College football home finales (Senior Day) are usually a downer for everyone with the exception of, well, most of the seniors. It often marks the end of organized football for some; the beginning of the end for many coaches (and sometimes an entire staff); and from both a player and fan perspective, it lacks the hope and promise of the home opener played just three months prior, as the now over-used phrase “you are what you are” applies to most teams after 10 contests are in the books.

 

Home finales have produced a mixed bag for the Irish in the BGI era. ND is 18-9 since 1981 with about a 95 percent chance of producing a 19^th victory this Saturday vs. rudderless Syracuse. Charlie Weis has contributed a 3-0 mark as his squads have buried three of the country’s worst programs (Syracuse, Army, and Duke, with another hapless Syracuse team on the horizon).

 

Former coach Tyrone Willingham was 2-1 in finales, guiding the 9-1 and eighth-ranked Irish over Rutgers 42-0 in 2002; beating an unusually poor BYU team in 2003, 33-14; and then losing a sloppy heartbreaker to the Pittsburgh Panthers and the potty-mouthed, unorthodox QB Tyler Palko, 41-38 in 2004.

 

ABC’s Bob Davie fared well vs. solid opponents in home finales, first besting a West Virginia squad led by future pro RB Amos Zereoue, future pro QB Marc Bulger, (but not yet iunder the guidance of future ex-Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez) in 1997. The following season Davie guided the 8-1 and 10^th ranked Irish to a wild 39-36 win over a poorly coached but extremely talented LSU squad led by one of the nation’s best players, future New England Patriots RB Kevin Faulk (for more on the unfortunate ending in this contest, click here).

 

Davie split the ’99 and ’00 home finales with Boston College (the former being the infamous “torn turf” game involving the always classy Eagles) and then finished the 2001 home slate on a high note, downing Navy 34-16, just two weeks prior to his dismissal.

 

Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz faced the most difficult slate, finishing 7-4 vs. this gauntlet of opponents:

1986: A 24-19 defeat to #3 and eventual National Champion Penn State

1987: Ranked #7, the 7-1 Irish handed #10 Alabama a 37-6 Midwest beat down

1988: Ranked #1, a 21-3 win over a scrappy, but depleted Penn State team

1989: Ranked #1, the Irish won their 22^nd in a row with a 59-6 destruction of death-penalty ravaged SMU

1990: Ranked #1 for the second time that season, the Irish lost a 14-0 first quarter lead, falling to unranked Penn State, 24-21

1991: Ranked #5, the Irish blew a 31-7 lead to #13 Tennessee. I covered this debacle in a pre-season blog, but if you still yearn for more about the game Volunteer fans refer to as The Miracle in South Bend, click here.  Actually, even if you don’t want to know more about that game, it is WELL WORTH your time to click that link and scroll down.

1992: The Snow Bowl. #8 ND 17 #22 PSU 16. More on that game in a forthcoming highlight video. 

1993: #1 ND suffered the most crushing defeat in the history of organized sports. No data available.

1994: The unranked Irish outlasted Air Force 42-30

1995: #8 ND 35 Navy 17

1996: Holtz, who announced his retirement earlier that week, guided the tenth-ranked Irish to a 62-0 victory over Rutgers and was carried off the field.

 

Gerry Faust finished with a 2-3 mark, beating unranked Georgia Tech 35-3 in 1981 and unranked Penn State 44-7 in 1984. Faust dropped decisions to #5 Penn State, 24-14 in 1982 (the Irish were ranked #13 at the time); to unranked Air Force 23-22; and to #17 LSU in 1985, 10-7, as part of his final three-game losing streak.

 

Random Senior Day Observations

 

The Heartbreakers:

1. 1993

2. 1990 #18 PSU 24 #1 Notre Dame 21

3. 1986 #3 Penn State (and eventual National Champion) 24 Notre Dame 19

4. 1991 and the aforementioned Miracle. Hey look, the same link!

5. 2004 Pitt, Palko, jump balls, non calls, and “FUDGE” (only he didn’t say “fudge”) exclaimed loudly on NBC.

 

Most Exciting Victories:

1. 1992 Snow Bowl, Notre Dame 17 Penn State 16

2. 1998 #10 Notre Dame 39 LSU 36

3. 1987 #7 Notre Dame 37 #10 Alabama 6 (ND then lost its last three games to finish the season…but won 23 straight over the next two)

4. 1997 vs. West Virginia and an inexplicable frenzied storming of the field with a win over the 7-4 Mountaineers.

5. Hopefully not Saturday

 

The Coldest:

1986 vs. #3 ranked Penn State

 

The Day the Music Died:

1993

 

Elation

1992

 

Anger

1990

 

Shock

1991

 

Confusion

2004, 1999

 

Apathy

2001

 

For Diehards

2007

 

And as you might expect, I have video of the best moments and plays to be posted tonight. No tears included...

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the basketball blog! Your home for somewhere between two and fifty relevant (at least to me) thoughts after each Irish basketball game.

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It occurred to me late Saturday night (top row, Alumni Stadium, 50-yardline, last-minute flight, we all make bad decisions), that the ND isn’t 0-3 against its peers (UNC, Pitt, BC) this season. It’s actually 3-0 (Michigan, Purdue, Stanford).

 

The Irish didn’t finish 0-4 vs. the Big Ten in 2007; they won the battle for Michael Floyd.

 

Weis and his staff weren’t outcoached by Dave Wannstadt’s unit…they outhustled them for Darrin Walls.

 

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Notre Dame fans really need to start rethinking their goals.  Our expectations are growing faster than our abilities as a team.

All of the talk lately is a bunch of bull.  This is 2008.  A time when parity rules almost all sports and it's extremely difficult to win a national title at a premier program, let alone a mid-tier conference school.

"Can Charlie Weis bring a national championship back to Notre Dame?"

"Is this what you expected from Charlie Weis in year four?"

Stop fooling yourselves. 

It'll be over 20 years (after this season) since Notre Dame's last championship.  We've had two, maybe three, chances at national titles since the 1988 run and those came during the Lou Holtz era.

Let me fill you in on a little secret:  This isn't your grandpappy's Notre Dame anymore.  We're no longer built to succeed year in and year out at top ten levels.  We're on the right path, but we're not there yet. 

We're undefeated against losing teams and we're winless against winning teams.  We are what we are folks, and right now we're a .500 football team.

But that's where we SHOULD be.  This team was ridiculously low on top talent and it takes time to get that back.

It is unfair to Charlie, or any head coach for that matter, for us to say "National championship or bust".  It's illogical and it's ignorant.  This team was not built for a championship and it will take several more years.  Now add parity into the mix.

Look at USC.  Arguably the most talent-stacked program in the nation and even they lose a game almost every year.  Last year, LSU won the title with two losses because the rest of the nation beat up the rest of the nation.

Expecting 12-0 year in and year out isn't fair to Notre Dame and it isn't fair to yourself.  You'll get ulcers if you wait for years like that.

Now this school has lived in the past for so long it doesn't (or at least didn't) realize that the game of football has passed it by.  Weis is trying to catch up.  The players are trying to catch up.  The fans are complaining that it isn't happening fast enough.  It's like taking a student who can barely read and giving him the SAT, then sending him to his room when he gets a 300.  

I understand that the team isn't playing up to our expectations, but maybe that isn't Charlie's fault or Jimmy Clausen's fault or Brian Smith's fault.  Maybe that's our fault.  Maybe our expectations are so unrealistic that we're blinded by our own ambitions.

It appears to me that this team has hit a brick wall.  All of the improvement that we saw at the beginning of the year has completely stalled and it's quite obvious.  But maybe right now, at this time, it's the best we can be.  Perhaps it's like a snake who has grown out of its skin but can't quite shake off its molt.

Right now we're shedding our own analogous skin, and it hurts.  It's frustrating because we're so close yet so far away.  It hurts watching us lose close games to good teams, but until we get this skin off our back we'll never make it.

Maybe Charlie Weis isn't the right coach to give us a championship, but he is the perfect coach to give this team the makeover it so desperately needed.  It's frustrating, but I look at the future and I see us growing into a full-blown title contender.  For now, I'm ok with that.

I know you don’t want to admit it, but it’s true. Name the scenario, they’ve pulled it off:

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We are Notre Dame and we live in the past.  It's what we do.

Especially in the last 15 years or so, our football fans have always compared our teams of the past to other schools' teams of the present.

Last year we suffered arguably the worst season in school history and all we could say is "Yeah but we have more national champions so shut up."  You said it, don't lie.

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