A Notre Dame Football Blog
This weekend, Notre Dame Seniors will enter the Stadium where they never saw their team lose this season. But they won’t be cheering for just another football victory. They’ll be cheering for a far more important victory – their own graduation. Keep in mind: football is a nice touch, but our whole purpose here is the education that culminates in graduation. And that’s why more of our football players graduate here than anywhere else (and by “more” I mean very nearly every single one of ...
Send three volleys of cheers on high for our Seniors! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hooray! As final exams end today, so begins your last week at Notre Dame. Be proud. Be gracious. Be generous. Be humble. But above all, be happy! For you have achieved something great. And you have achieved it together. When you arrived here as a herd of freshmen in 2009, did you think that in your Senior year you would see your classmates lead your football team to an undefeated season and a #1 ranking? Probably not. ...
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” If you tell me that’s from a really cool folk rock band and you like to listen to it late at night when you’re drunk and nostalgic because it reminds you of your high school senior retreat, I’ll increase your Theology requirement from two courses to 16. It is Biblical Wisdom Literature, and in this fleeting season of dramatic transition, we turn to it for guidance. Classes have ended, papers are coming due, final ...
“When criticizing a Catholic institution, be sure to troop out quaint stereotypes so that your comments contain vague accusations of sacrilege or apostasy, and the humorous implication that its leaders are, in fact, just bad Catholics.” At least that’s what I presume is written in the general press conference guidelines down at Arizona State. Or maybe the athletic director has one of those desk calendars that gives a new piece of advice for every day of the year. But if that’s the case, he ...
For obvious reasons, I will not be publishing a column called “Good Fridays” this week. If you think The Lord was angry when he took a whip of cords to the temple moneychangers, try blaspheming on the His least favorite day of the year. Hence I have moved to today, Spy Wednesday. We call it that because this was the day Judas Iscariot, the spy among the Apostles, sold Jesus to the Sanhedrin for 30 pieces of silver. He then famously betrayed The Lord with a kiss – were that to happen today, ...
At this very moment, Notre Dame students are packing their bags and preparing to depart Our Lady’s campus – not because they didn’t get enough playing time, but because it’s time to play. Spring Break has once again woken up, staggered onto the calendar, and with a bleary wink and a louche wave, beckoned our students to join in the revelries of its vernal rites. ...
We find ourselves is a strange position, awash with unaccustomed emotions. No, this has nothing to do with being undefeated and Number 1. That is our proper position and we should feel simple contentment for, indeed, all is right with the world. I mean we are caught up in the unusual furor of conference-hatred. Not belonging to one of these mutual-mediocrity-assurance societies, we have no natural animosity toward any of them. Normally, we deride them all equally. (Do we hate the Big 10? ...
When I started this Indiana adventure, my boss, Fr. Basil Moreau, required that I send regular written reports back to France. I suppose he wanted to keep tabs on his personnel, because it wasn’t like he was spending one thin franc on the whole project. Anyway, I dutifully dispatched informative missives across the Atlantic on a regular basis. These days, the current administration seems to enjoy peddling excerpts of my letters like a jilted mistress. Since we’re in a big anniversary year, I ...
Yesterday, Grantland-X got the 2012 schedule debate started and argued that the schedule is perfect in every single way. Today, it's my turn and my opinion is this: our schedule is an awesome gauntlet, it's kryptonite to the ND-Haters out there who pretend we play a weak schedule, AND I LOVE IT. The Vincent DeSantis-trained historian in me, though, sees only two possible outcomes for the boys in blue and gold, and neither is an easy, or certain, slog. Dulce et decorum est... Bruce Feldman, ...
After the strong end to last season on the field coupled with he strong numbers of returning players and the outstanding recruiting class of 2011, plenty of Notre Dame fans are excited about the upcoming season. Perusing the variety of blogs, message boards, and twitter, I’ve seen plenty of fans hoping (and some expecting/demanding) a BCS game from the Irish. As we all know, Notre Dame has never won a BCS game and we haven’t even been to a BCS game since Rick Minter and the Irish D help ...