The Team That Might Change Everything

Everett Golson is just one of the winners on Notre Dame's team
that just might be changing everything.

Looking back on it now, maybe November 13, 2010, WAS the day that changed it all.

That was the day Notre Dame’s fan base, reeling after back-to-back ridiculous losses to Navy and Tulsa, sandwiched around the tragic (and easily preventable) death of student videographer Declan Sulivan, might have been saved from the abyss.

Every sports fan can probably tell you the day, or the moment, that they feel their team hit rock bottom, and for me, anyway, going into that game with Utah, that’s where Notre Dame football was. 4-5 against what had appeared pre-season to be the easiest (and dumbest) schedule in Notre Dame history. Everyone in the media justifiably calling for Brian Kelly’s head on a stick after the gross negligence that led to Sullivan’s death. The team itself riddled with injuries that sidelined Notre Dame’s leading passer, rusher AND receiver for the team’s final three games. No end seemed in sight.

The Irish shockingly destroyed Utah that day. Utah had been ranked in the top five at one point before getting obliterated by TCU. The Utes ended up being proven as something of a fraud by season’s end, but on this day nobody cared. ND had suffered consecutive humiliating Senior Day defeats to Syracuse and UConn, and for a graduating class whose freshman year was the reprehensible 2007 season, and whose sophomore and junior years hadn’t been much better, the Utah game was, finally, a sign of hope.

ND won the rest of its 2010 games, beating Army, USC and Miami to close out the year. After the disappointment of 2011, though, the momentum of November 2010 was largely forgotten.

But now that Notre Dame is 8-0, with only USC posing a serious threat to what would be, unthinkably, Notre Dame’s first undefeated regular season since 1988, maybe that was the day that changed the Kelly era - not so much for Kelly himself or even for the team as much as for the fans.

That day allowed them to believe. To believe that Notre Dame could enter a game with a highly-regarded opponent and prove themselves. To believe that an Irish team wouldn’t toss their tail between their legs and run at the first sign of trouble. To believe that ND had toughness again.

In the grand scheme of things it was nothing, a mediocre team playing its best game against an overrated Mountain West opponent. But I don’t know if last Saturday would’ve been possible without it.

I wanted to soak every second of it in. After the Irish exploded for 17 points in the back half of the fourth quarter to spank Oklahoma 30-13 in their own house — the Sooners’ worst home loss since 1997 — all I wanted to do was watch.

See, Notre Dame fans my age aren’t used to this. Playing in big games? Sure. Competing in big games? Absolutely. Winning big games? Hell, no.

I was two the last time ND won the national title. I was seven the last time they were a serious competitor for one. One of my first Notre Dame memories is of my mother crying on the floor of our house because Boston College had just pulled a 41-39 upset of the Irish out of their collective butts, giving poll voters the excuse they needed to vote Florida State the national champion over the Irish even though ND had overpowered them just a few weeks prior. I remember trying to convince my mother it was ok because “it’s not like they can make them #1 and us #17”, which was BC’s ranking coming in. I was a kid. I was dumb.

Almost two decades later, it was me tearing up. But it was out of happiness.

Absolutely no one gave the Irish a chance. I don’t think a single pundit that didn’t once coach at Notre Dame picked the Irish to win the game. Oklahoma’s offense would be too much. The Irish offense would need to score. The young secondary was going to be exposed. ND lacks the team speed to keep up with the Sooners (sorry, channeled the Blind Oracle of Bristol for a moment).

It wasn’t until Cierre Wood burst through the middle to find no Oklahoma defenders waiting for him that I stopped believing them. Touchdown. 7-3 Irish.

The doubt crept back in, though, as ND’s offense struggled after that. Only 6 points for essentially three quarters as Oklahoma crept closer. How Notre Dame’s defense kept Oklahoma from scoring until that fourth-quarter plunge by the Bell-dozer is beyond me. Every drive was teeth-grittingly nerve-racking. When it got to 13-13, it looked like this was going to be another classic loss that prompted me to bestow a motto on Notre Dame sports a few years ago: “Good enough to make you care. Bad enough to make you wish you didn’t.”

But Everett Golson is a winner. To complete that long bomb, in Norman, with everything on the line, showed pure guts. He scored a moment or two later. It’s all a blur from there. Manti’s interception that clinched a trip to New York in December, barring catastrophe. Brindza’s you’re-damn-right-I-can-be-a-clutch-kicker 46-yard field goal that would’ve been good from 56. Another stop and a Riddick touchdown run just for good measure.

My favorite part, though, was the last play of the game. ND, not going full-speed anymore, still bulling in and sacking Landry Jones. Jones and his offensive line getting up slowly, physically beaten. They didn’t bother to run another play, although there was time. They didn’t want any more. Notre Dame had beaten the will out of them.

It was a glorious sight, one I have never seen as a Notre Dame fan. Anyone can win a game. It takes a special team to squeeze the will to compete out of your opponent.

Apparently this Notre Dame team is special. Pittsburgh, Boston College, Wake Forest and USC are all that stands in the way of 12-0. The BCS chips may or may not fall Notre Dame’s way if that happens.

While it’s definitely in the back of my mind, right now I don’t care that much about the BCS. I want 12-0. I want perfection. I want this team to become legends.

Because they deserve it.

Because WE deserve it.

Notre Dame Is At a New Beginning

 

How have I not blogged about this Notre Dame team yet? An unforgivable oversight.

Notre Dame fans have been waiting a long time for a team like this. No, it’s not probably a national championship contender. There are at least four SEC teams, possibly five, that would be favored over the Irish on a neutral field. Oregon would be too. Maybe a few others on top of it.

But right now, they’re undefeated. And it’s been a decade since that happened. It’s been much longer since it was legitimate.

A lot of people remember the 2002 team. It was the “Return to Glory” season, supposedly. It was Tyrone Willingham’s first year as head coach. It was a miraculous 8-0 start, including road wins over Michigan State, Florida State, and an Air Force team that was generating Boise-type buzz at the time before Boise was Boise.

It was a complete mirage.

None of us admitted this at the time. Granted, I was 15 and probably not intelligent enough to see it even if I was willing to admit it, but I remember having arguments with a friend of mine who inexplicably named himself an Air Force fan for the year before that year’s game and being beyond thrilled when Notre Dame ripped the Falcons. And I remember being beyond crushed when the Irish, ranked third in the BCS, dropped a steaming turd at home against a mediocre Boston College team.

In retrospect it was obvious what had happened. That year’s team was smoke and mirrors, fueled by turnovers and a defense that was very good but not great. There was no offense – in fact it took until the third game for the offense to score a touchdown. It was Bob Davie’s recruits playing above their heads for a coach they thought they could be confident in.

The 2012 team may yet prove to not be terrific. But they damn sure are not a mirage. There’s no 5-7 2013 waiting for this team like the 5-7 team that schlepped through 2003 after that “Return to Glory” season. This team is the result of building a program – it’s just ahead of schedule, that’s all.

This is where we come to my mea culpa about Brian Kelly. I had an autographed picture of Kelly on my refrigerator heading into the fall of 2010. By the end of the Tulsa game, I was so mad, and so certain after watching consecutive travesties against Navy and the Hurricane, that I trashed the picture. I thought the guy was an unadulterated failure. I said on Facebook, with ND sitting at 4-5, “5-7 at best against this pathetic schedule means Brian Kelly cannot be our football coach next season. Under no circumstances.” I even defended that insane idea against all the people who told me firing a coach after year one was a pretty bad plan.

Well, you know what happened from there. Notre Dame upset Utah, upset USC, spanked Miami in a bowl game and sucked me in again. Then came South Florida, the Crist/Rees debacle, Michigan, and a reminder of why I’d trashed the picture.

But this year has been a reminder of why Kelly was hired in the first place. While several of its key cogs (Nix, Lewis-Moore, Te’o to name a few) are Charlie Weis recruits, make no mistake about it. Kelly and defensive coordinator Bob Diaco have built this defense. And they’ve turned them into a unit that has not surrendered a touchdown now in four straight games against four straight BCS-AQ opponents. (And consider where they might have been had Aaron Lynch used the rubber with his girlfriend.) But more importantly, Kelly and Diaco have turned this defense into a unit that wins at the line of scrimmage, and does so consistently.

Proof was in the pudding last week against Stanford. Whatever your opinion of the final play, it can’t be debated that in three straight plays inside the 4-yard line, Notre Dame won the battle at the line, and they won it over one of the best teams in that department in the country.

(It’s worth noting that even Mark May, who is paid by ESPN to play the jackass ND hater to Lou Holtz’s ultra-homer on TV, said on the air that while Taylor probably scored, the play should not have been overturned based on the ‘indisputable video evidence’ standard that you hear every week from every announcer.)

Regardless of that play, Irish fans believe again, and now they believe for the right reasons. Defense. Offensive line. Running game. These have been foreign concepts to Irish fans most of the last 16 years, but they are the cornerstone of this squad.

Of course, the predictable backlash came from the media. It took until halfway through the season for Notre Dame’s feel-good story to turn into the Empire Strikes Back, but the controversial goal-line call brought with it an avalanche of hate. “Notre Dame’s not legit…they have no chance of going undefeated…their schedule isn’t that great.”

The answers to these criticisms, in respective order, by the way, are “What the heck is your definition of ‘legit’?”, “Their chances aren’t great, but they’re a hell of a lot better than the teams that aren’t undefeated”, and “Yeah, you’ve got a point”. (Seriously, this is about the umpteenth year in a row that Notre Dame’s schedule has ended up being the opposite of what was originally thought about it. Whenever ND is hammered for a creampuff schedule, it ends up being tough, and vice versa. How does that always happen?)

However, the schedule doesn’t explain the 4 straight games without surrendering a touchdown. That streak hasn’t been bettered by an Irish team since 1980. That team was coached by Dan Devine. Who’s been dead for years. That’s how long it’s been.

Hell, LSU’s vaunted D gave up as many TDs to Towson – 3 – as the Irish have surrendered all year (1 to Navy and 2 to Purdue).

This Irish team is full of flaws. Everett Golson is progressing much more slowly than was hoped. Brian Kelly, although I’m about ready to give him a full and complete apology for burying his Irish coaching career nine games in, still doesn’t commit to the run game as much as he probably ought to. The Irish don’t have what you would call a big-play guy on offense, although George Atkinson III may be fast becoming one. The secondary, while exceeding any even semi-reasonable expectation anyone may have had for them so far, are still a work in progress.

Yes, Notre Dame is full of flaws. Yes, the team is probably a year away from being in position to legitimately contend. But, most importantly, Notre Dame is 6-0.

Six wins. Zero losses. The dream, no matter how insane it may be, is still out there. At worst, if Notre Dame only wins the four games they ought to out of their remaining six, they’ll go to a BCS game.

But for now, screw the minimum expectation of a BCS game. As long as the Irish keep finding a way to win, I am on board. I’ve been waiting to get my heart stomped on, and it may yet come, against Oklahoma, or USC, or even by somebody else. But I’m all in. I’ll see you all on the other side of the coin.