A Notre Dame Football Blog
If you sat through the interminable Fox pregame show before the B1G championship, you were subjected to a host's visible revulsion to your undefeated Fighting Irish being somehow in the mix for a CFP spot. His ire arose from the fact that Notre Dame was not playing in a conference championship. Cheeseburger Saturday. "Why," goes my paraphrase of his passion, "should Notre Dame get a look at a playoff spot when they're not on the field playing against Pitt or Northwestern?" If you sat on ...
Surely Notre Dame is worthy of entry into the College Football Playoffs. Yet, facing the results of last night's games, what more can the Irish do to prove their worthiness? Trial by Fire A 50-gallon drum of burning refuse and offal is placed before Brian Kelly. He reaches in and pulls out the remnants of Michigan’s Revenge Tour. If Kelly is uninjured, then he is worthy to lead his team into the playoffs. If he also pulls any remnant of Michigan’s pride, he’s a miracle-worker. Trial ...
Notre Dame is the only university in America that has had two very popular and flattering major motion pictures made about it: “Kunte Rockne, All American” and “Rudy.” As a general rule, you don’t want a movie film made about your college, unless you hated it and want to join other people in laughing at it. Interestingly enough, “Rudy” had its world premier in South Bend exactly 25 years ago this month. That season, the Fighting Irish went into the last game of the year, at home, undefeated ...
There was a time when the skyline between Notre Dame and Chicago was lined with glowing furnaces and fantastically-sized factories. Within those factories, men poured, formed, and cut steel. Today, those factories are mostly closed. Today, those men are mostly dead. On Saturday night, before the heaving, bouncing bodies in the stands, young men from Notre Dame, very much alive and fired by echoes cheering her name, quieted piped-in heavy metal with a punishing dose of heavy mettle. In ...
Ball State. It’s an unfortunate name. Then again, our University is technically named for ‘Our Lady of the Lake’, even though there are, in fact, two lakes. Don’t get me started. Who put the Ball in Ball State? The very generous Ball brothers, who became very wealthy by building a better, smarter fruit jar. It’s not a sexy way to make money; but all things considered, glass pickling jars are a lot more popular today than what our first benefactor sold – fur. Since we’re playing host to ...
With a class of new students moving onto campus, I’m seeing a lot of different ‘Welcome’ signs all over the place. Each hall seems to have its own personalized, color-coordinated placards staking a claim to its new inmates residents. But the sign I see most is “Welcome Home!” I had a whole series of suggestions for appropriate (and more realistic) welcoming signs. But, as usual, my wisdom was neither sought nor appreciated by the current administration. When they retire you, they take away ...
"It's been a busy week on Lakes St. Joseph and St. Mary." I tried to snap myself out from under my writer's block by channeling Garrison Keillor. It didn't work. So I tried some Earnest Hemmingway: "Brian Kelly's fingers ached. Great drops of rain plonked against the window. He hated Twitter." But neither worked. I did, however learn, that I might be able to write as well as Brian Kelly and I might know as much about Notre Dame sports as does the creator of A Prairie Home Companion. As the ...
What an unexpected year! No one should have been surprised that 2016 followed 2015; but the manner in which it followed was surprising: Not so much as night follows day, but more as a troop of rabid baboons follows the tourist who went to relieve himself behind the bushes and missed the bus back to the safari lodge, all while having his pockets stuffed full of beef jerky and hard candies. The Fighting Irish 4-8: We began the 2016 season ranked tenth and widely expected to vie for a place in ...
For the 175th anniversary, they’re “retracing” my route from Vincennes to Notre Dame. I’m flattered…I guess. They’re doing it in late August – Indiana in late August. You know, dangerous heat, violent monsoons, and tornado season. I wouldn’t have undertaken the journey in August! Are they going to cart in mosquitoes carrying Yellow Fever to complete the effect? And by the way, the hellacious trek from New York to Vincennes was much more harrowing that the last 270 miles through pancake-flat ...
The Agricultural College of the State of Michigan is coming to town for a football game. Well, that was their first name; but they soon changed it to State Agricultural College. Realizing that this was dangerously vague – how would the students know which state’s agricultural college they were attending – the name was tightened up to Michigan Agricultural College. But there’s so much more to Michigan than growing cherries and Christmas trees; so the name was elaborated to Michigan State College ...