Notre Dame Football's Opener: This Day Couldn't Get Here Soon Enough

We hath been delivered. Notre Dame returns tomorrow after an almost two-year hiatus from excellence.

Vannie previews The New Beginning in his blog. I suspect this will be a different team altogether. The kids have at least partially grown up, the talent level is burgeoning underneath and the Irish are set for a four-year run at the title. In fact, this is the only year of the next four where Irish probably won't be in the title hunt. The talent wave doesn't crest two years from now.

The perfect storm of last season has given way to a sunshine. The Irish will open with San Diego State, which has lost so many players it's starting to look the de-limbed Black Knight from the Holy Grail.

"I see, running away, then! You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite your legs off!"

Unlike the Georgia Tech castration last year, tomorrow's game doesn't appear to be any matchup at all for the Irish. So Notre Dame will get a warmup before meeting Michigan, which will likely be vastly improved from its first game (a loss to Utah), but still not exactly a powerhouse.

Michigan still has a formidable collection of talent on defense, so no one should put this in the win column. I can't really guess how the rest of the Irish's opponents will look after that, but only North Carolina, Michigan State and BC (other than USC) have the talent to play with Notre Dame on paper.

The perfect storm has dissipated, and we can expect a completely different Irish team tomorrow and for the next four years. Here's the video intro from the pep rally.

Go Irish!

And here come the Irish!

Notre Dame Football, Charlie Weis, Sugar Bowl