Anyone with any sense of college football history knows the importance of the Michigan/Notre Dame rivalry. We don’t have to rehash fight songs, their standing in winning percentage, the legend of Michigan students teaching football to Notre Dame to understand the magnitude of this series. I’ll be honest: When it ended in 2014, I was so elated with Notre Dame’s 31-0 pasting of the Wolverines that I didn’t give it much thought. Now as time passed and Michigan has rebounded under Jim ...
Michigan
Good Fridays w/Padre: Hell-ucinations
Students at Indiana University saw a Dominican priest and thought he was a Ku Klux Klansman. This is not a joke. Oh, how I wish this really were a joke. They saw his Rosary and thought it was a whip. Since most students at Indiana University didn’t attend Catholic grade school or high school, how would they ever know that a Rosary can be used very effectively as a whip? A priest wearing the white habit of his order – an order that’s been around for roughly 800 years, represented in art, ...
Notre Dame Football, The Organization – Part 2
If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, do that now. In Part 2, we’re comparing numbers. To start, how has Notre Dame compared on the recruiting trail to its direct market competitors? (In Part 1 we defined the market as Ohio State, Michigan, Stanford and USC) Using 247sports.com composite team rankings, here are the ranks for each recruiting class: * Stanford only signed 13 players in 2013. I think the rankings draw out what we all probably thought to be true: Notre Dame and Stanford are peers; ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: NDowment
A generous fellow named Murphy has just endowed the men’s basketball coachship. This goes along with previous endowments for the women’s basketball coachship, the lacrosse coachship, and of course, the football coachship. The defensive backs coachship is also endowed, and even the athletic directorship. Some people think this is crass, that only professorships should be endowed. I don’t have any problem with setting money aside to pay coaches, since it frees up funds to be used elsewhere. But I ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Bad Question
Last weekend was that big football game which millions ignore to watch everything else that goes on around it. A lot of defense was played and a quarterback of mature years seemingly concluded his career on a high note. One of the several occurrences that people found more interesting than the game itself was the press conference during which the defeated quarterback was laconic, surly, and dismissive before dismissing himself from the press conference. I’m told this fellow attended no fewer ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: 2025 A.D.
There is a class of third-graders in California that has adopted the University as something of learning partner, teacher’s aide, and mentor. These young lads and lasses call themselves the Notre Dame Class of 2029. I enthusiastically applaud this kind of bold, audacious vision and aspiration; after all, in 1842, I declared a mildewed log cabin on the Midwestern American tundra to be a University. Didn’t go from mission to school to college – never used the word ‘impossible’ – didn’t bother to ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: Beating the Conundrums
It’s an upside down world lately. I feel like Ferdinand and Isabella when Columbus came back. I mean I feel bewildered, not greedy and despotic. If I wanted a comparison for greedy and despotic, I’d use ESPN. I am bewildered at the odd inversions and reversals of these times. The football team had a mediocre season, while the basketball team is in the top ten. The Joyce Center picks up its 600th victory, while the Stadium ended the season with two wrenching losses. The Stadium is becoming ...
Good Fridays w/Padre: A Tale of Two Teams
It was the best of seasons, it was the worst of seasons; it was a game of touchdowns, it was a game of turnovers; it was the inspiration for belief, it was the cause of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the autumn of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had a playoff berth before us, we had a second-tier bowl before us; we were in Heaven on earth, we were in a cold, wet Stadium of defeat. Since 1887, we’ve had worse seasons, but few as ...
Friday Roundup: The “To Bowl or Not to Bowl” Edition
To bowl or not to bowl, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The injuries and defeats of a season lost, Or to take the field against a sea of troubles And by playing end them. To quit—to rest, No more; and by a rest to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That losses are heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To quit, to rest; To rest, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub: For in that offseason what dreams may come, When ...
Friday Roundup: The “Devils Running Through My Head” Edition
I have no jokes today. No witty insults to throw at Arizona State. No fictional storylines to throw Notre Dame players into. No, this isn't because I've hit a creative wall. I'm not mailing it in because the audio version of this post debuts on the radio this evening. It certainly isn't for a lack of caring either. It's because the main thing consuming my mind is just simply winning this game. After all, I've preached patience for the past couple of weeks in regards to the playoff ...