seventeen quarters of football? Hott. They've been a really consistent unit for the last four games, and I absolutely don't understand why people are questioning it as a "fluke." It's a fluke if it happens in one game. Maybe two, depending on your opponent. But four games? Four? Really? Need I remind anyone that it took USC four tries to get the ball in from the two-yard line?

What really kills me is now that our defense is playing so well, people have started questioning the quality of our opponents rather than commending the D for its achievements. Which is halfway valid (in the sense that Utah kind of tanked themselves after that TCU game), but also kind of insulting. To be fair, however, I think the reluctance to commend our D may be more of a reflection on how the defense has been playing the past couple seasons than it is on the D's improvement and evolution throughout this season.

Anyway--moving right along to some actual talk about Miami--

According to Rakes of Mallow, Miami leads the country with 23 interceptions and they've fumbled the ball an additional 19 times. Their QB for this game, Jacory Harris, apparently started the season as a Heisman hopeful, but has been riding the bench for the latter part of the season. Harris could come out and play a perfect game, of course, but generally speaking, when a team's been struggling with turnovers and inconsistencies all season, they're not going to come out and play a clean bowl game. (Although I guess you never know.) Plus, our defense has gotten to the point where they're not only capitalizing on most of the opportunities that come their way--they're also starting to create opportunities. So really I think everything's boding well on the defensive side of the ball.

Offense is a little more concerning, but I think Tommy Rees should have a pretty good game. He's won on Senior Day, he's played at Yankee Stadium, he's thrown several picks at the Coliseum -- he's gotten a lot of big-time game experience under his belt very quickly, and I think all of that is going to help him focus during his first major postseason game. (Okay, I know it's only the Sun Bowl and all, but come on. It's ND vs Miami, the tickets sold out faster than they ever have in the history of the Sun Bowl, the Sun Bowl president is saying this is the most excitement he's ever seen about a Sun Bowl matchup, and I guess he'd know since he's been around it for fifty years.) Do I think he's going to get picked off during this game? Probably. He does that. (To be fair, Dayne Crist does that too.) In fact, the only game in which the Irish have not had a turnover all season was on Senior Day against Utah.

It'd be really nice to hope for another game with no turnovers, but I just don't think that's likely. As Rakes of Mallow puts it,

Miami's secondary is nasty, full of four and five-star athletes, ranking third in passing yards per game, second in pass efficiency defense, second in completion percentage allowed and eighth in sacks. It seemed very unlikely Notre Dame was going to attempt to ride Tommy Rees to victory in its bowl game regardless of opponent, but the Hurricanes lining up on the other side of the field almost guarantees that we're going to see a lot of Robert Hughes left and Cierre Wood right.

Which I am totally okay with. In fact, I think Robert Hughes is about due for another 100+ yard game. I'd just like to see him barrel people over all afternoon. Human juggernaut. Human juggernaut!



The Spread

Without going into any further detail, I think we're heading into a fairly even matchup. If Miami's supposed to have the better players, I think right now Notre Dame's got the better team. A strong finish in November says a lot. It means more, I think, than a lot of the pundits are willing to give it credit for. (Mostly because they've got no faith that our team culture is changing into, you know, a winning culture.) I think, heading into the postseason, Notre Dame's definitely got the mental edge.

Right now, though, we're listed as three-point underdogs. We're also being described as a "struggling" program.

I guess that's true. This season was a struggle.

But we never punked out, we never gave up, we never caved in. (And by "we" here, we mean the players and the coaches. The same cannot really be said for all the fans.) And we're not going to cave in now.

All of the hardships we've faced this season have only made us play harder. And anyone who's being hard on Brian Kelly at this point is an effing moron who hasn't been paying attention to the way the team is coming together. We're headed on the up-and-up. Can't you feel it?

I don't think this game's going to be easy. No game is a gimme, and anytime you think so you end up losing to (for example) Appalachian State. But I don't think we should be underdogs in the spread, either. I know it's only three points, but still. I think we got this. We're hungry, bitches.

You want to know how hungry?

In the words of Ian Williams, upon being asked how he felt about Miami not recruiting him because he was "too small"--

"I guess you'll find out on December 31st."


GO IRISH BEAT HURRICANES!

Nostalgia

Some nights stick with you forever.

Some day you'll be old with creaking bones, probably hooked up to a monitor the size of a potato chip taking measurements of all your key bodily functions including the exact trajectory of your next fart (sorry, I've been reading too much Dave Barry lately), and someone will mention that the Irish are getting ready to play on Senior Day, and suddenly memory will leap over the years and you'll find yourself standing right back there on that field soaked in endorphin-tinged glory, screaming and reveling with 8,000 of your closest friends (or, in the case of the band members, no longer capable of paying any attention to what you're playing because you're mentally screaming and reveling with 8,000 of your closest friends; but that's okay because at this point your fingers know the songs better than your brain does anyway; and besides who the hell is going to care if you accidentally play an E-flat here anyway? Who the hell is going to care if you're incapable of playing anything at all? That's right, no one), and it will be as though no time has passed at all.

Some details will start to blur together, but other moments will lodge deep in your brain; and as other bits of memory fade, these will become sharper by contrast, and more potent.

I will never forget the 2006 night game against MSU in Spartan Stadium. I will never forget the rain-drenched, mud-soaked fervor of moldy band jackets and mildewed sheet music; the slip-n-slide-Africa-exploding-volcano halftime show; the sheer decibel level of the 400 people standing next to me. Never again in my life will I hear the marching band scream as loudly as they did that night, and if someone tries to tell me otherwise, I will not believe them. The band was so unbelievably cacophonous that we had alumni writing in to the Observer about it afterward. Including this letter, which I often think of when I think of that night:

Give due credit of last Saturday's win to the Notre Dame marching band. We sat across from them on the press box side of the field. They had to stand on the sideline the entire game, and they played their hearts out in the last eight minutes of that game when Michigan State imploded. They made the noise of 30,000 screaming Irish fans every time the Spartans tried to run plays from deep in their own territory late in the game. I don't think that Notre Dame would have won the game without them. I am told that the Michigan State game was their only scheduled road game. If this is true, it's a shame.The University should cough up the money to send them on the road every time we play a quality opponent.

Thomas D. Drake alumnus class of 1974 Sept. 24

(Thank you to the Observer archives for that one.)

Other sharp-and-clear memories from that night include the football team running over to stand next to the band and the several hundred Irish fans who clambered their way down the quickly-emptying stands to be in our corner of the stadium after the game; Jeff Samardzija yelling "Play the fight song!" over and over again until we did; taking a picture of the final scoreboard; hurrying out of the stadium behind the MSU band, not even marching but clumping as closely together as possible so the MSU fans (who were cursing and throwing things at us BEFORE the game started) didn't feel tempted to do anything they might regret later; boarding the buses feeling too exhausted to keep celebrating but too ebullient to care; eating THE BEST SUB SANDWICH I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE; discovering that I had the DVD of Rudy shoved into the recesses of my backpack, and subsequently enjoying the viewing of said movie more than I ever have in my life....

It's funny; you'd think I would have more concrete memories of the actual football game. But to be honest, the live-game action is all kind of a blur. Do I remember what happened in the game? Of course. I was standing right behind the endzone (THE ENDZONE) at field level, so the angle was terrible, but I remember the adrenaline of the turnaround--the miraculous turnovers--the fabulous TD passes from Brady Quinn--

And I know that, long after many other Notre Dame football players have faded from my consciousness, I will remember Terrail Lambert's name.

But I don't necessarily remember what all these plays looked like, from my angle on the field. I don't remember the exact moments in which they occurred, or what I was doing with myself at the time; I just remember screaming and screaming and screaming until I couldn't think anymore. And now when I look back on that game and reminisce over all the miraculous football action that occurred, I don't picture it from my angle on the field. I picture it from this highlight video:

Funny how memory works, huh?

It's something unpredictable, but in the end that's right

This year's seniors entered during the fall of 2007 and experienced the worst season in Notre Dame football history, followed by two disappointing 6-6 campaigns and this season's frustrating, injury-leaden "transitional year" in the wake of a coaching change.

Not that there weren't any bright spots; a win in the 2008 Hawaii Bowl and Golden Tate come to mind. But there were a lot more low points, and the low points hit you harder, especially when, for example, you come out in the freezing cold and lose on Senior Day amid a flurry of snowballs to a 2-7 Syracuse team with a lame duck head coach. (And you make David Bruton CRY.)

This, of course, would be MY senior day, and it was sheer misery. My hands went numb, my toes went numb, my heart went numb. The post-season pineapple trophy was nice, but it didn't really make up for things. (Last year's seniors know what I'm talking about, although at least for their actual Senior Day they didn't start to go numb in all their major organs.)

And I only bring this shit up because last night was--I don't know--redemption.

I think that word is thrown around too much when it comes too football, but it kind of feels true, doesn't it? Doesn't it seem like all the pussy-ass twatwaffles who wrote into the Observer about rushing the field when we lose on Senior Day (or who silently agreed with said twatwaffles) need to just pack up with all their unbelief and get the hell out of town?

Thank you, Rocket.
Thank you, bye week.
Thank you, seniors, for sticking with it.
Thank you, team, for not cashing in your chips.
Thank you, Tommy, for not throwing any interceptions.
Thank you, Robert, for giving us the play we needed to allow us to play the way we should always play.

And thank you, Coach Kelly, for being the coach that I know you are; for understanding how to manage the emotions of a bunch of college kids; and for saying exactly what I've been thinking all week long.

Behold this quote:

You saw it today, a football team that didn’t have on their shoulders the traditions and reputations and all the things that you have to worry about sometimes being a football player at Notre Dame. [...] They just flat-out played.

And in doing so, they managed to uphold all the traditions and reputations and expectations that come along with being a football player at Notre Dame.

Can I just say again--it's funny how these things work, isn't it?

Just remember: football is 80% mental, and 40% physical.

(...and 100% badass.)

I know I've used this Little Giants quote before, but I love it because it's SO TRUE. So much of football (so much of life) is all about your attitude and the way you come to play. In the words of Brian Smith:

You just have to have the emotional advantage, that even if you aren't, that you play like you are the baddest on the field and nobody can stop you. Having the kind of attitude makes you a better player and so that gives you that edge.

As an individual player, the mental edge can only take you so far. (For example, you might think you can beat Golden Tate in a one-on-one matchup, but HA HA HA he's totally going to score on you at some point and there's just nothing you can do about it.) But if your whole team has that mental edge, you're going to win football games.

Certain friends of mine from Texas are going to find this extremely painful, but we owe some of yesterday's win to the Horned Frogs.

I was thinking maybe Utah would come off the loss to TCU feeling pissed off and out to prove something, but instead they came out looking demoralized and more than a little sloppy. Ten penalties for 65 yards in the first half? Ouch.

Some of the first half success we can reasonably attribute to Utah not being quite ready to play, and our players being in-the-zone enough to capitalize on it.

Our offense did nothing the first couple possessions. They needed a kick, a momentum swing, to get things going, and they got it. And once the offense got going...Jonas Gray had some killer runs, Michael Floyd had some crucial grabs and some even more crucial blocks, Duval Kamara came out of nowhere (like he does occasionally) and had two TD grabs on his Senior Day, and Tommy Rees threw for 3 TDs and NO INTERCEPTIONS in his first official start.

So can I just say again -- THANK YOU ROBERT BLANTON.

Or should I be thanking Harrison Smith?

That first interception was absolutely crucial. I think it gave us the momentum swing that set the whole rest of the game in motion. I realize that the offense didn't do anything with the possession immediately following that play, but I think it made all the difference for our D.

The defense--or perhaps more accurately, Harrison Smith--went out still feeling high after that interception. Harrison Smith made the first two tackles on Utah's possession, both of them run plays (and the second run was enough for a first down). Then, mysteriously, Utah decided to throw the ball three times in a row, and our defense (to the shock and awe of all in attendance) managed to PUT SOME PRESSURE ON THE QUARTERBACK and shut down the Utah passing attack, forcing one two-yard gain and two incompletions.(And no, Utah did not have any penalties on that particular possession, so the only self-inflicted agony there was the playcalling.)

And Utah, with its head still-not-quite-in-the-game, managed to fall asleep on the punt play and allowed Robert Blanton blow right through, block the punt, scoop the ball up on a lucky bounce, and sprint straight into the endzone.

And then we were on fire.

We got a little help from Utah, sure, but our boys played all four quarters, and the defense in particular did not let up. Fueled by the momentum and the crowd and the mental edge, they kept the Utes out of the endzone and Protected Our House in a way all the doubters and haters and unbelievers have started to claim we are no longer capable of doing.

Well, screw you people. You wanna know what protecting our house on Senior Day looks like? It looks kind of like this:

Utah Possessions - How Lost

*FIELD GOAL
Interception
Punt
Punt
Punt
Punt
Punt
Fumble
Punt
Downs
Downs
Downs

Or, better yet, it looks like this:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/video/college-football/Highlights-Utah-vs-Notre-Dame-885058

(Sorry about the stupid ad at the beginning....if anyone has a link to a better highlight video, by all means let me know.)

Perhaps I'm sounding really reasonable and calm about all this...but have I mentioned that I pretty much feel like this?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haven't I been saying all season that we're making improvements, and we're getting better and better mentally, and one day this is all going to manifest into something brilliant? (HAVE I been saying this all season? I can't remember. I've been THINKING this shit all season.) More fabulous quotes from Coach Kelly (and I swear I'm not just mimicking everything he's saying and trying to pass it off as my own):

It's the culmination of what we've been working on since December. You don't just pull these out of a hat. You don't just wake up one day and say, ‘Oh, let's rise up today.' It's the consistency of approach from a day-to-day basis and how we go to work every day.

We're not a finished product by any means, but we're starting to develop the mental and physical toughness, the way that you need to go and approach this game on a day-to-day basis.

You tell 'em, coach.

Also, quotes with some definite attitude from Cierre Wood:

The game plan was to come out and just beat them up physically and mentally.

I think we did that very good. There was definitely body language in the first half, and midway through the third quarter. It seemed like they didn't really want no part of us no more. So we just had to go for the kill.

Boooyaaaaah.

(You can talk the talk as long as you walk the walk, Cierre, but the next time we lose a game my heart's going to break a little more over your grammar.)

Also, I'm going to steal some key facts from this Eric Hansen article in the South Bend Tribune:

The Irish broke a streak of 11 straight losses to ranked teams, which started with a 47-21 home drubbing from Michigan on Sept. 16, 2006.

It was the highest-rated team the Irish had taken down since before any of the current players attended freshman orientation - more precisely, a 17-10 upending of a third-ranked Michigan on the road in game 2 of the coach Charlie Weis Era back in 2005.

Saturday marked the fewest points the Irish allowed against an AP Top 20 team since a Jan. 1, 1993, Cotton Bowl win over No. 4 Texas A&M, also a 28-3 victory.

It was the fewest points Utah has scored since losing 17-0 to UNLV on Sept. 22, 2007. That's a span of 45 games including Saturday's Irish victory.

It was ND's largest margin of victory against AP Top 20 team since Oct. 12, 1996, when Notre Dame beat Washington 54-20.

Also, Hansen's article ends with this comparison:

[...] this team, this mission is about big pictures and foundations, not isolated moments in time. In the post-Lou Holtz Era, Notre Dame has become the McRib of college football.

It's back. It's gone. It's back. It's gone.

It's back?

Hahaha. Who knows? And to be honest, right now I don't even care.

The Irish won on Senior Day. That's all that matters. We've got two games to go and our hopes of becoming bowl eligible are still alive, but I'm not going to think about any of that right now.

I'm giving myself at least a twenty-four-hour rule, and I'm celebrating.

To conclude

So, since I'm waxing all nostalgic about my most memorable game as a student, I'm curious to know... What's your most memorable game? As a student or otherwise. And, for current students (and seniors especially), what stuck out at you yesterday? What were your favorite moments? What little ancillary details do you think will stick with you, long after many other things have faded?

Last but not least...

GO IRISH BEAT ARMY!

I can't tell you what it really is, I can only tell you what it feels like

Steel knife in my windpipe

You know that feeling like your ribcage has cracked open and your breastbone's slowly being ground into a pebble? Like your knees have swollen up with the venom of a thousand wasp stingers and your eyes have been doused with acid and your brain is fizzing over like an out-of-control science fair project, and the only thing you can do is lie there and pray for it to be over?

Except, you know, if your body becomes reduced to a twitching, oozing, vomitous mess, they usually let you check yourself into a hospital and forget about the world for a couple of days.

And sometimes it seems like, for the players, there is just no rest, and no relief. Especially not with everything that's happened this past week.

And it's not like it's even just the players, you know? It's a whole family, a whole community. If we weren't all bruised and weary before, surely we've got the shit slapped out of us now.

Thank God it's a bye week.

To be honest, I'm not even worried about the fate of the football season right now. I'm just worried about everyone getting some sleep. Real rest is probably too much to ask for...but sleep, at the very least.

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn

Everything I think to say seems to come up empty. I could voice the thoughts that we all have rolling around in our heads, but what's the point? It's all just a bunch of WHY and OH GOD and YOU'RE KILLING ME, PETEY, and NOT AGAIN. Possibly followed by some impotent sobbing.

Nor does it seem wise to fall prey to the voice of the campus jackasses. (You know who I mean -- the sorts of people who write sarcastic-ass notes to the Observer about storming the field after a loss.) These are the people to not listen to, ever. These are the people who, after a loss to Navy, will happily ensure that you don't win another game for the rest of the season, because they're pussies, and they're going to cash in their chips early and walk away. Probably even thinking they've won something, because they still have money left in their pocket at the end of the day.

Well, let me tell you something, jackass. You don't get anything by not playing. You don't get anything by giving up. And you sure as shit don't have the right to go around insulting people who are out there doing what you could never do.

Does anyone remember a couple of seasons ago when the Irish lost 17-0 to Boston College and I posted a rant saying we were having football dysentery? I'm sorry I ever wrote it that way. I'm not saying that game wasn't sufficiently painful to watch, I'm just saying...letting frustration turn to venom like that is not the way to go. (I say after openly accusing certain Notre Dame students of being jackasses.) I mean, spouting out agony and frustration and openly wondering wtf is going on out there is one thing, but football dysentery? I think that was taking things too far. (YES I JUST SAID THAT.) Sometimes I think I take everything too far.

Anyway...my point is...

Look, it's not like I'm happy with what's going on here, either. This isn't what we want to see, this isn't what tradition mandates, this was a gut-wrenching, heart-humbling week to begin with...but the way I see it, we've got two options.

1. We can either cash our chips in like a bunch of pussies and give up, or

2. We can make like the football team, give ourselves a 24-hour rule, GET OVER IT, and figure out what the hell we can do to make it a game against Utah.

The more I suffer, I suffocate

We need to stop suffocating ourselves. Or maybe just the head coach. Brian Kelly looks older to me already. And tired. This goes back to what I said earlier about everyone just needing some sleep. I mean it. I think the pressure's too much. We all just need to step back and take an effing chill pill. Did you see how much Charlie aged during his interim as head coach? We must have taken ten years off that poor man's life. And his kid. Charlie Jr. couldn't even go to school sometimes after losses.

THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

"But it's a D-I program, it's a fishbowl, there's tons of pressure all the time, everyone knows that, Brian Kelly knows that, he's even addressed it in press conferences..." and BLAH BLAH BLAH.

That's great and all, but these guys are all also human beings, and maybe if after every loss we wouldn't lament and bemoan and beat things to death and we could just take our chokehold off for a few seconds, everyone would have time to breathe and rest and think properly, and be all calm and sharply focused, instead of wound up like a corkscrew being all FUCKFUCKFUCK, we have to WIN we have to WIN why aren't we WINNING?????!??!?!?!?!

HEY - remember that time we went 6-6 and the players elected to go the Hawaii Bowl and everyone was all pissed off and saying "what the hell this is the worst idea ever, we can't play a game on Christmas Eve, and why is the University wasting all this money flying the team all the way to Hawaii just so we can lose another bowl game to a mediocre-ass team" and WAH WAH WAH BLAHBLAHBLAH --

But the football players didn't hear any of this shit because they were in HAWAII, going to luaus and watching Jimmy Clausen fall on his ass in a waterpark, and then they went out on the field and kicked the shit out of Hawaii, just like they should have been kicking the shit out of every other semi-decent team all season (but they weren't because who-the-hell-knows-why), and they proved everybody wrong and came back with a pineapple trophy and Manti Te'o.

That wasn't so bad.

See? So maybe everybody just needs to RELAX. Veg out. Refocus.

And we need to do some serious refocusing, because thanks to injuries we've got practically a whole different team out there from the one we started the season with.

I can't breathe, but I still fight while I can fight

So, assuming that the Notre Dame chokehold doesn't release (which of course it won't; even if this was being read by more than like 10 people every week why the hell would anyone listen to me? because I am CLEARLY CRAZY), I'm guessing it will be something of a struggle to battle through the general campus atmosphere these next couple weeks. It's bad to go into a bye on a loss, even worse to go into a bye after a loss that could easily have been a win.

But after the week that campus just had, I think a bye is kind of what everyone needs right now.

It will be good for the players to have some time to regroup. They've got a new quarterback to contend with, a shift in scheme...if ever there was a time for Kelly's "next man in" mentality to come to fruition, the time is now.

Obviously there are some things you can't do in two weeks. You can't give your freshman QB any more live-game experience. You can only do so much about his high, frighteningly floaty passes. You can't surround him with veteran players.

But you can get things going. You can build trust; and it seems like, with the way the players have been buying in to Kelly's philosophy, there's a good level of trust between them to begin with. You can work on building chemistry; and in some ways having younger receivers out there might help a young QB build that chemistry. (Unless, you know, the young receivers completely blow their assignments.) And you can work on the head stuff. Mental preparation, leadership, confidence, etc etc etc. Which, actually, I must say, it seems like Rees has a pretty good foundation of to begin with.

He didn't look scared out there. He threw some floaty passes, yeah; threw behind some receivers a little bit; is pretty lucky he was going up against Tulsa's abysmal pass defense in his first start. But nevertheless he threw for 334 yards and 4 touchdowns and went 60% on completions, and that is not shabby at all. (And it helped, too, to have Floyd out there with 11 catches for 104 yards and 2 TDs.)

Not that I don't lament the loss of Crist. How much do I wish all of our players were healthy? Sooooo much. But this is the way things are, and if we're going to have a freshman QB lead the team for the next three games, it might as well be a freshman QB who has two full weeks to prepare for his first official start.

I like the way it hurts

Okay, well, that's kind of a total lie, but what I'm referring to here (in the most tangential way possible), is the playcalling at the end of the game. It's easy to look back now and think, "WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU NOT KICK THE FIELD GOAL?? RIGHT NOW THE KICKER IS THE MOST CONSISTENT PLAYER ON OUR TEAM!!!!"

But to be honest, at the time, I didn't think twice about it. In fact, I totally concurred. So I guess that means I still do kind of concur.

You have more than one down left--you're close enough to the endzone to give it a shot--you have time--why NOT go for it? In fact, since you already have the central field position you want for your kicker, might as well go ahead and throw it to the endzone twice.

Yes, there's always a chance of an interception; but there's also the chance that if you kick the FG now, Tulsa will have a really killer return run on special teams that will set them up for a game-winning field goal with five seconds left on the clock.

And fear of interceptions is no reason not to throw the ball. Especially not when your QB just threw for four touchdowns.

(And just in case your mind went there, yes, I was also in favor of Belichick's 4th-and-1 call against Indianapolis last season. Although actually the first thing that came to mind just now--speaking of gutsy NFL playcalls--was a Tampa Bay game I watched a few years back when Jon Gruden was still coaching. Tampa scored a TD at the very end of the game, and if they'd kicked the extra point they would have tied and sent it into overtime, but Gruden decided to go for the two-point conversion instead. Tampa Bay got the two-point conversion and they won. I remember watching the post-game interview, and the reporters asking Gruden why he went with such a gutsy playcall, and his response was something along the lines of, "Well, you know, any time you make a call like that, people are going to call you a moron if it doesn't work, and they're going to call you a genius if you win. I play to win football games. I don't play for overtime. We had a shot to win right then, so I called it, and we won." This is a philosophy I completely respect and, as a coach, would probably adhere to. If I ever had my own team [hahahaha], I think I'd be like that one high school coach who always goes for it on fourth down. He had a feature in Sports Illustrated a few seasons back. Screw punting--just go for it. I am always in favor of going for it on fourth down. And of throwing Hail Marys. And of NOT playing for overtime.)

Not that this makes the result of yesterday's game any better....I'm just saying.

All I know is I love you too much to walk away

So here comes another Senior Day. Another neutral-site "home game." Another season's end.

I know everyone's thinking "f*ck, no bowl game this season," but, as mentioned, that is a pussy-ass mentality, and can we please not fall victim to it?

It is football. Anything can happen. Maybe Utah comes in thinking, "Aha! A weak sauce Notre Dame team with a freshman quarterback and a spate of injuries that just lost to Tulsa! VICTORY IS OURS!!!"

And instead we kick their ass. (Kind of like Iowa over MSU. Bahahaha.)

I know, everyone thinks I'm delusional. But, as I have mentioned several times, losses are only guaranteed if you cash in your chips before the game even starts.

Don't cash in. Don't do it.

And hell, even if you think you're going to go down, why not throw out everything you have and end in a blaze of glory?

I've seen plenty of giving up these past couple seasons.

I think we're long overdue for some glory.

And if Brian Kelly's not saying the exact same shit to his team over the next two weeks, I will eat my effing shamrock socks.

GO IRISH.

That is all I have to say.

Fishbowls and Football Fields

This is what happens when I'm grouchy and off-kilter and don't write anything for a long time.

In the great fishbowl of fate, it is hard sometimes not to feel dead in the water--like a moist, pebbly fish dropping, or a stiff plastic stem of seaweed, or a lumpy green clump of algae stuck to the side of the tank.

Work and alarm clocks and disappointments drag us down.
Chemicals in the brain fizz over into agony--apathy--dischord--sleep.

I was not who I am this morning. I haven't felt like myself all day.

I'm trying to be eloquent, but mostly what I feel right now is tired.

Tired of letting time slip away--tired of the ways in which the days force me to spend my time--tired of never having enough time to sleep--

Tired of the descant of drudgery splashed across the newspaper pages,
the wrath of ages,
the talking heads they tout as sages,
the dyspepsias of cubicle cages.

And things that rhyme.

I'm tired of using up my minutes on the minutae of my life.
Tired of composing melodious malefactions on the mismatched militiamen of the gridiron.

Every time I sit and pick at words, the time comes up empty.

I'm not making much sense, I know. I've slipped into the doldrums this week.

For the past several weeks.

I keep meaning to write something about football.... I keep meaning to write. And this week, when it seems like it would be most respectful to let the words fall flat and let time pass in silence--

I can't.

I keep thinking about Declan Sullivan.

And all sorts of things that go along with that, too, of course...youth and life and death and time, and what I use and what I waste, and what if I had been cut off at 20 years old? And all that sort of thing.

But it seems unwise to say too much on Sullivan specifically; what happened this week feels too far away and too close to home all at once, and anyway what could I say that has not been said already? Especially speaking of a person I never really knew.

I can only express, in the act of breathing in and out and pressing my fingers to the keyboard, the strange and unrelenting sensation of being alive...the solidarity of sleeping and waking and sensing that is shared among everything ephemeral, everything that dies.

And to say that, on the opposite tack some might take when speaking of perspective, in fact I think tomorrow means a great deal. To watch the game. To play the game. To sweat and scream and shiver. To be alive because we are alive. We owe that to ourselves, and to each other. And, in no disrespectful way at all, to the dead.

Every awakening--every spurt of blood--every slash of pain--every shaking press of palm to palm--

These are all saturated with the knowledge that we are vital, we exist, and sometimes I think the only real disrespect is to ignore that--to resent it--to be careless with our time and piss it away.

To stare down the field of fate and decide not to play.

I suddenly don't feel so stuck anymore.

In memoriam...

I will scream louder
I will live harder
I will breathe into every last inch of me
and I will not be afraid of time.

Press Conference Quotes: "Go Irish Beat Eagles" edition

Interesting tidbits from yesterday's pressers...

Apparently Robert Huuuuughes is moving up to the #2 back position this week. According to Coach Kelly:

We're still really high on Cierre Wood. This is not let's push Cierre to the side. He's a young kid now. [...] This guy's got four games and everybody wants to throw the poor kid under the bus. I think he's going to be a really, really good player. He just needs time. One of the things that Robert can do and utilize against B.C. is he's a big, strong, physical kid and he may be able to help us a little bit in pass protection. [...] In some instances. I want Cierre to know, hey there's no pressure on you, son. Go play. Sometimes he plays like there is all this pressure on him to be the next Heisman Trophy candidate. He just needs to go play and relax, and hopefully he'll do that.

Although you know, Cierre, nobody around here would mind if you were the next Heisman Trophy candidate.


On Dayne Crist's development...

I see it more so that he's throwing for over 300 yards a game. His interceptions, obviously, are not crazy. They're higher than I want. It's the combination of making four or five really, really good plays and maybe one or two not so good plays. So I think where we are in the development is obviously playing more consistently. How do you get consistent? You gain confidence. When he's confident now, he's really, really good. He loses a little bit of confidence at times, that's where we're working on the development of Dayne Crist, and that's what he has to bring to each and every game.

In other words: you keep your eyeballs in focus, Dayne Crist. You'll be just fine.


Regarding the somewhat stifled run game...

Well, I'll start with the last two games. The Michigan State game is a six man box, very difficult. They blitz the backers quite a bit, so that's why the ball was thrown as much as it was. When we needed to hit some runs, our version of running the ball is the shovel, the quick option out on the perimeter. Those become run plays out of that structure. They're not counted as such, they're counted as passes because of the shovel version. But I think that the Michigan State game was the circumstances more so than anything else. I think if you look at the Stanford game, there were time that's we got beat up front. And there were times that we probably should have run the football when we tried to throw it, because of, you know, so much drop 8. So I took some of the responsibility last week for not being more effective in the running game. I think Stanford needs a little credit on that as well. We expect to get back to a better balance this week.

Umm I sure hope so. Because the balance last week was -- how shall we say? -- non-existent.



On Notre Dame's tough schedule in the opening weeks of the season....

Moving forward, it will be a strength having a schedule like this moving forward. I think with our spring and summer preparation, coming into the year we're going to be further ahead when we play tough competition right out of the gates. Maybe it's not showing right now, new offense, new defense, special teams. At times we've been sporadic. But I'm still not in favor of throwing 1AA teams in there. I still feel like we should be playing the kind of schedule we're playing, and I think it's going to pay off for us.

BRIAN KELLY I AGREE WITH YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW I COULD KISS YOU.

Ahem.

Moving right along...


On dealing with losses while building up a program...

It's the same process that we're going through in terms of building our program and doing the thing that's we need to do to win for a long, long period of time. Every program that I've been involved with, they've won championships after I left, and I'm not leaving this one. I want to win them. But we're going to get to that level as well. The process is the same, it's just the expectations are different.

I really like how up-front he's being about all of this. I mean, yeah, every coach says they want to win a championship. Lots of coaches claim they're going to win championships. But Brian Kelly, man...he really fucking means it. You can tell.

I am in favor.


On Braxston Cave and Mike Golic switching it up at center....

Again, Braxston (Cave) is in his first year. There are some growing pains there. The one thing we need with Braxston is a little bit better job at cadence, and he's a little too consistent with some of the things that he does that gives the defense a chance to, as you saw against Stanford, they did a pretty good job of film study. They knew when Braxston was going to snap the ball. He's got to be more firm with his snaps. His snaps have not been very good. So some of our concern with Braxston is less about who he's blocking and how he's blocking. Though we always can get better there. We need a little bit better management of cadence and when the ball comes out and how it comes out. Dayne's had to catch too many balls below his knees, which takes his eyes off what we're trying to do offensively.

Hmm. I wonder how good those BC players are at their film study.....



Some player presser quotes

Dayne Crist, on becoming more prepared to attack a drop-eight package...

Right, and like I said, teams don't live in that world, really. You're not getting a great majority of those snaps unless, like I said, the situation calls for it within the game and within the score and everything like that. So if a team wants to go out and start the game and drop 8, we're going to run for 300 yards. It's one of those things where it's more a situational thing and something I think I was able to mature with a little bit and understanding that situation. Now coming back after talking with Coach Kelly and watching tape with him and doing what we need to do to correct our problems that we had with it, now it will be one of the situations where like I said we've got answers.

Kyle Rudolph, saying all the right things regarding our strength-of-schedule....

That's why we come here. We come here to play the best teams in the country. You know, three or four weeks before conference play, and you play 1AA teams and MAC teams and stuff like that that some of these other schools are playing against. With us, we're going to play the best week in and week out. And we're going to get the best from the people that we play week in and week out simply because we're Notre Dame. And that is something that is the reason we came here, and what we look forward to our schedule.

Dayne Crist, on how the team's handling the losses...

You can see the hurt that lingers after a game, and all the guys are like that, really. But by the same token, guys are also--we realize that we're right there. You know, it's one of those things where guys aren't coming back to practice on Tuesday still drooping over a loss. Guys are coming back battling on a Tuesday. We had a great day of practice yesterday. As soon as you're done with a loss, the first thing you want to do is go play. As soon as the clock hits zero, it's when do I get to play next? It's the first thing you want to do is get it out of you and go get a win. I think that's how guys are responding. I'm definitely proud of how guys are responding, but we need to make sure that we understand what that feels like, and we don't want to feel like that anymore.

You bring it, Irish.




And now, a word from Manti Te'o, on what cataclysmic weather patterns aligned to bring about week's tornado/volcano eruption of tackles:

I don't think I did anything different.

Oh. Um....you sure?

I just made the corrections to the mistakes I did in the past games.

Really? That's...that's it? You sure you didn't channel any energy from badass photo-shopped video game covers, or channel the power of your Samoan ancestry through your tattoo, or conquer with the spirit of Kamehameha, or--




Oh. Well, okay then.





GO IRISH BEAT EAGLES!