On Saturday, I felt very empty. While the rest of the country was enjoying the first games of the 2008 College Football season, I was sitting at home watching the television, wishing I could root for one team or another, but I’ve never been able to root for a team that isn’t wearing the interlocking ND on their uniforms.
So far, the 2008 season has dealt us a handful of surprises. Virginia Tech, Clemson, Michigan, and Pittsburgh all lost their season openers to what many deemed “inferior” opponents.
This coming Saturday, however, the 2008 Fighting Irish Football Team takes the field for the first time since their horrid 2007 campaign that left many weak-hearted Irish fans (read: bandwagon fans) running for the hills.
There will, however, be some very different ingredients that will go into this year’s team that will make this year a much better year for the Irish faithful and will kick that dead horse that was the 2007 season out the door.
Personnel
One of the major bright spots for this year’s football team is that they return almost all of their starters on offense and defense from last year. However, one could argue, “Hah, the Irish were horrible last year. The same lousy players will produce the same lousy product on the field.”
While the departure of John Carlson, John Sullivan, Tom Zbikowski, Trevor Laws, and Darrin Walls (for just this year) will hurt, there are many more positives about this year’s batch of players.
First off, all of our offensive line that started the last few games of our 2007 campaign will be back. This can only help the cohesiveness that is sorely needed on any good offensive line.
Second, many players, including Jimmy Clausen, Sam Young, and Duval Kamara have bulked up, or trimmed down, as the case may be (Kamara), and we should start to see the effects of these moves in every facet of our team. In fact, the whole offensive line as a unit is bigger and stronger.
Finally, this year’s Irish team will add the best recruiting class to its ranks since the days when Lou Holtz was picking grass on the Notre Dame sideline.
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3 months ago
Joe, I actually read this thing, that's how much I'm procrastinating going on my run this morning. All kidding aside you have some good stuff here and good writing skills but this thing is waaay toooo loooonng, I think you may reach your audience better if you break it up into three or 4 parts and spread it out over a few days, just trying to help.
I think you forgot the biggest of all improvements last year for the Irish and their fans is that tickets were going below face value on Craig's list and most people couldn't give them away, maybe this will increase you gigantic fan base. In any event you know I couldn't get out of here without 1 small dig ;)
from 3 months ago
ND's tickets are going below face value on Craig's List?!?! I hope I can pick up a ticket or two. I had to settle for paying double face value to watch the ND/Stanford game. I could have payed less for the Syracuse game, but honestly, who wants to sit in a stadium in South Bend at the end of November where there'll likely be snow? Additionally, it's against Syracuse...
from 3 months ago
They were less than 50 bucks each here in Chicago last year.
3 months ago
Who, this is one long article. Good stuff though.
3 months ago
Haha, sorry guys about the length of the article. I felt I needed to cover everything as best as I could. In the future, I'll consider breaking up the article a bit. Thanks, Mitch.
3 months ago
This was outstanding, and I can totally understand how your Saturday wasn't filled with anticipation. Opening byes stink.
Regarding your first game against the Aztecs....ND 60- SDSU 19. The Aztecs had to stage a come-from-behind drive to beat...drumroll please.....Cal Poly. The Aztecs stink. Relax...you'll coast through this game.
This article gets my pick of the day...great read. (But you have some broken Gif images in your article that you might want to delete.)
3 months ago
I can't find the broken Gif images you're describing. Maybe you're talking about the footnotes?
3 months ago
Picked!
Good read, and yes, the waiting is the hardest part.
3 months ago
I don't think of North Carolina as a peak game, but we'll see. I almost laughed out loud at Lou Holtz saying on the radio that Notre Dame would be favored in ten or eleven games this year. We'll see how it plays out. Good work.
3 months ago
Jon, you're somewhat incorrect about ND having an extra week to prepare. They had to wait a week to start fall camp because of the opening bye. It seems unfair to me since nobody else has to stop practicing for a week during one of their byes. Luckily SDSU is the first opponent, even though they have an extra week of practice and game under their belt. Hopefully the new AD won't allow such obvious scheduling mistakes in the future.
3 months ago
One of the things I'm looking forward to is the new turf in the stadium. Finally, ND's field will resemble the Rose Bowl more than the second cut in the British Open.
3 months ago
Well, yeah, I guess ND did start practice late. However, if my memory serves me correctly, most teams started practice on Monday or Tuesday and I think the Irish waited until Thursday or Friday to start practice. So, we get in an extra 3 to 4 practices. Nevertheless, I think that extra week to prepare and fine tune game plans and fundamentals will be invaluable to this year's squad.
from 3 months ago
Per NCAA mandated rules all teams are allotted the same number of practice days. This is non-negotiable, regardless of start date.
However, the fact of the matter is that our opponents will have had one more week of game experience by the time we play them. That point is certainly compelling as no team fires on all cylinders during the opening weekend and needs time to make adjustments. Given what transpired last year I think we all can appreciate how valuable game experience truly is.
Go Irish, Beat Aztecs!
from 3 months ago
Hmmm...I stand corrected.
3 months ago
Even though it wasn't a full week, the extra few days of practice definitely will help. I hope Lisa is right...the Irish need a big blowout to get their confidence up high.
3 months ago
Great contribution again, John. It earns my Pick of the Day.
3 months ago
I absolutely love Holtz and his unabashed devotion to ND. I too believe the Irish will win at least 10 games this year, probably 11. Note that Alabama looked pretty impressive in crushing Clemson and playing lots of freshman, so we can certainly do the same.
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