And So It Begins…

It's time for a truly epic battle.

USC Week. Just the thought of it causes the mind to think back to inummerable "best games ever played." And had Notre Dame and USC not wet the bed at some point this season, then the Michigan/OSU game would be a footnote, because, ultimately, OSU and Michigan make for a nice little regional rivalry, but Notre Dame/USC is to college football what... what... Ya know, I just can't think of anything like it. I was about to compare it to the Red Sox/Yankees, because that, too, feels like such a nationally important rivalry, but ultimately it's just a regional rivalry. A glorious regional rivalry, but how many people in Texas really give a crap about Red Sox/Yankees? Ask the same question about Notre Dame/USC. Because there is no indifference here. Everyone will have an opinion. Ask an entire country to vote for one man or another to lead the United States, and you might get a 50% turnout, which equates to 50% apathy. Good luck finding 10% apathy for Notre Dame/USC. People either love or hate the little school from South Bend that's so full of heart, history, and, some would say, ego. Feelings towards Notre Dame alone would suffice to cause most people to take sides, but then we throw another ingredient into the pie. We throw in USC - the current "dynasty" of college football. USC is recognized by anyone who's ever watched ESPN or picked up the latest copy of US Magazine to see who's chosen to play Russian Roulet by bangin' Paris Hilton. These are the two most nationally recognized college football teams in the world, and in 6 days, we're booked for another "Game for the Ages."

In the recent past, this game was all about history. It was all about 2 proud traditions fighting it out on the field. Unfortunately, until 2005, the last few games really hadn't lived up to that tradition. USC's talent and coaching enabled the Trojans to use the Notre Dame game as a national stage to say, "Yeah. We kicked their ass, and we'll kick yours. Just try and not vote us #1." And it was, yet again, another opportunity for the National Media to question whether or not Notre Dame would ever be able to "return to glory." It was a question that, somehow, came up over and over again despite nearly a decade of floundering under the "leadership" and "coaching" of Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham. Want to know what "staying power" means? Just look at Notre Dame. How many schools could be abused for so long by so many people placed in power despite just low levels of ability?
But something happened last year. We got us a coach, boys. And that coach took the best team of this era right down to the wire, losing on a sequence of events so unbelievable that, had they taken place in a movie, nobody could suspend their disbelief enough to buy into the script. Saturday is the rematch. Saturday is the payback. Saturday is ND's shot at true glory and a chance to tell the world, "We're back. We really are back. And you can't take that away from us with your self-serving columns below the fold and your smug swipes on the Sports Reporters. We've won. We're back. And we're not going anywhere for a long time."

Notre Dame has absolutely nothing to lose this week. They're practically a lock for a BCS bowl bid, win or lose. Their chances of winning a bid to the National Championship game are akin to winning the big money on the Plinko board. And the chances of winning a Heisman Trophy for Brady Quinn are slim to none, save Brady and his boys playing out of their minds with such ferocity and execution that nobody on the voting panel could manage to look away. So it's time to play the game for which we've all waited so long, becaue to simply win will do very little to improve ND's circumstances anywhere but the win-loss columns.

This past weekend was Senior Day for a class that's been beat up like Rocky in Russia. And while it was nice to see them knock the crap out of the Green Jersey Hex, there's only one way to send this class off the way it deserves: Go Irish, Beat Trojans.