Notre Lame

On Christmas Eve of 2008 one of the truly great streaks of my lifetime was shattered when Notre Dame won the Hawai'i Bowl against the home team. Nine bowl games and fifteen years, a damn fine run boys! Perhaps more impressive than the beating the Irish leid on the Warriors was the fact that Notre Dame finally got a fair December match up. Now don't get me wrong, I truly hope Notre Dame plays someone who simply outclasses them every bowl season, they are a microcosm of what is wrong with college football and deserve every demoralizing loss to Syracuse they receive. Despite the facts a massive, and oh so fickle, fan base and the Notre Dame name is something every bowl still hopes to rope in, and it will always be this way.

The reason the Notre Dame name did not carry the team to a more prestigious is threefold: the first is the 3-9 record from last year that even a ridiculous contract with NBC until 2010 couldn't polish, after that season Notre Dame lost its pizazz. Second is the 6-6 record this year. Finally there is Lou Holtz. It is important to remember that vast majority of college football teams get a bowl based on this years records; Notre Dame can only be taken down by the perfect storm. But don't expect a fair bout next year:

Charlie Wies put it best when he said: “I don’t think you can be just a mediocre team at Notre Dame. I’m not saying you’re playing for the national championship game every year. But you have to be in the discussion,” Weis said before the team’s football banquet. “If you’re not in the discussion, I don’t think that’s what anyone who went to Notre Dame or roots for Notre Dame would ever be looking for.”

Ole hips is correct The Irish have a sparkling BCS tradition. In fact they were the first team not from a BCS conference to receive a BCS bowl bid, two years before Utah made an appearance to spank Pittsburgh, and since then have received two more bowl bids. Let's Recap:

2001 Fiesta Bowl: Oregon State 41 Notre Dame 9
2006 Fiesta Bowl: Ohio State 34 Notre Dame 20
2007 Sugar Bowl: Louisiana State 41 Notre Dame 14

Ouch.

Don't worry Irishophiles, the recruiting class looks good and already contains 6 of the espn top 150 recruits. In 2009 look for new hips and a new attitude, the Irish will be back to losing BCS bowls, and if we are really lucky, next time they will do it green uniforms.