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For Notre Dame, Michigan is What Separates 'This Year' from 'Next Year'

By DanielWolf on | From nationalfootballauthority.com

Gameday.ND.edu

By Mitch Coffman
Senior Writer

For football loyalists, especially older fans, Notre Dame football is still royalty. But football, often like life is more about ‘what have you done for me lately.’ The Irish have really done nothing, thus making them rather irrelevant to younger fans.

Can you really blame them?

It seems that every year for the last decade someone proclaims that Notre Dame is “back” at the top of college football. It was more of the same this season – the Irish are back. Until, well, did you see the game against South Florida last Saturday? An opening game loss to a team it was supposed to beat – at home, no less.

But Notre Dame stumbled, bumbled and fumbled its way to a loss. Now comes the second game of the season and it is pretty much make or break for the Irish. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, the game is at Michigan at night, against a new coach and taking on a program invigorated with its own dreams of returning to glory.

OK, some realism here.

Notre Dame simply is not the king of the college football castle anymore. Before it can even begin thinking about a coronation, it must be respectable first. Respect comes with wins - against teams you are supposed to defeat, and games against traditional foes like Michigan resulting in more wins than losses in marquee games. All of this has been missing from the Irish resume for a number of years.

Now, with all of that said, how can the Irish rebound after a bad week one loss?

Head coach Brian Kelly hopes he has answered that question, at least in part. Kelly has changed starting quarterbacks, presumably for the rest of the season, and gone with Tommy Rees over Dayne Crist. A change at quarterback is always significant, but it wasn’t like the offense as a whole did terribly against the Bulls. The Irish racked up more than 500 yards of total offense.

The problem was turnovers. Notre Dame had five turnovers compared to zero for South Florida. The first turnover was also the most crucial. Notre Dame took its first possession down inside the 5-yard line with ease, only to fumble and have it returned for a touchdown. That one played started a domino effect that the Irish never recovered from.

So there is hope, if based on nothing more than simply avoiding turnovers. But fans have all been here with Notre Dame before. The Irish are an unfulfilled prophecy only righted by winning on the field, not in the minds of some sportswriters and fans. Maybe Brian Kelly is the piece of the puzzle to recapture glory for Notre Dame. But maybe not, because Charlie Weis, Bob Davie, Ty Willingham and Gerry Faust were all supposed to play that same role--only to fail.

Despite its on-field issues, a trip to a Notre Dame game is a joy due to its tradition. The stadium, the Golden Dome, the Grotto even the band all create an amazing feeling, even if you sit up high (there isn’t a bad seat in the house). In the afternoon with fall colors all around, one can look at Touchdown Jesus and realize they are in what was once known as "football heaven". A trip to South Bend to see a Notre Dame game should be on every college football fan’s bucket list.

There is nothing average about a football afternoon in South Bend. It still wakes up the echoes from the past. The problem is the present, as an average football team now plays where once the "Four Horsemen", Knute Rockne, Paul Hornung, Ara Parseghian and Joe Montana called home.

The road back begins at Michigan. Win it, and the Irish have some momentum in looking forward to games against Michigan State, USC, Stanford and Pittsburgh – teams that have a better recent history than the Irish. And it could also instill some confidence to beat back challengers without the Irish tradition – Air Force, Navy and Wake Forest.

Lose to Michigan, and the all too familiar saying “Next year the Irish will be back,” returns to haunt Fighting Irish fans around the country. But, someday, next year needs to be “this” year. The game against Michigan will be the light at the end of the tunnel, one way or the other. With a loss, the light is an oncoming freight train. A win, and maybe this is the year the Irish emerge back into football daylight.

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