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.