I remember, very clearly, reading a book in the second grade about the Aztec culture. The Aztecs played a ritualistic game called “Tlachtli.” Some, I guess you’d call them “sports historians,” consider Tlachtli to be a precursor to football, though I’m not clear if those guys are talking about American Football. At any rate, the book left quite the impression in my second grade brain because it revealed that the captain of the losing team of a game of Tlachtli was often made a human sacrifice to the gods of the Aztec people.

Of course, it turns out that either my little second grade reading-level book was wrong, or my second grade brain sucked at reading comprehension, or my 30 year old brain is poor at fact retention because the Mayans, not the Aztecs, sacrificed the losing captain to the gods. So I guess I’ve been painting the Aztecs with the wrong brush for quite a while. Still, my second grade brain version of the story really resonates with me this week as we look to the start of the Irish football season against SDSU. Surely, if the Irish somehow falter, and, gods forbid, lose to the Aztecs, then someone needs to (and almost certainly will) be sacrificed. I’m not talking actual blood-letting, or even firing, but the mainstream media and the Irish fan base will have its pound of flesh before the ND band is even finished playing the Alma Mater after the game should the Irish lose.

And that’s what makes evidence of progress since the first miserable game of the 2007 season so chimerical this week. For the most part, we’re just going to have to go by what we see, even if it’s all just an illusion of progress - hopefully. And that’s not a slam against SDSU. We have very little interest in the program at SDSU - hardly enough to formulate any malignant feelings toward them. It’s just that SDSU is a program that was already in a flat spin even before losing practically its entire defensive line to injury. And as such, any remotely competent Irish squad should handle the Aztecs easily.

To review, here’s how our quest for progress has gone since we stopped wondering about BCS chances and started wondering about our chances against Duke in 2007.

• Before Penn State: Define Progress
• After Penn State: So this is progress?
• Before Michigan (sucks!): Fundamental Football
• After Michigan (sucks!): Still Laughing? and I am Waiting for You, Vizzini
• Before MSU: Measuring Progress: The Lego Duplo Edition
• After MSU: I Have Not Waved the White Towel
• Before Purdue: Measuring Progress: The Lego City Edition
• After Purdue: There Is No F-ing QB Controversy
• A look at Special Teams: We Can’t All Be Special
• A look at Pass Protection: Sack Up? Sack Down?
• After UCLA: Mmmm… Progress???
• A Look at Drive Killers: You’ve Got To Accentuate The Positive…
• Before BC: Gimme Some Mo’
• After BC: Comedy of Errors
• After losing to Southern Cal 38-0 and needing to figure out how we got in this mess: Welcome to Gary, Indiana
• A look at who’s been tackling the Irish: Take It To Another Level
• After Navy: Well, Thank Got That’s Over
• After Duke: Yeah, But…
• And after the season: Time To Make The List
• Some offseason investigation of Special Teams: Special Circumstances

I don’t know that I’d recommend reading all of that in one sitting. I don’t know if I’d recommend reading all of that at all, as it might just be too depressing, and getting off to a “fast start” is hard when you’re depressed. However, it does serve as a bit of a baseline, against which we’ll formulate some variant of “measurables” by which we might measure progress - next week. This week, it’s all about the amorphous “eyeball test” and the W, baby. Just give us that W. We’ll figure out what facets of the Irish play need to be scrutinized after that.

We’ll just keep on looking, if you don’t mind. Thanks.

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