"To me I look at it like this: If you go to Notre Dame to end up the season being ranked in the top 20, I think, as an athlete and a football player, you're going to the school for the wrong reasons," said Terrell, whose '88 squad beat four top 10 teams, including the Hurricanes, No. 2 USC and No. 3 West Virginia. "You should go to win a national championship. If you're a coach and you're trying to just be .700, .800 (winning percentage) at the end of a season, it's the wrong university to coach for."
"And it's not that they dumbed down the schedule or anything, but I get upset when people say, 'Look, things are different now. We can't expect to be ranked in the top 5.' That's what gets me. You still snap the ball. You still have four downs and Notre Dame still recruits across the country. I want us to win the national championship WITH all of those challenges in front of them. It would make it that much more sweet."
Amen, Mr. Terrell. Amen. And I am 100% sure that this is what the kids, and the coaches, are working towards right now. People laugh when they think of Weis saying 9-3 isn't good enough, because he'd have killed for a 9-3 result in the past 2 seasons. But what I like is that I think that that attitude, that desire, to make it to the TOP is still there. Now, we'll find out this season if he's the coach that can make it happen (some semblance of getting there), but the intent, the desire, I think it's there. I can tell you what, it's HERE baby!
LET'S DO THIS GO IIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIISSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!
By BostonB July 28, 2009 - 4:56 pm
I hope you came at the end. I know you won’t publish this comment
Your season will be miserable.
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By The Biscuit July 28, 2009 - 5:30 pm
BostonB, I hope your backwards hat isn’t on too tight. It would be shame, really. Can you go back to landscaping my pool area please? Thanks.
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By AbbyAnn July 28, 2009 - 5:54 pm
BostonB, Your comment was said like a true bench sitter who has no real athletic talent what so ever! I hope you dont get to many splinters in your rear this season.
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By The Biscuit July 28, 2009 - 6:11 pm
AbbyAnn and The Biscuit unite. The world had best watch out.
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By Run Boston July 28, 2009 - 6:12 pm
BostonB, is it safe to assume you went to a state school?
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By AbbyAnn July 28, 2009 - 6:31 pm
Their is nothing wrong with state schools. However I’m not totally convinced that BostonB went to any school…
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By The Biscuit July 28, 2009 - 7:50 pm
Only graduating 1 in 3 of your African American football players is a problem with State Schools AbbyAnn. A big one in my book.
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By AbbyAnn July 28, 2009 - 9:19 pm
Yes that is a big problem. I do not agree with that at all. However if you are talking academically, which I was, then their is nothing wrong with going to state school. I tell my sisters and brothers that all the time.
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By BJDomer July 28, 2009 - 10:03 pm
Yeah. I really think that your education is largely what you make of it. There is a difference between, for example, Florida and Notre Dame in terms of academics. But I think that difference is small. A lazy student at either school won’t get a good education, and a hardworking, dedicated student will. As far as graduation rates for athletes, I think that has far more to do with the expectations, standards, and support of the athletic programs. Notre Dame offers its athletes a great deal of help in the form of private tutors when it comes to making grades. Biscuit, I feel obligated to warn you against discounting the quality of education a typical student receives at a state school by citing the academic troubles of its athletic programs. I think Florida is a fine school. In fact, I look at Notre Dame as only a small step upward academically. It’s things like atmosphere, community, and religion that attracted me to ND and differentiated ND from the hundreds of other schools out there, not the graduation rates of football players. Bottom line, state schools can be quality institutions as well.
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By VicPaul July 28, 2009 - 11:05 pm
Can we please talk about something a little more important…..Like Notre Dame winning National Championships. GOOOOOOOOO IRISH !!!!!!!!!!
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By AbbyAnn July 28, 2009 - 11:23 pm
Wow! Down boys!!! Im sorry, I didnt mean to start a massive arguement! VicPaul is right… GO IRISH!!!
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By DeepTeaKup July 28, 2009 - 11:52 pm
Must be getting close to the start of the season, multiple posts in a single day!
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By AbbyAnn July 29, 2009 - 12:10 am
Well it all started when BostonB had the audacity to say that the Irish will have a miserable season… And the ball just kept rolling…
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By The Biscuit July 29, 2009 - 12:59 am
Abby, he meant posts by us, not comments.
BJ, I agree. But, the difference is that in most state schools, the percentage of students that ‘really want to learn’ and that actually have the ability to learn at a very high level, is much lower. at top schools (see the Top 20 list) on average students have more ability, more drive, and everyone rises because of it. yes, there are exceptions on both sides, but i think you’ll see pretty quickly that that ‘small’ step from UF to ND is much bigger than you anticipated. i know this from personal experience with a UF-to-ND transfer that was a friend while in undergrad.
And Vic, I’d love to. but it’s the summer man, no spring ball, recruiting will be quiet for weeks, and even Weis isn’t really working. we take what we can get. and academics and all that is all we got my man!
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By ndgirl94 July 29, 2009 - 2:23 pm
Thank you Pat Terrell and Tony Rice for being the law-givers. It’s about time this team showed some freakin’ passion and discipline. And I think it’s awesome that our football legends are throwing down the gauntlet to this year’s team. I miss the days, like in ’88 and ’93 when ND football owned its competition. They went out on that field with something to prove: that they were the better team. And they proved it over and over again with attitude, heart, and focus. There were lots of hard-fought victories, but they were victories because they refused to go down. Those teams knew that if they wanted the national championship and its bragging rights, they were going have to go out there and take it, by sheer force of will, if need be. (Notable omission of single defeat is intentional.)
Let’s hope the ’09 Irish accept that challenge.
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By ndgirl94 July 29, 2009 - 2:31 pm
Whoops! How could I forget? Go Irish!!!
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