saturdays in the fall...

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As my lovely wife hinted at in her earlier post, I wanted to take a few minutes to post an update on my beloved and newly respected Irish. Last week the boys surprised me with a shut-out of a Nevada team that had a few weapons of their own on offense. Notre Dame's defense perfected the bend but don't break approach despite seemingly blitzing someone on every down. On offense, I thought that we looked as good as advertised and seemed to have not missed a beat from the performance against Hawaii in the bowl game last year. Unfortunately, I still wasn't blown away with our ability to run the ball at will or to stifle our opponents rushing attack. Nevada has three 1,000 yard + rushers on their team but, I guess I am nitpicking quite a bit to hope that we would keep them from gaining any yards. I guess that's part of being a fan for some of us. I definitely have a huge chip on my shoulder when it comes to outsiders criticizing my team (that often includes family, Dad) but, I deep down really do expect perfection...on every single snap. Of course, as a true Notre Dame fan, I also expect my boys to win every single game. Yes, that's right, every single game. Even though a part of me is realistic enough to know that many times, this is unlikely, there is another part of me that thinks, no matter what, no matter who, no matter where, the Irish can and should beat these guys! Lou Holtz isn't the only one to suffer from these delusions. So, our opening game left me feeling like the team looks to be about where they should be but, this week is Michigan in the Outhouse (Bighouse). In the interest of not offending anyone, I won't go into much of what I think about Michigan's program. I also hate to blast them, and then set my team up for failure. You see, I'm also ridiculously superstitious when it comes to my Irish. I'll say this, anything can happen when these two teams get together and the underdog wins more often than not, of late. I'm not at all sure what we'll see today from either team. Michigan definitely looked better than last year, seems to have a lot of speed and should be able to run the ball on our defense, unless they totally surprise me (I hope!). I think we'll be pretty good at defending the pass with their freshmen quarterbacks and our experienced secondary. I think it will likely come down to whether or not our offense has improved as much as I hope they have. If our line gives Clausen time to get the ball out to his receivers and we are able to run the ball effectively to keep Michigan from sitting back in pass coverage, we should be alright. In fact, if all these things happen, I don't think Michigan can stay in the game with us. But, I'm just not real sure how much of this will fall into place for us against Michigan on the road. Honestly, it is now or never for this team, in my opinion. I will leave you with a Michigan story. It was earlier September. The year was, 1994. Notre Dame spent the offseason before recovering from being robbed of the National Championship after beating the number 1 ranked Florida State Criminoles head to head. I was a freshman and already swept up in the craze of Irish football. I was fortunate enough to attend my first ever home football game in Notre Dame stadium against Michigan. Both teams were highly ranked and the game had National implications. We were coming of a road win against Northwestern and the game went back and forth. Notre Dame trailed late in the fourth quarter when Ron Powlus threw a pass into the endzone, right in front of the student section and Derrick Mayes made an unbelievable one-handed catch. We went ballistic! I thought, this is what Notre Dame football is!!!! With only seconds left on the clock, Michigan took the kickoff, a few quick completed passes against our prevent defense and marched their kicker out to kick a game-winning last second field goal. I thought, this is what Notre Dame football is???? The love began for me that day and so did the pain. Neither has been far from the other for these past 15 years. So, I pray that when the scoreboard reads zero later today, it will also read: Notre Dame 100, Michigan 0. But, I'll take 30-14 and a continued break from the pain. If any of you would like to check out a really great blog all about Notre Dame football created and maintained by a team of talented writers who know what they are talking about and also often have lots of great pictures and videos, check out The Blue-Gray Sky.