Notre Dame Guaranteed Nothing

One more week 'til kickoff, and we are all more than ready to go—but is our beloved team the same?  "We’ll be ready to go," said an eager Jimmy Clausen.  I hope that sentiment is true and we come out prepared.

This week should be full contact in the beginning and shells towards the end.  I think that with a more physical approach, we should be able to put a more confident, prepared, and hard-working team on the field.  If we come out against San Diego State and lay a couple of early eggs, it might be indicative of our future and later games. 

No amount of music or fanciful banners will be able to increase the productivity of our players—sorry, Bon Jovi. 

Thank you for coming, college football: no more “remembering Notre Dame’s national...nobody knows until kick...if I had a guess..." blah, blah, blah. 

One thing we know for sure: If we play like we did last year, everyone on our schedule can beat us.

It doesn’t matter if San Diego State has a freshman playing quarterback, or if Michigan’s running game was horrid, or if Michigan State’s defense looked penetrable, or if "U-Dub" had another ill-adjusted Ty-coached second half that cost them the game.  All of this is moot when it comes to actually performing on the field.

I don’t care if it’s McNeese State: If he doesn’t block him, and he doesn’t throw the ball accurately, and he doesn’t run through the holes, then we won’t beat anybody.

Anyone who guarantees a completely different team this year must have drank the Lou Holtz Kool-Aid.  Remember this: We are the same team from last year.

We have the same players, give or take the freshman class and a few who left for the NFL.  We have most of our coaching staff back, minus one plus Jon Tenuta.  We’ll have the stadium full of old-timers who can only stand for the national anthem.

Last but not least, we’ll have those horrible TV announcers on NBC boring everybody to sleep with their meaningless color attempt, which sounds more like a golf announcer adding his thoughts quietly during the back swing.

My point is this: College football is here, and whether we’re ready or not, we have to play.  I hope we’re a completely different team from last year, and I think everybody feels the same.  But I wouldn’t put my expectations too high, as it would be a horrible letdown if our season went to crap.

I, like Switzerland, will remain neutral and just ride with reality wherever it may go...  Whatever—we’re going to go undefeated and win the national championship!  I’ll go out on a limb and drink Lou’s Kool-Aid and then some!  You all know where I stand.