I didn’t go to the game yesterday. I went to ND, and I tailgated, but I just didn’t feel like shelling out hundreds of dollars for scalped tickets or wasting valuable tailgating time looking all morning for some benevolent person looking to give a young alum a couple of tickets at face value. So instead, I sat out behind a van with some good friends and watched the game on a small television about 300 yards from Gate C of Notre Dame Stadium. I just had a feeling that Penn State wasn’t worth the effort, and I was right. Penn State apparently forgot how to play football this week. Their coaches forgot how to play, and their players, including their “OVER-RATED CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP” Linebackers, forgot how to give a damn. So instead the Nittany Lions came into Notre Dame stadium and laid down.
But what makes this win special – what makes this win stick out for the entire College Football world to take notice – is that, unlike previous Notre Dame teams, this Irish squad saw a victim, and rather than take pitty, took action, stomping on that victim’s throat until it shriveled up and died.
Notre Dame killed PSU football yesterday, using a relentless broadsword of determination and will, a will that Penn State showed it just doesn’t have. And it was a slaughter ND fans have not see in a long time. Oh sure, ND spanked a Stanford squad a couple of years ago (Way to beat up on a kid with glasses, Ty), but we’ve not seen ND beat up on a team with any real history behind it in a long time. An unfamiliar flavor to many of us, but oh so sweet. I could get used to it real quick.
PSU fans are already complaining that we ran up the score. Wanna bet Charlie actually gives a damn? The playcalling makes it clear that ND did not run up the score, but it also made it clear that Charlie and his boys don’t hold up for anyone. They’ll call conservative plays, trying to kill the clock, but if you don’t at least try to stop them, if you don’t at least give the effort worthy of Notre Dame Stadium, then even the conservative play of Notre Dame will ensure that you will not make a comeback. You will not deny ND of their “statement.” Notre Dame made a statement to the world today, “We’ve come to win.” Penn State did not.
And Charlie Weis sent a message to his team with this game. Last weekend, against a juiced-up Georgia Tech, Notre Dame showed that it’s learned how to win the close game and even make a comeback. This week, against an unworthy Penn State, Charlie taught his boys that winning big is ok. That there’s no need to let up on someone just because they didn’t come prepared.
At halftime, a fair number of PSU fans had already given up on their team and their “National Championship hopes,” shuffling out of Notre Dame Stadium, walking past our little viewing party in the parking lot, letting us know how much “this place sucks!” Thanks, guys. Your team wasn’t worth the hype, and neither were you. Now ND has to listen to how “over rated” PSU was all week as the team prepares for “finally, a real test” with Michigan coming to town. Shiver.
Penn State wasn’t worth the hype or the ticket prices, and I’m still not sure just how good ND really is. Does stomping on a team with a mediocre, freshman quarterback, a relic of a coach, and a lazy defense mean ND really is “back?” Or did Notre Dame just bludgeon a good team and demand that the college football universe take notice? Ultimately, these questions are academic. The only thing that matters is winning. That’s the beauty of being Notre Dame rather than, say, Utah: If you win all your games, you win the national championship. Win pretty. Win ugly. Just win, baby.
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-15 - November 15, 2009
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-08 - November 8, 2009
- HLS Tweets for the Week of 2009-11-01 - November 1, 2009
