She Blinded Me with Optimism!!!!!!!!

Nine days to go, and I can’t wait.

That is right. I am going to open myself up for my 1st ever attempt at a blog. I am willing to go out on a line here and tell you that I am excited about the upcoming season. Oh yes, like so many others, I have managed to homer myself into excitement of the previous season’s openers, only to be left wondering what happened to my beloved Irish. Not this year, not this year!

There is something different going on. I am not sure what it is, but I remember being on campus in the early 80s. I had some friends on the football team, and I came up for a home basketball game. I walked into the ACC as a “member” of the Fighting Irish football team. I remember how uniquely special I felt, even though it was completely false, for a moment I was part of the storied program. I was introduced to Coach Faust as “one of his linebackers.” I was 6’ 3” and 210 lbs. It didn’t take long for him to realize his leg was being pulled. He was an incredibly nice man and played along with joke, telling me I need to hit the weights. Anyway, there was not a player that I came across that weekend that did not love Coach Faust. There were, however, plenty of players that did not respect him as a coach.

Flash forward to 1985, and enter Coach Lou Holtz. I still had several connections on the team, and Coach Holtz arrived without the universal love of Coach Faust. He scared several of the players. They didn’t know their exact place on the team. They didn’t know if the amount of effort they gave in the past couple of years would be good enough for Coach Holtz. Naturally the team was not without dissension. Coach Holtz earned the player’s respect. Every player that passed admissions knew that they would have to compete for positions. Nothing was guaranteed. “Average” players like Stan Smagala, Tim Grunhardt and Pat Eilers thrived on the competition and rose above. Tremendous players like Rocket Ismail, Ricky Watters and Jerome Bettis were always striving to stay one step ahead of the players below them on the depth charts. The competition, depth and a respect for Coach Holtz built a championship program.

Now my next comments are retrospective, so understand that things are always much clearer in the rearview mirror (caveat). Next came Bob Davie. Young, good looking, and coach promoted up from DC. How could the Irish go wrong? I bought in, even though I hated to see Lou go. My wife immediately expressed her dislike of Davie. What? “He is a back stabbing weasel,” she said. No way, not Davie (please note that I have not used the term “Coach” to proceed Davie. Another privilege of the retrospective view). The guy turned out to be a fraud. He didn’t even recognize the difference between the storied past of the University of Notre Dame and Texas A&M. Yeah, like whacking the nuts off of a bull really compares to the Golden Dome, TD Jesus, the Grotto, 12 National Championships (yes, I said 12 - 1993 I include!) and 7 Heisman Trophy winners.

Then came Ty..........................................that’s all I have to say about that.

And finally, CW the savior. I wanted to like Charlie. I wanted to believe Charlie. I wanted to ignore his inability to maintain mucous control on the sidelines. The man loves Notre Dame! His schematic advantage was undeniable. He brought in Clausen, Rudolph, Te’o...................I mean, how can we not return to greatness? The problem was that Coach Weis (note the use of Coach preceding Weis) was naive. He did not understand how to build a team, how to establish an environment where competition ruled, or how to inspire young, college-aged men. The championship rings and jersey bravado can only take you so far. Thanks, Coach Weis, you left the program better than you found it. Again we were led astray by false hope again.

And now comes Coach Kelly. Here comes the scary part. I need to provide a prospective analysis of Coach Kelly. We know that last year’s season was not without its faults. Navy, Tulsa, Stanford, need I go on? It was dreadful at times. So why am I so freakin’ rosy about the upcoming season? Fine question. Let’s start with the players. Their “appears” to be a healthy respect for Coach Kelly. It’s not like they love him cause he is swell or they would like to hang out at his house playing Nintendo. It is more like he holds himself up as a CEO (much more like Lou than any of the aforementioned). The next thing that stands out to me is COMPETITION. Come on! When was the last time we saw players competing for 1st and 2nd string positions?
Nuss versus Watts, Slaughter versus Motta, Fox versus Calabrese, McDaniel versus Atkinson and lest we forget Rees versus Crist. That is good stuff, which leads me to my next point, DEPTH. It seemed that the previous regime had a 1st team and that was it. Kelly system seems to be, “next guy up.” You better be prepared, and competition leads to that preparation (aka depth). Sure we are thin at certain spots, but I believe that we are at a point where no single player is greater than the team. We saw hints of this last season, but this year seems even better.

I am stoked! I will be there on September 3rd and I will not be disappointed.