“Coming together is a beginning.

Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success.”

Saturday, September 12th was a poor start to a highly anticipated football season for myself.

I spent the first part of my day in the pouring rain of New Jersey, seeing my high school lose a heart-breaker to a team after they had won the 1st half, 21-18.

The second part of my day consisted of watching my favorite program in all of sports, lose to a bitter rival, after winning the first half, 20-17.

After seeing the referees walk away from a hobbled Charlie Weis after the clock hit 0:01, a few minutes of screaming followed.

“Refs, you blew this game! Get off the field, and go call back another indisputable play! Why don’t you call another holding call on Sam Young for a simple pancake block? Oh, and your going to call back a 70-yard pass by Rudolph for that call too? Fantastic!”

Looking back at those quotes, I can only wish it had been that clean.

As I walked away from my television fuming out of the ears, mixed emotions spilling from my body, and exhausted from defeat, I took some time to relax.

When I woke up, I decided to write this piece. Back to reality, reading thousands of posts across the Notre Dame Internet world, and looking back on the game, I feel there are a few things that need to be straightened out.

There are no “what if’s” in college football.

What if the ref’s had awarded the Irish the second left on the clock?

What if the ref’s hadn’t been straight off the street?

What if they hadn’t called back a screen-play touchdown from Allen?

What if Nick Tausch hadn’t missed a 28-yard field goal in his first career attempt?

These are all some examples I have seen over the past few hours on various Notre Dame communities, and my answer to all of these are simple: We lost the football game.

Michigan outplayed Notre Dame with a freshman quarterback in Ann Arbor, and won. Did the Irish make many mistakes and beat themselves most of the game? Absolutely. But in the end, Michigan deserves a round of applause for winning the football game.

It just doesn’t matter that the offense played well—the defense didn’t.

It doesn’t matter that the refs made some awful calls—plenty of Irish teams have been victimized by similar calls, yet still came out with a win.

It doesn’t matter that you think Notre Dame should have won—they didn’t.

Sports are full of ups-and-downs. You can’t experience great thrills and happiness without dealing with tears and defeat.

Being a good winner in sports is simple.

But being a good loser in sports is one of the hardest things to accomplish, especially in the eyes of agonizing defeat.

The true definition of a fan will be defined today on September 13th, 2009. Those Irish fans that are behind Weis and his team will be angry and tired. Yet, these same people will back Weis and his team and support them for the rest of the season.

College football teams don’t play two games—they play twelve.

So here is my challenge to the Notre Dame fans all over—are you going to give up because of one bump in the road, or are you going to help get them over that bump?

Some of you might be tired of supporting an inconsistent team. I, for one, might be one of you.

Some of you might be tired of supporting Charlie Weis and his lack of success in big games and games he should win. Again, I might be one of you this season.

However, some of you are tired of supporting the program, and that is where the line between a true and a bandwagon Irish fan divides.

Find out what kind of fan you are, commit to it, and challenge yourself.

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On his message to the team …

“They win together, and they lose together. There were plenty of opportunities on offense, defense and special teams to win that game. We can’t pout and say we should have won the game. We had a chance to close it out on offense and on defense. But we gave up a home run on special teams. Basically it’s time to say where you’re going from here.”

On Notre Dame’s last offensive drive …

“We ran it first of all and then we ran again. But what they decided to do after that first run was load up the box and not let us do that. We saw that on the second run. They had a change of mentality, and they weren’t just going to sit back there and let us run the ball. So we went to a quick, three-step drop — the same pass we had been hitting all day. But then we threw an incomplete pass, and now it’s third-and-long. So then you have two choices — you run the ball just to make them use their timeouts or you try and win the game. When it got to the third-down call, we threw the ball over to the right-hand side over to Shaquelle Evans, and we were just a little off on it. He was open, and we had an opportunity to pick up that first down and try to run it out from there.”

On the last play of the game …

“The plan was to try to get the ball to about midfield and get out of bounds so we could take a shot at the end zone. Of course [Golden Tate] could have fallen down and we have one timeout left, so of course I’m yelling, ‘Get down, get down.’ But as an athlete in that situation he’s thinking that he might have a chance to take it to the house right there. It’s just one of those situations that you practice. If you have one second left you have a jump-ball play and try to throw the ball into the end zone because we had a timeout left that we were trying to spend right there. The clock runs out — there was zero or one second left and you’re not going to get that with it being so close.”

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On the heels of Notre Dame’s most lopsided victory under head coach Charlie Weis, junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen and sophomore wide receiver Michael Floyd have received national accolades for each of their performances. The duo helped lead the Irish to a 35-0 victory over Nevada.

Clausen is one of four nominees for the AT&T All-America Player of the Week award following his 15 of 18 for 315 yards and four-touchdown performance against the Wolf Pack. Fans determine the recipient of the weekly award by Jimmy . There is no limit on fan voting and the winner will be announced during Thursday’s ESPN college football game.

Floyd caught four passes for career highs of 189 receiving yards and three touchdowns. His receiving total was best among Football Bowl Subdivision players in week one. Floyd was named National Performer of the Week by College Football Performance Awards.

The Irish return to the field this Saturday when they travel to Ann Arbor, Mich. to face the University of Michigan.

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The Nevada Wolf Pack took the field on Saturday afternoon with an explosive Pistol offense invented by their Hall-of-Fame coach Chris Ault, but left South Bend feeling as if they were left with a BB gun offense.

After a 35-0 victory over Nevada, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish got their 2009 season off to a tremendous start. The Irish scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and never looked back.

The victory for Notre Dame raises expectations for a team looking to assert themselves as BCS contenders and prove themselves as one of the elite programs in college football. Certainly there were many positives to take away from such a convincing victory, but there were also some problems that need to be addressed before the Irish head to Ann Arbor next Saturday.

Positives

Obviously, the offense looked impressive and executed as if it was not the first game of the season. Jimmy Clausen’s 15 for 18, 315 yard, 4 touchdown performance was as good of a start as anyone could have asked from the team captain who now leads the nation in passer rating.

The receivers looked polished as Michael Floyd and Golden Tate proved they deserve to be considered as the best duo in the country. Tate finished with only 3 catches for 59 yards, but also blocked well and grabbed the attention of the Nevada defense. Floyd on the other hand, put together one of the best performances from a receiver in school history with 4 catches for 189 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Michael Floyd: 4 Catches, 189 Yards, 3 TD's vs Nevada

The running game showed some improvement from last season and the offensive line showed some promise as well. Armando Allen looks like he’s become stronger and led the way with 78 yards on 15 carries to go along with a touchdown. The team as a whole gained 192 yards on the ground, outgaining one of the nation’s strongest running games in 2008.

The pass protection for Irish quarterbacks was excellent all day long and Nevada was unable to record a sack all day long. Another positive was that the offensive line looked very mobile and strong on the numerous screen passes that were dialed up by Charlie Weis.

On the defensive side of the ball, Notre Dame deserves credit for shutting out one of the stronger offenses in the nation. The Irish defense continually harassed Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick blitzing 37 out of the first 50 Wolf Pack snaps.

The Irish limited Nevada to only 184 yards on the ground, well below their 2008 average, and denied the Wolf Pack the opportunity to establish a consistent passing attack. Safeties Harrison Smith and Kyle McCarthy played well combining for 15 tackles and McCarthy also intercepted a ball as well.

Linebackers Brian Smith and Toryan Smith led the way with very strong games including a combined eight tackles, four tackles for loss, and two sacks.

The special teams play was limited as Notre Dame did not attempt a field goal throughout the entire game, but freshman kicker looked steady in his extra points and kickoffs. As usual, the Irish kickoff coverage was smothering and dominant.

Negatives

There are a few negatives to dwell upon for Notre Dame. Although they kept Nevada off the scoreboard, the Wolf Pack could have easily put up 20 points having missed a field goal, fumbled at the five yard line, and failed to convert a fourth down deep in Irish territory.

Even though the heavy Irish blitzing attack harassed Kaepernick all day long, Notre Dame continually over pursued into the Wolf Pack backfield as running back Taua gashed through the defensive line for big gains. Taua averaged 6.3 yards per carry and was able to net over 100 yards on the ground as the sole bright spot for Nevada.

Another thing the defense must work on is wrapping up tacklers, especially in the backfield. When the Irish were able to surround Kaepernick, the elusive quarterback was able to sneak away and turn losses into decent gains. The Irish will want to make sure they tackle better in the continuing weeks.

On offense, Clausen and company pretty much had their way the entire contest, although the offensive line still seems to lack the big push up front. Still, the Irish racked up a lot of yards on the ground but only ended up averaging 4.3 yards per carry.

Summary

This was a very strong opening week win for Notre Dame and a very good warm up for the Michigan Wolverine spread option attack. I would have liked the Irish to stretch the field a bit more, particularly with Rudolph, but I get the sense Weis was playing it rather conservative.

Out of Notre Dame’s first 40 snaps on offense, 22 came in either I-formation or in a two tight end set. Clearly, Weis wanted to establish a power running game right from the get-go and wanted to see what Allen, Gray, and Riddick could prove.

Probably the most inspiring part of this victory by the Irish was that they came out to play from the opening kickoff and that we saw numerous backups contribute effectively throughout the entire game.

With many backups in by the fourth quarter, it would have been nice if the play calling didn’t go into a shell in typical Weis fashion. Hopefully, in the coming weeks we will see more than just a series of running plays when the Irish take large leads into the second half.

Three Stars

1. Jimmy Clausen

This was a no-brainer as Clausen put together his second straight near perfect game.

2. Michael Floyd

Despite only four catches, Floyd put up the eighth most yards in Notre Dame history and is proving himself to be one of the best receivers in the country. Most of all, Floyd showed top-end speed that looks downright scary given his size and strength.

T-3.

Brian Smith

Brian Smith was the most active Irish defender and looks like he could be the number one linebacker on the team once again. On numerous plays he was in the in the Nevada backfield wreaking havoc and forcing Kaepernick into mistakes.

T-3.

Manti Te’o

Te’o only saw limited action, but looked every bit the number one defensive recruit in the nation. He had three huge hits, including two tackles and seems as if he is so much stronger and faster than anyone else on the field. It wouldn’t surprise me if Te’o is starting soon.

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