Notre Dame Football: A Week in Review

Although there is a lot of buzz going on surrounding Notre Dame, there isn't much news.

In other words, I'm not going to bore my readers with what many have read a thousand times, as well as what is nothing more than speculation about expansion.  

When Notre Dame definitively decides what it is going to do, or when an actual seismic shift comes about in conference realignment, I'll be sure to give you my take.

But for now, with Nebraska going to the Big Ten and Colorado going to the Pac-10, we have what is closer to a rumble in the guy next to you's stomach than an earthquake throughout the conferences.  

Here is the week in review of Notre Dame football:

USC Sanctioned

We all know the sanctions, and the strict sentence the NCAA gave the Trojans will only help Notre Dame in a lot of different ways.

It's too bad for Weis he wasn't around to reap the benefits of a team that cheated him out of what could have been a career-saving win.  

In midst of all this scandal, I've come to a completely new revelation about Notre Dame. I've realized something perhaps even Irish Fan has yet to discover.

Besides independence, gold helmets, and being the only D-1 Catholic (non-Jesuit mind you) football-playing university, Notre Dame has something utterly unique to its football program and fan base most schools don't have.  

An ability to come up with nicknames for their rivals. 

USCheats, scUM, Catholics vs. Convicts, USCum, PurDon't.  The list goes on, and it's a list I'm not familiar with in its entirety, but would read through cover to cover faster than a Dan Brown novel.  

I have a feeling, if published, the list might sell more copies as well.  (That's an open invitation to leave your personal creations and favorites in the comment box, but please, keep them as clean as possible).  

Pretty much every game Notre Dame plays has a history of a rivalry.  Whether it's Pitt, Michigan, USC, Michigan State, there's always a story line.

I have to give it to Irish Fan though, from the rivalry came creativity.  From creativity came another unique aspect about an already very unique nation of fans.

Kelly's Good At Recruiting

Although Weis wasn't the greatest at developing the talent he pulled in, if you have to give one thing to the old coach, it's that he pulled in that talent.  

Rivals.com's Pete Sampson wrote a piece comparing the two coaches in their recruiting endeavors.  The opinion of Sampson?  They're both equal in that spectrum of coaching. 

Which is great news for the future of Notre Dame football, as Weis was year in and year out one of the best recruiters in the nation, and Kelly has proven over and over to be one of the greatest developers of talent.  

Put those two together, and success will surely follow.  

Chinedum Ndukwe Interview

In an interview with South Bend radio station 960 AM, the former Irish defensive back and now very successful Cincinnati Bengal was asked about his opinion on the conference expansion talk surrounding his Alma Mater and what he thinks the Irish should do.  

His response: "There's no way in the world I would ever support Notre Dame joining any type of conference...I'm definitely not a proponent of Notre Dame joining a conference."

When asked about new head coach Brian Kelly, Ndukwe responded that he felt the coach was exactly what the University needed right now.  

For someone who spends his time in the city where coach Kelly just came from, Ndukwe's comment is worth quite a lot. 

NCAA Academic Progrees Rate (APR)

Saving the best news for last and perhaps the most important: once again, the Irish football team succeeded quite well in the NCAA's APR.  

The APR is, as the Notre Dame Official Athletic Site states: "a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete. The APR includes both retention at institution and academic eligibility in its calculation and provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport.

The Irish football team was given a rating of a 974 out of a possible 1,000 for their four year average.  

In other sports, eight Irish athletic teams got a perfect score, leaving them in second place for the most perfect scores for a Football Bowl Subdivision school.  The first place winner was Duke with 10.