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Tell Me About Notre Dame


Vic Mackey

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Growing up Catholic, I had a soft spot for the Fighting Irish. Their games with Boston College and FSU were good games. I remember them playing Aggy for a few years in a row in the Cotton Bowl. I don't hate ND now but my soft spot has worn off.

I do want to see a game in South Bend one day. Was wanting to go real bad when we played them in 2015 opener but was out of town for a bachelor party. I did hear South Bend is not the nicest city, though. 

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First college game I remember watching was 1978 Cotton Bowl. I was 7. That sucked.

Then Joe Montana pulled that comeback off against UH a year later. My grandmother found me almost in tears. (I loved all Houston teams in those days.) She couldn't understand why I was for the locals against our fellow Catholics. Whatever grandma. 

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I grew up Catholic in a community that was almost exclusively Catholic, and I don't remember anyone other than the priest rooting for Norte Dame.  I actually hated them for being a dynasty as I hated all dynasty type programs growing up.

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The fans in SB are the nicest, most polite I've ever encountered at any school.  Docents walk campus and offer directions, suggestions of things to do.  Hell the cops will stop you and ask if you're having a good time.  They have kids on golf carts that'll offer you a ride anywhere on campus if you need one. They have a 25 page handout with things to do if you're from out of town from Thursday night till Sunday.  

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South Bend is not the greatest place. I was shocked on my first trip to ND that we could not find cold beer at the local liquor store. We learned to make sure to bring our own for tailgating after the first mistake.

Cool campus that you need to walk through at least once. You can achieve this by parking in the far grass lot. With that being said, we now pay for the parking that is right next to the stadium. Leaving the games are always a huge clusterfuck.

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3 hours ago, texifornia said:

Their alums are pretty cool and smart usually. Their bandwagon fans are just the worst kind of Long Island/Jersey blockheads, at least out east. Their hype always outstrips their skill, which is inherently obnoxious.

You couldn’t be more right. I encountered quite a few of those bandwagoners a couple years ago when I was in NYC for a business trip.

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Didn't see it posted here, but Connelly previewed their 2018 football team a few weeks ago: https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2018/5/8/17316948/notre-dame-football-2018-preview-schedule-roster

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It’s always hard to feel bad for Notre Dame fans, but I can at least say that I empathize. The Irish have been one of the most consistently solid teams since Kelly took over — they played at a top-30 level even while going 4-8 in 2016 — but it’s natural to be waiting for the disappointment. It did last November, on the heels of a magnificent October.

There’s nothing saying Lea will be able to build on Elko’s progress, and while the offense has upside, there’s nothing saying Wimbush becomes a more successful passer with such turnover in the receiving corps. Depth at running back could backfire as well.

Still, this is a loaded depth chart, balanced with senior leadership and young upside. The offense will be explosive, if sporadic, and the defense boasts a level of experience most coordinators dream of.

There are four projected top-20 S&P+ teams on the schedule, but three (No. 10 Michigan, No. 18 Florida State, and No. 20 Stanford) visit South Bend.

A fourth 10-win season for Kelly is very much on the table, and while there are plenty of close games on the way, the Irish should win quite a few of them.

 

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On 6/25/2018 at 6:46 AM, Al_4_ISU said:

I grew up Catholic in a community that was almost exclusively Catholic, and I don't remember anyone other than the priest rooting for Norte Dame.  I actually hated them for being a dynasty as I hated all dynasty type programs growing up.

I converted to catholicism by chance, I was paying for my daughter to attend Catholic High school a few years ago (she went to school with Joe Castiglione's son at the time), when I began to take an interest to the denomination... Likewise, although I grew up Baptist I was always intrigued by the Fightin' Irish & followed even more once I began mass...

Of course two series with the Irish I have enjoyed watching over the past few years was Oklahoma at Notre Dame & Notre Dame at Texas..!

 

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  • 2 months later...
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On 6/24/2018 at 10:26 PM, Vic Mackey said:

Growing up Catholic, I had a soft spot for the Fighting Irish. Their games with Boston College and FSU were good games. I remember them playing Aggy for a few years in a row in the Cotton Bowl. I don't hate ND now but my soft spot has worn off.

I do want to see a game in South Bend one day. Was wanting to go real bad when we played them in 2015 opener but was out of town for a bachelor party. I did hear South Bend is not the nicest city, though. 

Pretty much identical sentiment here 

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I predicted a few weeks ago that Book would get injured this year. The amount of times he has carried the ball this year was irresponsible by Brian Kelly. Book is too thin and not elusive enough to avoid big hits. Of course BK didn’t care and gloated about Book’s “incredible running ability” in his pressers.

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On 6/25/2018 at 7:49 AM, South Austin said:

Wouldn't mind seeing a game in South Bend.  Heard the female talent up there is sparse, though.

Only college campus I have ever been to (except aggy, but we have a thread on them dumb fucks) where the only talent was cheering, and they weren’t that great. Had it not been for the visitors bringing some in, that part of the trip is a total waste. And it made the bus ride in, which you will have to make unless you VIP. That much worse with some solid (and I mean fucking solid heifers) type of ladies around you that you will undoubtedly question if they couldn’t beat your defensive tackles running Oklahoma’s.

For all of its history it is a very sterile place. More so then the even the desert universities that can’t really do much because of water restrictions and awful heat. The architectecture is Pravda level bad (shit, sort of like aggy but with titles..dejavu). And the grounds look like they just don’t bother with aesthetics, or they simply said fuck it and gave up. Which is sort of fucked up since they basically sit next to a shit load of farmers that should know how to throw a little grass seed down, and plant a couple of fucking bushes.

We drove in from Chicago and we thought we were driving ourselves to the fucking Gulag. In fairness I spend most Saturday’s at southern campuses. Not necessarily large ones, but damn, even the little places like Coastal Carolina have some charm. Southbend has none of that. 

Compared to almost any other university it pretty much sucks. And then there is the Holtz statue. I know he won the 88 title. But with all the shit that went down leading to his eventual dismissal. What possessed them to honor a living man with a fucking statue. Between the Jesse Helms fiasco while at NC State, and the mess at Arkansas. It left those in my group to surmise that it represented their lost hope to ever return to relevance, then it actually did to honor Holtz.

Now, the one thing that was actually cool. In one of the gymnasiums adjacent to the stadium is where all of the former graduates set up shop. Each table will be labeled with the graduation year of the group. I was humbled to sit down and talk to a 90 year old man who could share his conversations with Rockne. Not some journalists bullshit, an actual living former player. It was a neat thing to experience. He was a generous,  patiant, and he spoke very soft. And he thanked me as I left for taking the time to talk.....got a little dusty in there.

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27 minutes ago, notre dame joe said:

One of the few things that's been consistent over 9 years is that BK uses the QB as the 2nd RB, and every year the backup will have to win a game for us. 

Yeah, you're right about that. I just don't understand why BK would still do it when a guy as talented as Book is playing QB. He easily has the best touch and accuracy of any ND QB under Kelly so far.

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2 hours ago, George Clooney said:

Yeah, you're right about that. I just don't understand why BK would still do it when a guy as talented as Book is playing QB. He easily has the best touch and accuracy of any ND QB under Kelly so far.

 

The zone read is his bread and butter play, I doubt he'll ever get away from it.  Kinda like Holtz tried to make Ron Powlus run the option.

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Back in grad school, I shared an office with a Notre Dame grad. He knew jack shit about sports of any kind, was headed for the priesthood until he discovered he loved Physics more than he loved Jesus. Told me he knew two things about football.

1. Notre Dame is always the best team. Always.

2. Notre Dame has the only players who take a pay cut when they turn Pro.

/csb

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I remember seeing Notre Dame live, only once.   It was a Brady Quinn and Justin Tuck led team coming into Provo.   And they lost 20-17.    We originally had them scheduled as the 3rd game of the season, but they wanted a warm up before plying Michigan so with only a couple months before the game, they asked us to move to the game up and switch it with our game with USC, which we did.   

 

Fast forward to 2010, when we announce that we are going independent and they agree to a 6 game deal (two separate H-H-A series).  We play 2012 and 2013 in South Bend, they cancel the last 3 games and have yet to honor the return game to Provo.  I say fuck'em for that.  

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12 hours ago, cmontexas said:

Flying up to see FSU-ND. Was a great idea back in August (93 game was one of my favorite ever games as a kid) before Florida State turned out to be complete shit. Weather forecast calls for snow and temps in the low 20s

Going with my son (his first game in the stadium and he couldn't be more pumped that it's going to be shitty weather).

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I don't get the whole I'm Catholic so I always rooted for Notre dame thing. I grew up Baptist but I never rooted for fucking Baylor.

Yes, well ND is a respected institution on and off the field unlike the mean green rape machine. 

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