“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.

Related posts

• Inside The Irish Huddle Notre Dame v Michigan (0)
• Charlie Weis Post-Game Comments vs Michigan (0)
• Jimmy Clausen one of four nominees for AT&T Player of the Week, Michael Floyd named National Performer of the Week (0)

FightingIrishGameday Correspondent

After many months filled with anxiousness and nervousness, Notre Dame took the field against Colin Kaepernick and the Nevada Wolf Pack.

And shut them out.

Some analysts and TV “personalities” had the Irish on upset alert this week, and Weis and his team took this as an insult. In return, Notre Dame held 2008’s No. 3 ranked rushing defense to 153 yards on the ground and 307 yards of total offense. Not to mention, zero points.

Likes

• The shutout. Not only did Notre Dame achieve it’s first shutout since 2002 against Rutgers (42-0), they shutout one of the top rushing offenses in the nation. Although putting 35 points on the board against Nevada is a good sign, it isn’t nearly as impressive as holding them to zero points. Realistically, Nevada only had two or three drives that put them within field goal range.
• Jimmy Clausen. In his last two games, both against WAC teams, he has totaled 716 yards passing (37-45), with nine touchdowns and zero interceptions. He looks like he has finally taken his game to the next level, only making one or two mistakes today. His worst throw came on 70-yard underthrown touchdown pass to Floyd.
• Offensive line play. Luckily for the Irish, you didn’t hear much about the line during the game. Besides a few missed blocks, the line was producing consistent holes for the running backs all day. On one of the first plays from scrimmage, Sam Young was seen without his helme\nt and screaming after gaining a yard for a first down. That defines the terms “physical” and “passionate”.
• Floyd/Tate duo. Michael Floyd is going to get all of the credit on ESPN tomorrow for his 189 yards and three touchdowns. He had a career day averaging 47.3 ypc. However, the unspoken hero in this one was Golden Tate. On two of Floyd’s touchdowns, Tate was the difference maker by throwing blocks for the sophomore left and right. Even though he wasn’t the leading receiver on the day, he was still the first player to lead the charge to the student section. A great sign showing Tate cares more about the team success than his own.
• Reserve/Freshman impact. The Irish could not of played a more valuable game today for many reasons. One of them, however, is the experience given to the backups and second-stringers. Theo Riddick showed that he deserves to see the field this year with his athleticsm. Manti Te’o is a man amongst men. On his first play of his career, he hustled back from being knocked down to prevent a first down. Expect him to nail down a starting spot before the USC game.
• Alex Flanagan. Enough said. I would take her over Erin Andrews anyday of the week.

Dislikes

• Rush Defense up the middle. If you told me we would give up 153 yards against the No. 3 rush offense before this game, I would have taken it without question. The only reason I list this as a dislike is the run-stopping up the middle. The tackles seemed to get pushed around a lot today, which led to some big gains up the middles. If it weren’t for the stellar linebacker production, this could have been a different game. The tackles need to be more physical and be less soft against the run.
• Tackling. Especially in the first quarter, linebackers and backs seemed to be whiffing on a number or tackles. Even Kyle McCarthy, Mr. Consistent, didn’t wrap up on a few. Tenuta should pull out the tackling dummy this week in practice because the defense cannot afford to miss tackles, leading to big gains.
• Soft pass coverage. For reasons uncertain, the Irish defensive backs consistently gave the Wolf Pack receiver’s plenty of cushion. I would have liked to see tighter coverage, especially with the number of bodies the secondary has. The reason for the cushion might have been in order to limit the big plays.
• Cierre Wood and Robert Hughes. With five possible threats in the offensive backfield, it will be a difficult task to get all of them consistent carries. However, I was disappointed not to see Wood on the field today due to his freakish athleticism. Hughes played rather average after not seeing a carry until the fourth quarter. My prediction is Weis names Hughes as the eventual predecessor to Aldridge at fullback.

Related posts

• Inside The Irish Huddle Notre Dame v Michigan (0)
• Charlie Weis Post-Game Comments vs Michigan (0)
• Jimmy Clausen one of four nominees for AT&T Player of the Week, Michael Floyd named National Performer of the Week (0)