On Friday night at Notre Dame Stadium, amidst the cold and the snow, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will kick off the first 12-team College Football Playoff in history.
The eyes of the nation will be upon Notre Dame in the primetime affair. After a crushing defeat to Northern Illinois in September, the Irish crawled back from the brink and now have the chance to move forward in the playoffs if they can defeat Indiana.
Far, but surely visible in the distance, a national championship now lies in view. Athletic director Pete Bevacqua recently stated that he and Marcus Freeman are “maniacally obsessed” with winning a championship. They will need to be.
The days of Knute Rockne, of Ara Parseghian, of Lou Holtz, brought glory and 11 national championships to Notre Dame football. They cemented Notre Dame on the Mount Rushmore of college football and established the school as the preeminent team of choice for Catholics across America.
For too long, however, Notre Dame football has lingered in mediocrity. 36 years have now passed since we hoisted a national championship trophy. We have forgone the standard of excellence which our name expects of us. We have rested upon our laurels, content to reap the benefits of fame that our predecessors built upon. We have enjoyed the media attention, the broadcasting deals, the stadium upgrades and the merchandise deals. Despite valiant attempts to return to glory, we have been complacent.
All the while commentators and opposing teams wait in the wings, eager to tear down the champion of old, to cast it off its pedestal. We have an easy schedule, they say. We should join a conference. We don’t win the big games. The old attacks are all too familiar.
Now lies the chance to prove the noise wrong. At our home stadium we have the opportunity to exorcise our demons, to reestablish our glory and pedigree. All the pieces are in place. An athletic program driven to win and committed to expending the resources necessary to make it happen. A head coach admired by the players, who has proven his ability to win. A talented quarterback trusted by his teammates. A team that has been hardened by adversity and emerged victorious.
For the first time in years, Notre Dame Football can truly return to glory. Victory is within reach. We need only reach out and grasp it. The Irish may not hold the place in college football that they once did. Other teams may have more championships, they may have more skill, they may be better funded. But, although much has changed, there is still fight within the Irish.
As the poet Alfred Tennyson writes of the mythical character Ulysses, Notre Dame football is “not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven,” but “that which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”
On Friday evening, the crowd must wake up the echoes and the Fighting Irish, as of old, must ride again, outlined against a blue-gray December sky.
