The ten days from January 7 through 16, 2013, will go down as a period of unrelentingly shocking developments in the history of University of Notre Dame football. And I think it’s not a stretch to say that the third in the series of shockers (the hoax surrounding the girlfriend of Manti Te’o) helps to Read Full Post
Rally, Sons of Notre Dame!
Brian Kelly said it best in the cramped locker room at the Los Angeles Coliseum late in the evening of November 24. “We won this game the way we’ve won every game this season,” he shouted to the victorious Irish crowded around him. “With our will, our determination, our want and our desire.” Football analysts Read Full Post
Manti: A Sense of Knowing
Following an afternoon of steady showers, the skies had opened into an all-out downpour on rain-soaked Notre Dame Stadium. Students romped with student-athletes, celebrating a dramatic goal-line stand that ended a classic, overtime victory against fellow heavyweight Stanford. Manti Te’o stood with his arm around his coach, Brian Kelly, explaining for a national audience what Read Full Post
Mahalo Nui Loa, Manti
For more than 80 years, senior football players at the University of Notre Dame have walked down the north tunnel onto the field for the last time in their college careers. It happens again this Saturday, when the Irish host Wake Forest, with a perfect season on the line. But it seems fair to say Read Full Post
Notre Dame Fans Ask: “Now What?”
This fall the University of Notre Dame is celebrating its 125th year of college football. Across all forms of media, the highlights of this proud history are being recalled. Among the commemorations is a daily “Strong and True” moment, featuring the last-minute victories, the unlikely triumphs, and the heroes who made them happen. Just last Read Full Post
Irish Return to Traditional Captains
At St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, legendary football coach John Gagliardi has a tradition of making each member of his senior class – from All-American to bench-warmer — a “co-captain” of the Johnnies. His thinking: it’s a line that looks great on a resume. At Notre Dame, tradition has held that the captaincy is Read Full Post
7-5 Never Looked So Good
Saturday’s rain-soaked 20-16 victory over USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum may not have been a beauty – definitely more gritty than pretty. The naysayers will point out that it came against a Trojan team stumbling through its first season of the “Bush Penalty Era” and missing star quarterback Matt Barkley. The shine has definitely Read Full Post