By MICHAEL WANBAUGH
THE GOSHEN NEWS
SOUTH BEND, Ind. —
Here at the University of Notre Dame, where “Touchdown Jesus” gazes down from on high and football legends tend to blend into the crowd, history and faith are seemingly stitched into the same cloth.
At the stadium, 11 national championship banners hang from the tunnel under the north end zone bleachers, swaying majestically in the breeze.
At the grotto, loyal alumni light candles before kickoff, kneel at the alter and pray for an Irish victory.
Throughout the campus parking lots, Grade-A steaks hiss on tailgate party grills and coolers full of beer seem bottomless as game-time approaches.
And at the Sacred Heart Basilica, football players in jackets and ties, sit in pews and listen carefully to a homily before heading to the locker room to suit up.
“This is one of the great places on earth,” said one Notre Dame fan from New York through his thick accent. “I believe that we got the right coach and we’re headed back to the big time where we belong.”
After nearly a generation of mostly mediocre seasons, the Notre Dame football team opened its 2010 season with a solid, 23-12 win against a Purdue squad most consider a middle of the pack team in the Big Ten this year.
It wasn’t a thrashing, but it was a win that instilled hope in the Notre Dame nation, mostly because of the man who orchestrated it, first-year head coach Brian Kelly. Not that Irish fans will be fooled by a single victory from the new guy. They’ve been down that road too many times in the past decade with the likes of Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis.
“It’s a good start,” the fan from New York continued. “I have faith in coach Kelly, but I’m not expecting miracles.”
Both Willingham and Weis were hot out of the gate when they arrived at Notre Dame, but their front-loaded success deteriorated into substandard tenures by Notre Dame expectations. Willingham won his first eight games as Irish head coach, but won just 13 more during the rest of his three years in South Bend.
Weis, took over with a head full of bravado and a fist full of Super Bowl rings after winning three world championships as offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. Weis compiled a 19-6 record his first two seasons, but each was punctuated with lopsided losses in BCS bowl games. He won just three games in 2007, seven in 2008 and six last year, due in large part to weak defenses.
“I took on the challenge at Notre Dame,” Kelly said after Saturday’s game, “because I want to see this program back to where it should be.”
As the media swarm tried to bait Kelly into waxing poetic about the victory, the veteran coach downplayed the waking of echoes and the bringing down of thunder.
“I tend to focus on the process,” Kelly said. “What I’ll focus on is the things we didn’t do that we need to do to get better for Michigan. …It was a good way to start, obviously. There were a lot of firsts today. First walk from the Basilica. … I’m very satisfied today with our opening win.”
Notre Dame hosts Michigan, another proud program at a crossroads, next Saturday.
All eyes in Notre Dame Stadium were on Kelly as he trotted out of the north tunnel in a blue and gold pullover and slid on his headset.
The Irish won the toss and immediately unleashed the hurry-up offense that Kelly vowed would be a staple of his team.
It’s one win, and Kelly knows it. So do Notre Dame fans who know that recent history hasn’t been too kind to them, yet still have faith that Kelly is just the guy to pen the next chapter of Irish lore.
“The instinct of a champion is being able to sense when an opponent is one the ropes,” Kelly said. “We didn’t do that today. But we will.”
