The USC-Notre Dame matchup last week was set up perfectly to go
down as a game for the ages.
It was Saturday night, Thanksgiving weekend, on national
television. It was the rematch of last year’s inspiring
matchup in South Bend, Ind., that left Knute Rockne turning in his
grave.
The Bowl Championship Series was hanging by a very thin thread
““ a Ohio State-Michigan rematch? ““ and a Notre Dame
upset in the Los Angeles Coliseum would have provided BCS-kvetching
sportswriters with enough ammunition to start firing cheap shots at
the hypocrisy of college football’s postseason format.
Once again, the Fighting Irish were the flavor of the month. And
once again, they would walk off the field in shambles against an
obviously more talented team.
No. 2 USC’s 44-24 drubbing of No. 12 Notre Dame on
Saturday proved that the Fighting Irish are still living off a
reputation that was built before FDR took office.
The game pitted two teams then ranked in the top six against one
another, but the game really looked like the Indianapolis Colts
playing against a junior varsity high school football team.
And to consider No. 3 Michigan’s 41-17 blowout win over
Notre Dame in South Bend earlier in the year, one has to wonder:
Where are these quality wins that left knowledgeable football
people with the impression Charlie Weis was coaching an elite
team?
Air Force? Navy? Stanford? Needing a miracle drive to beat UCLA
at home? The resume just isn’t there. There are only two
elite programs the Fighting Irish faced all year, and they were
blown out by both of them.
Notre Dame is an above-average football program and nothing
more. Brady Quinn will deservedly be the top quarterback selected
in next year’s NFL Draft, and Jeff Samardzija is a physical
specimen. But the rest of the team is mediocre. The defense is slow
and the offensive line has a penchant for getting manhandled in run
blocking.
It’s not that the Fighting Irish played beneath themselves
Saturday or that the Trojans played a flawless game. It’s
just the first time all year anyone has actually watched the
Fighting Irish. And they soon realized those golden domes were
hollow in talent.
It has become an annual festival as safe as Thanksgiving itself
that a media-bloated Notre Dame squad is showcased in a
high-profile matchup of two so-called heavyweights. But ever since
the mysterious resignation of Lou Holtz in 1996, Notre Dame
hasn’t fielded a team that is worthy of all the flattery.
In fact, Notre Dame hasn’t won a bowl game since 1994,
which means the program’s last four coaches (including Weis)
have yet to win a postseason game.
The Fighting Irish’s all-time bowl record is 13-14, but
they are in the middle of an eight-game bowl-losing streak.
There’s only one explanation for the pitiful showing in bowl
games for the last decade: The Irish are playing in bowls they have
no business playing in and are facing opponents who are far
superior.
It will happen again this year. The Irish will get invited to a
BCS game because of the television ratings and the media swarm that
follows them, but they will get destroyed by whichever legitimate
team they face. Mark it down as nine-straight bowl losses.
So the question remains: Why is Notre Dame so obviously
overrated each season? The sports world wants to prop them up as
something they’re not. It’s that simple.
Media bias has been an accusation thrown around more frivolously
than cliches. (And pundits have avoided talking about the East
Coast bias like the plague.) But this runs deeper. This is a
national epidemic ““ a disease that has altered the perception
of fair citizens in this great land.
It’s not just the media. Each year the media, as well as
the coaches, hand wrap a preseason ranking for Notre Dame that it
has shown no reason to warrant. It’s like performing cosmetic
surgery on a cadaver.
Why, though? The writers and coaches are voting with their
hearts, not their heads.
The fact of the matter is Notre Dame ceased to be
America’s football program during Gerry Faust’s
disastrous tenure in the 1980s, and the program has never fully
recovered. And each fall, those voters who grew up when Notre Dame
was a dominant program are hoping if they put the Fighting Irish
high in the rankings, maybe it will restore the program to what it
once was.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Sports culture would be nothing if it wasn’t nostalgic.
And the timekeepers of these sports have a deep admiration for
history and tradition.
Money has never been at the heart of fandom. For those who
follow their teams with no profits to gain, the generational
linking of families to one team makes for compelling sports, so we
all watch a game and dream of a better time in life that never
actually existed.
In this case, the time when Notre Dame was king really did
exist. But that was so long ago it almost doesn’t seem
real.