Over the course of the next few weeks, college football fans across the country will intently speculate on the condition and progress of their favorite teams.
We will blindly seek joy in the development of our marquee players and torment our souls over the loss of them before a single snap is recorded for the '08 season. My emotions will fluctuate more than Ricky Williams’ before a drug test.
I have scoured the World Wide Web for any bit of information I can find on the Irish. I have watched more practice film on my team than Tyrone Willingham as I patiently wait for September 6, 2008.
Only the start of the season can cleanse the stench of last year's disgust. Only a completely demoralized San Diego State team after 60 minutes of hard-nosed football can reconcile the sins of 2007.
Even then, do we really know what we have?
Even if Notre Dame wins that game, will we not question the margin of victory? Won't we scrutinize every missed tackle and dropped pass throughout the game? Does anything but mere perfection allow me to sleep blissfully for a week knowing that the Wolverines are coming to town the next week?
Of course not.
In fact, that is the beauty of being a delusional Notre Dame fan, and a connoisseur of this imperfectly perfect game. What other fan base can remain cautiously optimistic after a 3-9 season?
I found myself watching the horror of the 2007 football season like a bad movie without looking away. It was as if my eyes were glued to a deplorable car accident on my way to work, and I had no way of turning a blind eye to the carnage.
The Mark Mays and the USCs and the Michigans of the collegiate football world can plan the demise of Irish football to all their hearts' content, but my psyche is ignorantly unshaken.
You can bring up the eerie likeness of Willingham's record to Charlie Weis' all day long. You can analytically dissect the margin of defeats during Weis' era until you are blue in the face, but my psyche will not be stirred.
(Keep in mind that until last year, Notre Dame was only dominated three times: Michigan and USC in 2006, and LSU in that year's Sugar Bowl. I attribute that more to complacency and offseason extracurricular activities rather than coaching, even though that too is the responsibility of the coaching staff, although the USC loss began to unmask the talent discrepancy that Willingham had left behind.)
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Numbers are not always a telling indicator of a historical event. Even during Willingham's epic first season, where he started out 8-0, did we not get the feeling that we were more lucky than good? Did it not feel like the offense still struggled but was veiled by an opportunistic defense?
The 2005 and 2006 seasons presented an indescribable and uplifting feeling: For the first time since the Holtz era, we had a coaching advantage on the sideline rather than a liability.
Now I know feelings amount to jack squat in the sports and journalism world. I comprehend that this society is dictated by empirical evidence and hard numbers—so what? How many of us out there feel more certainty after this 3-9 season than the 5-7 season in 2003?
Make no mistake about it: Our right leg has been cut from under us, and a man of Chris Stewart's stature is leaning on it. Yet until I see another debacle like the one I saw last year, I am not panicking.
Now, by no means am I insinuating that there is not a sense of urgency about this upcoming season. Charlie Weis knows the stakes that are on the table for this upcoming year. The Notre Dame faithful understand the severity of another losing season, which would bring about the insecurity of another coaching change.
My fellow peers will undoubtedly blast me for writing an article that lacks real substance and is myopic in reasoning. Nonetheless, this is not an article aimed at addressing the vast improvements that the team has made since the end of last season.
I am not here to harp about how bright the future is at Notre Dame with the incoming recruiting classes, or that everyone from the 3-9 team is stronger, faster, and wiser.
I adamantly believe that there is something wrong in this world when a football team that strives to do everything the right way (with the exception of Derrell Hand's incident last offseason), a school that profoundly cherishes the academic world as commensurately as the athletic one, and an institution rich in tradition and morality would be denied entrance among the elites of the college football world once more.
This is a unique football structure that refuses to give way to the dictatorship of any conference, sending a clear message that we will play anybody, anywhere, no matter the odds.
The haters shout from the rooftops that this elitist, racist, underachieving abomination of a football institution must learn to adapt—or Notre Dame shall perish.
Contemptuous rivals signify the insignificance that Notre Dame now holds on the college football landscape. Many pundits in the national media believe that Notre Dame has long reached the zenith of its existence, and that our decadent past is concealing the reality with which we see today.
Well then, if that is the case, why does a guy who has no Irish lineage to speak of and has never come within eyeshot of South Bend, Indiana, and with no connection to the program, outside of being an overzealous and maniacal fan, still believe in the luster and splendor of Notre Dame football?
Notre Dame is a martyr in a time when many look for easy solutions to winning. The recruitment of today’s high school athletes creates more prima donnas than men of tomorrow.
Academics are an afterthought at best. Colleges penalize students that step out of line for fear of NCAA sanctions rather than the damage to their reputation. How many universities can honestly say that they will still do the right thing when no one is looking?
Above this heap of dishonorable manure, above the verbiage of calling 18-year-old men “kids,” lies a higher standard with no excuses. Notre Dame does not hold themselves to these excruciating standards to separate themselves from the pack, but rather because college football needs this to be the standard.
So while we sit down over this last week scanning through the various media outlets, awaiting the development of an incoming freshman at fall practice or the horrific news of a torn ACL to an upcoming playmaker, remember the broader stroke that Notre Dame paints on the collegiate football canvas.
It is one of optimism, one of profound hope, but above all else, the stroke of a champion.
Maybe not today or even next year, but eventually, the good guys always win.
The movie simply isn’t over yet. It’s just getting good.
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2 months ago
Great read, Trung. Duing your intro paragraphs I thought you were describing...me. Scary.
For all the reasons you mentioned, win or lose ND football will always be the greatest continuous story in American sports.
2 months ago
As a USC Trojan, I can sincerely say that I hope ND returns to the elite of the college football world. The USC-ND game is one of the game's best especially when both teams are on top and squaring off against each other with a national title hanging in the balance.
Here's to the greatest intersectional rivalry in all of college football! Great article.
rodwood
FIGHT ON!
2 months ago
you need to figure out how to play some kind of epic music when you get to the last part. it would be fitting haha.
2 months ago
Great read...you perfectly sum it up. There is no school and no program like Notre Dame. A friend of mine recently said "the line between religion and football at Notre Dame is very blurry." I replied, "There is no line if everything you do is for a greater purpose." You say you have never been to South Bend? I almost don't believe it. Go Irish!
2 months ago
Notre Dame's goin' all the way!
2 months ago
As much as I would love to see ND finally succeed and win any kind of a bowl game this year, I do not think it will happen, next year when Claussen is a third year starter I think they will do great things, but expect some more dissapointing results this year
2 months ago
Very well said. At that, let me say that Notre Dame is one of few if not any program that can go from 3-9 to 12-0. The Irish will always get great players becuase those 18-year olds want to run out of that tunnel. Why would that be so important to them you ask? Simple. It is the tradation that was created when Rockne would travel by train to play USC. It was winning so many NC's and Heisman Trophys. It was sculpting ND to be THAT place where guys wanted to go...no matter what...Even if they werent Catholic...even if they didnt have the grades...Even if they didnt have the money...even if they didnt have an ounce of athletic ability. ND is ND and noone will ever take that away. My hopes are as high as any new year because I am a ND fan and isnt that what fans do?? Look and hope for the best?? even if no games were won the previous year? Thats just US...Tell those other fans (trolls) that thats just the way we are and that jealousy is the only reason they give us crap about shooting so high preseason. Go Irish and I hope for a NC this year. But realistically, I just want the Irish to play smarter, harder, and get coached better than any of the teams out there. Like Lou Holtz said, ND will have more talent on the field 11/12 games (USC) this season. Can you honestly argue that??? If so, than why is 11-1 sucha bleak and far goal to be reached this season? Go Irish!
2 months ago
There is only one program ever to have a nine game turn-around season and that was Hawai'i in June Jones first year. Yeah the Irish get great players, but so do 45 teams in college football every year, If the Irish were really that talented (talented enough to go to a BCS game) then they would have been a little better last year. Wait let me rephrase that. If they were ready to make a move to the BCS then they would have been a lot better last year. You dont just go from 3-9 to 10-2 just because you are a year older. I think Notre Dame weill probably win 5-6 games this year modest, nothing wrong with that, and then the year after that, is where they talent that has been assembled and thrown to the wolves early can make a run. But to say 11-1 is not that far fetched. If that was the case they would not have given up over 50 sacks last year (and that has been a problem since Brady Quinn's Junior year). Also when did Ty Willingham become a bad coach? isn't he they guy who coached Stanford to a Rose Bowl? And this whole thing about Weis coming in and doing a better job, it was like Willingham, but with offense and no defense. Because in those first two years with Weis they could not stop anybody.
from 2 months ago
Yawn...more Willingham vs. Weis know-nothingness.
2 months ago
This article may top Knute Rockne's "Win One for the Gipper" speech! The best of luck to you and your Fighting Irish this season. Nice article!
2 months ago
lol, I am not saying Weis is no good, but I am just saying Willingham is decent... Geez Irish fans are tough...
2 months ago
I always believed Willingham to be a class act and proficient coach. After the loss to Boston College in the 2002 season when Notre Dame started off 8-0 and the tying touchdown was wrongfully called out, I knew Willingham to be a man of high integrity. Not once did he press the issue or blame the team's lackluster performance on that one play. But with all due respect to Willingham, being likeable and adequate was never going to cut it at Notre Dame. And neither will being a decent coach. The trial is also still out on Weis as well but the tremendous talent he has brought in here the last few years has bought him more time. Any true Irish fan felt very ominous following Tye's 3rd year at Notre Dame.
2 months ago
Nice article.
I want a shirt that says "Delusional Notre Dame Fan" and I will wear it with pride:-)
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