OK, Maybe 30 Minute Men

Give credit to UMass for coming to play and going to the back of the playbook for several flea flickers.  Turned out to be nowhere near enough and after a little hesitation the Irish put them away in the second half as the boys took care of business.   We actually had to invoke the 4 touchdown rule (turned out it was 5 touchdowns when we left) and headed out to the lots before the game ended.  Really nice feeling to just enjoy the pleasant weather while we ran up and down the field in the second half.  Is this what the month of September always feels like for OSU?

Band Notes-

Meant to mention last week that the Band of the Fighting Irish reinserted one time through of America in the pre-game to address the outcry that Notre Dame did not love our country anymore when America was omitted from pre-game in the opener.  As usual, the band has nothing to say about the time it gets on the field; Brian Kelly and the NCAA and NBC decide that; usually to the detriment of the band.  This year the NCAA added another minute to pre-game practice time so of course the band lost one minute of time so that we could stay on schedule with the 10 minute silence waiting for NBC to actually start the game.  Do you sense some bitterness?

So now what you get is the traditional Irish entrance and hike step, right into flag formation to play one time through America with JT voiceover (no sing-along) drum roll right into Star Spangled Banner.  There is no time for the flag presentation team to walk across the field so the Irish Guard get the flag handed to them right in the corner (BORING!).  The band then quick steps back into IRISH for the Victory March but trust me the fight song will be the next thing to go.  Forget about any visiting band show; that has gone the way of the dodo as has our last sportsmanlike tradition of playing the visiting school song.  Dead and buried in the era of modern football, kind of a shame in my judgment.

Well, sorry for the rant back to modern football.  The Irish looked great on offense and like the Colonel I love the fact that so many guys got to play and show what they can do including backup QB Wimbush who can really sling it.  This bodes well for the future including the near future of this season.  I do not think we had a major injury yesterday, but they will happen and it is nice to know we have some studs on the bench that can come in and play.  We will need them.

Another fork in the road looms next week when we face a very good team and a good QB on the road.  I also believe this team has that special chemistry that may put us over the top and they certainly will be sky high for this one.  Everyone has it circled on the calendar including ESPN Gameday who will set up shop outside Tiger stadium.  Place should be rocking in prime time.  Will be a tough one to win and not a death blow if we lose but definitely a game of the week by any standard.  Prediction later.

GO IRISH!  BEAT TIGERS!

The Godfather