A Return to Normalcy in College Football

Something was missing last week. It may have been hard to put your finger on, but there was something missing.

It's like finishing a bowl of clam chowder and suddenly realizing you didn't get any of those cardboard-tasting fish crackers to sprinkle on the top of your soup. While the soup didn't need those crackers, it would have been more complete with them swimming on top of your chowder.

Several teams were on a bye last week, and one of them was none other than the most beloved and/or hated team in college football: Notre Dame.

Not having Notre Dame play in that beautiful stadium—with the reddish-golden hues of the trees' leaves turning in the background, the golden dome glistening its aura over the campus, and the mosaic wall of Touchdown Jesus staring down on the field—is like going to Fenway and discovering the Green Monster has been removed. It's just not the same.

Football fans across America missed Notre Dame. Whether it's because they need their weekly punching bag or a good dose of an Irish jig performed by its mascot, Notre Dame on a Saturday makes college football complete.

America's No.1 schadenfreude was MIA last Saturday, and while many fans didn't miss Florida State, every one noticed the Irish's absence.

The Irish, whether we admit or not, are an integral part of gridiron landscape. When they are not playing, we bash them unmercifully about last year's season. And as bad as they were, we still talk about them. And will always talk about them. How's that for power?

This week, the Irish play the San Diego Aztecs. To be sure, there are more than a few jokes to make about this game. For one, the Aztecs lost 29-27 to Cal Poly—on a last second field goal—and gave the FBS a big, black eye.

Losing to a Cal Poly team is like the Detroit Lions losing to a local JV high school team, and yet, the Aztecs managed to do the impossible and stink more this year than last year.

The Irish are favored by 21 points, and this is a little puzzling; it's an insult to the Irish. Most of the big boys who played the Aztecs last year beat them by an average of 26 points, so if the Irish are only favored by 21, that's a bit of a slap in the face. The Irish can only beat the Aztecs by 19 more points than Cal Poly did?

Cue a fired-up Charlie Weis.

The Irish will come into the stadium with a swagger like we haven't seen in a long time. The half-time score will be 38-3, and all of a sudden, the Irish will look unbeatable after they spank 50 plus points on the hapless Aztecs as the final tick of the clock expires.

The script is in the making. The Irish will make the top 25 rankings and college football will have their darling back in the mix. And football fans will have something to complain about.

Again.

We all can wax poetic about the Irish, we all can throw smack about the Irish, but one way or the other, the Irish will be the talk of football nation, and college football can return back to its normalcy in the second week.

Go ahead, tell yourself you don't care about the Irish. Then watch yourself checking the score on NBC. And watching a few plays.

Just like no one cared about Michigan's first game against Appalachian State, we all were dying to see the final minute of the game when sportscasters teased us with the upset-in-the-making breaking news.

Didn't every sports channel air that final minute? Don't they know we love seeing a train wreck?

Don't kid yourselves, football nation. You will check up on the Irish, and NBC thanks you.

Get out the "Wake Up the Echoes" tee-shirts that were stored in moth-balled storage bins, put out your green flags, and start wearing those ball caps. It's coming soon to a stadium near you. The Irish bandwagon may get fuller after only one game—with ten more wins "projected" by Charlie Weis—or smaller if the Irish don't bitch-slap the Aztecs.

Either way, NBC will have gotten what they wished for. The team everybody hates or loves. A train wreck or a powerhouse. A ratings-generating Godzilla. It doesn't matter.

The missing ingredient has returned. Rejoice.

Pass the crackers.