I find the last 12 months of ND football really disappointing, not because the performance has been bad. Objectively, it's been pretty good--win 10 games, score record number of points, put several kids in the pros and have a drama-free national signing day. But that's actually what makes it disappointing--ND football now seems like a professional operation, Kelly seems to revel in making things dispassionate ('just execute your job'), the players seem to show very little emotion on the sidelines, and we (as fans) seem to have scaled our expectations that, realistically, we're note a Tier 1 program, and the national media have all but forgotten about us. We are close to irrelevant.
For better or worse, we used to have a lot of drama around our program. On NSD, for example, there was Scott Bentley, Justin Trattou and Manti T'eo. There were QB controversies; there were hot debates about whether ND is over-rated or under-rated; and there were fans who passionately cared about the football. This year, we had a loss to Michigan; it was bad, but we convincingly won 5 games after that and only moved 1 spot in the CFP polls. In years past, that would have been met with outrage; this year, crickets. On NSD, there was almost no coverage of ND's class. Even this board, which used to have hot takes on X player's performance or Y coach, has devolved into name-calling about the other posters, because...well...the football is all so predictably boring.
In short, we are the Downton Abbey of college football--polite, boring and aging into irrelevance.
Yuck.
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It's one thing that Kelly has done consistently well.
you’ll have something to really bitch about.
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that you take the time to put such deep thought into this and post it for your imaginary internet friends to read. Good grief. Buy a puppy if you want more excitement in your life.
We have nothing interesting to discuss about ND football, so it devolves into a 'you suck, no you suck.'
Lots of posters here offer nothing for discussion. They just sit back and tell you how you suck and/or are stupid.
Nobody would miss those slugs.
I agree with some of your thinking on this.
We have become very corporate.
with the 4 team playoff and rest nobody cares. That was a blow to ND in my opinion.
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Almost
reactions after big plays and see if there is emotion? Answer, there is, yet as Lou Holtz would say after a touchdown, act like you were there before. If you get butterflies before a game.... that qualifies as emotion without wasting a lot of energy.
Where the emotion often does not lie is with the old rich fans who clap politely or with a graduate of ND who chooses to get married on a football Saturday.
That is absurd. And successful seniors tend to be more polite than raucous.
And every single one of my relatives knows, if you choose to get married on a Saturday when ND is playing, I will not be in attendance. You'll get my $$ in the mail, let me know how it went. I had multiple cousins get married when ND was playing. ND vs UM in '97- I was in Ann Arbor. ND vs Rutgers in 2000-I was in New Brunswick. ND vs Tennesee in 2005. I was in South Bend.
are cheap...or you knocked up the broad and are in a rush.
No other reasonable conclusions can be drawn...
Never missed a usc game on TV because of a wedding. Plan Ahead.
I got to see most...but not all...of the game...
(And my first son was born more than 9 months later...)
before kickoff, then we kicked the crap out of a ranked Purdue.
Two weeks later was Bush Push...I remember thinking back then 'we're back baby' then everything went South so quickly.
Sigh..
the car while driving and watched almost the rest of it at the reception. We were struggling that game but my mood changed by the end of it.
Not if ND is playing.
Both my kids had to be educated to this.
They tried for an early September date and i quickly reminded them that they were violating a Leahy household law.
Another aspect of their weddings i insisted upon and they agreed.
At the reception party the Victory March i s played before the father daughter dance.
USC invitees at the reception did not not clap. ( as expected)
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It's also the title of Hesburgh's book.
Link: https://www.google.com/search?q=god+country+notre+dame&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS873US873&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=j2aR0XZmx2CusM%253A%252CLjRVKQfXFW1opM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRo3EeOzsLIKXAFSaFE-cJz2D6mpQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY3p2kvsLmAhWGZs0KHa7LDnMQ9QEwHHoECAYQN
wanted to join me. He said he would have loved to but he was headed out of town. Father Ted was made famous by his warning to ND students in 1969 that they could demonstrate for 15 minutes but if they did not "cease and desist" after that, their student ID's would be taken. Upon getting good PR, Nixon named him to the head of the Civil Rights Board. Little did he know he was getting a liberal who either had demonstrated arm in arm with Dr. King or would shortly in the future.
As far as being a football fan, he was but not a super strong fan. Ironically he once said he looked forward to the time Navy would beat us once but hoped it was not this year. He referred to that many years.
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and I still get it.
listened to the game on a transistor radio with an earbud during the service. Would have been while Ara was coach.
My uncle was ahead of his time!
Many of us crowded around a phone watching the game throughout much of the reception.
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Nobody has a smartphone or a tablet. And watching ND play is more important than your son or daughter's wedding.
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Or the log chapel.