What to do with the ND bye week?
UHND.com - Mark Karim Naman
November 3, 2000
I walked into my
office monday morning relieved that the Irish had pulled off a victory against Air Force. As is my usual monday routine, I turned on my
computer and launched an application I wrote called ND Countdown. Every year, I input the ND schedule into this
little application. When the application is
run, it displays the ND schedule, the next opponent and the number of days, hours, minutes
and seconds until the kickoff. When the
window opened, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It
read:
Time Until BOSTON
COLLEGE:
12 Days, 6 Hours,
22 Minutes, 15 Seconds
WHAT??? 12 days??? I
quickly realized that another bye week was upon us. What
is a crazed ND fan to do? My upcoming weekend
was thrown into a world of disarray, and it was only monday morning. What was I going to do on saturday and during the
week that followed? So I began planning
and thinking. I finally came up with some
ideas of things to do during the bye week. I hope some of my ideas will help you to stay
sane for the next 9 or so days.
Get a Physical – All right, so it’s not exactly exciting or a lot of fun. However, after the way this season has gone, I believe all of us could use a check up. I’m sure my blood pressure is at record levels. The Irish have been nothing short of exciting this year. Two overtime games, one last second field goal, a late TD at MSU, a late rally by Stanford and a 3rd quarter rally by WVU. The Irish have allowed their opponents to stay in games for way too long this year. The team, although much improved, has not shown the ability to go for the kill. They get a lead and they let up. The reason? I don’t really care. I just know that when ND is up 18 against Air Force, I should be able to turn off my TV (if I was psychotic enough to do so), and rest assured that the Irish had won. Unfortunately this is not the case, and I watch every minute of the game praying and hoping for miracles to occur (and hoping that the wings, beer and ND team don’t give me the worst heartburn I’ve ever had).
Watch Game Tape
– Did you tape all the games? If so, go
back and watch some of the key moments from the season.
We can learn a lot from what transpired.
Did you notice the defense we were running on the big 3rd in long
in OT vs Nebraska? What really happened on
the TD pass that beat us in East Lansing? Was
Godsey a bad passer or bad for the system (which would not change to fit his style)? Get an idea for how much our team has improved. It’s been a great year, now is the perfect
time to start watching it again. Watch some
old game tapes too. I always enjoy watching
the classic ND games, ND/FSU ’93, ND/PSU ’92, ND/Miami ’88….
Pull Your Hair Out
– Not literally. Take a moment to think
on this question: If I had asked you, before the season started, what 2 games between September 1 and November 1
would be the biggest challenges for the Irish, what would you have said? My answer would have been Nebraska and Michigan
State. Texas A&M, while a big game due to
it’s position in the schedule, did not loom large in my mind. My only worry was that we would overlook the
Aggies. Nebraska was huge for obvious
reasons. If you didn’t include this game
as one of your answers, why are you reading this? Many
of you will disagree with me on Michigan State, but I have good facts to support my
argument that the MSU game was bigger than Purdue or WVU.
First, going into the MSU game, we had lost to the Spartans 4 years in a
row. Second, Davie’s record away from ND
was 4-11, including a 7 game losing streak (and 2 straight at MSU). Third, the game was bigger than Purdue because
Purdue had not won at ND since 1974 (or around there), but MSU had beaten us year in and
year out. MSU was our opportunity to leave a
mark in the minds of the college football coaches, pollsters and fans (of course all of
this thinking was assuming a Nebraska loss). Now
that I look back, I realize that we were good enough to beat both those teams. We had the talent, and the drive to win the
biggest games of our year, but as has become way too commonplace at ND, we can’t seem
to pull off the big victory. It drives me
crazy when I think about the fact that Notre Dame no longer wins the big game. Heck they barely win the smaller games.
Take a Hiatus from
College Football – JUST KIDDING!!! I’m
going to watch plenty of other games, games that will affect ND’s season greatly. Games like Clemson/Florida State, Michigan
State/Ohio State and Virginia Tech/Miami.
Daydream a Little
– Bowl prediction season has officially begun. That
means, it’s time to start daydreaming about all the possible match ups for the IRISH. Will it be the Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl? Catholics vs Criminals could be renewed. I always enjoy beating Miami. I would love to beat them this year. Will it be Florida in the Sugar Bowl? Could we see a repeat performance of the Bettis
blow-up in New Orleans, in the infamous Cheerios Bowl Game?
Will it be Nebraska again? Playing
Nebraska again would be the true measuring stick for the Irish. The game would be on a neutral field, and would
allow the fans to see if the Irish have improved at a better rate than the Cornhuskers. Of course, all you skeptics will be asking
yourselves if we will even go to a bowl. Anyway
you look at it, you can spend some serious time working out the possible future of this
team. When you’re thinking about all of
these match ups, maybe think about this: If you were an offensive coordinator, how would
you beat ND? Me, I’d line up in a 4 or 5
WR set every down. ND doesn’t have the DBs to cover four WRs. And oh yeah, I’d throw to the TE, some thing
we don’t ever seem to do anymore, and we seem to cover it even less.
Play Drinking
Games – I don’t condone binge drinking. That
being said, a friend of mine sent me an email last week with a great idea for a drinking
game. It’s very simple. Every time the Irish run up the middle, you do a
shot. Try it and I guarantee no one will be
left standing at half-time. If anyone that
you play with is still standing, you should be very afraid.
Then again you won’t be in any state to know that you are afraid, but
one day, you will gain clarity and full understand that you’re friend’s drinking
ability is very scary. I’m going to try playing this game with another team. I’ll probably make it through the whole game.
If you would like an easier version of the
game, try doing a shot every time the Irish do one of these: Throw on 1st down,
throw to the TE, or run a play action rollout Pass to the TE inside the 10 (the most
perfect scoring play ever).
So as we glide
closer to the weekend, make sure you have your plan together. The Irish won’t be on TV. Those of us who believe ND Football is life will
be left with a very empty feeling this weekend. I
only hope that some of my suggestion will help. Goods
Luck to You All, enjoy the Bye Week and GO IRISH BEAT EAGLES!!!! (in 8 Days, 21 Hours, 41 Minutes, and 7 Seconds).