Notre Dame football: contenders or cowards?

Notre Dame: Cowards or Contenders

Today is Saturday, and soon the nation will be swamped with college games from the Atlantic to the Pacific. As a very heavy fan of college football, I intend to watch every game I can get. From 12 noon to as late as 1am, I will be watching football, football, and every now and then…football.

But because I have a blog, I like to pull out some subjects from time to time and make discussion. Before I do, I want you guys to understand my mentality. I am a fan of sports, but greater than that, I am a fan of humanity. Nothing must undermine the human element of the sport, otherwise the sport itself is a farce. You can “hate” your favorite nemesis, but remember that every team has people, and every person has a story. My favorite teams have people that do foolish things (RAIDERS) so I have no problem pointing that out just as much as I would a team I do not pull for.

Case in point…Notre Dame Football. My title of this blog begs the question; are they real contenders or cowards?

Today Notre Dame plays Michigan State and if the Irish win today, they will be 3-0 and obviously “popping their collars” about being one of the elite teams in the nation. They defeated San Diego State (big whoop) and a very poor Michigan team who REALLY let me down.

There are a lot of teams I pull for, but one I have lost faith in is Notre Dame. I understand that there are a lot of rich alumni that will support this school, but to me, I just find a lot of hypocrisy in how the school operates. I mean, the mere idea that they are an Independent school (as far as football) seems to suggest that they are “too good for any conference”. I realize that is subjective, but hey, it’s MY blog.

Second, I really think Notre Dame showed their true colors in how they treated Tyrone Willingham. This man believed STRONGLY in educating his players and building a good squad. But Notre Dame had no problem getting rid of him in short order, not even giving him a chance to get his recruits to learn the system. Then they turned around, hired Charlie Weis and GAVE him an extension when he had proven absolutely nothing to the university.

What kinda message is Notre Dame sending? It’s almost like they are saying, “a Caucasian coach, even if he is under par, is better than a black coach, even if he stands for everything college football ought to be about”.

I am sure Notre Dame fans don’t like to hear that…but isn’t that EXACTLY what happened?

Yeah, that sounds subjective, but they sure tried to cover it up by hiring Tim Brown to work for the recruiting, to try to “keep in touch with the black athletes”. Again, sounds subjective, but hey, it’s MY blog.

Third, Notre Dame has done everything they could to eat at Dunkin Donuts every Saturday…in other words, they are going out of their way to make their schedules as soft and sweet as a freshly baked donut. Last year they beat 3 teams; UCLA, Duke and Stanford. This year they have they scheduled San Diego State, a team with a losing record. The beat Michigan, a team in obvious turmoil. Today they play Michigan State, which should be their toughest challenge so far. 5 of their remaining games are against teams with an under .500 record, meaning they are almost guaranteed a bowl game right now.

It’s not the players fault, they have to play whomever is on the schedule, so I don’t blame them. It’s the university’s fault for scheduling these poor games to rack up wins. I noticed the moment Rutgers started getting good, Notre Dame took them off the schedule.

I remember watching ESPN and listening to “Dr. Lou” (Lou Holtz) and they asked this former coach of Notre Dame to predict how Notre Dame would finish. With a smile on his face, and a lie in his heart, this man DARED to say that Notre Dame would finish 11-0.

You tell me how a team that finished 3-9 last year is going to jump to an 11-0 finish this year. It amazed me how Lou could sit there with a straight face and lie about that, while kissing the butt of Notre Dame at the same time…

Oh, that’s right, he was going to be honored during the Notre Dame/ Michigan game with that statue…so he had to play the butt-kissing role. I thought Lou Holtz was a better man than that. He sold out on his principles for a moment of fame.

All these things factor to the [damaged] mystique of Notre Dame. I know every college football team has some ugly skeletons in their closet, but Notre Dame seemed to prove that if you have money, you can do anything you want…even if it is wrong. I have to wonder if they REALLY wanted Tyrone Willingham there, or did they hire him just to help recruit more black athletes?

So is this team a real contender, or cowards looking for the easiest way to claim fame? Lou Holtz gave that silly prediction with the assumption that Notre Dame could beat USC…that didn’t make sense at all. Purdue is a tough team but the have to play Notre Dame at South Bend. Boston College and Navy are both away games for ND, and could be hard.

Michigan State lost to California 38-31 in that away game, then beat Eastern Michigan 42-10 and then Florida Atlantic 17-0. They have the advantage of being home, and the extra advantage of having beat Notre Dame last year 31-14. And any team walking around with a zero in their loss column is a target, even after 2 or 3 weeks. Everything is there for Michigan State to take this game, and in truth, the NEED to. With the Big 10 schedule the way it is, this very game could decide if Michigan State will even make it to post season…yeah I said it after only 3 games!

Consider that you must win 6 Division I wins (yeah I know the NCAA a more complicated name, but it’s my blog!). IF Michigan State wins today, they would have a pretty good chance of winning enough games to get to a bowl. With teams like Wisconsin, Penn State, and Ohio State on the schedule, I can’t see them beating them, not right now. It IS conceivable that if Michigan State beats Notre Dame today, they can extend their record to 5-2 or 6-1 before they see Ohio State. But if they lose, it could be the tell-tale loss that prevents them from going to a bowl.

In short, this is a very important game that Michigan State MUST have. And it’s hard to tell if they have a chance, because let’s face it, the two wins won’t impress anybody outside the state of Michigan. But it is still a winning record and that builds morale.

So now here comes Notre Dame, coming to try to get a 4-0 record and start whining about “we should be in the top 10”. Will the Spartans allow it? Or will they say to us that immortal phrase from Dennis Green…

“They are who we THOUGHT they were!”

We’ll see…I bought a Michigan State hooded sweater from Steve & Berry’s last week…maybe I oughta wear it…even if it is 70 degrees here in NC!