A little less than 4 years ago, as a high school senior in Florida, I began my college search. I had visited Chicago-area schools, including Notre Dame, in the spring, but went to the Notre Dame-BYU game.

The game came the week after a close loss to USC (and my prom). We went up, it was freezing, the stands were a little empty due to Fall Break. I loved it.

The team, lead by Brady Quinn, won 49-23. I got put up for 35 push-ups. The spirit, the fans, the experience convinced me to go to Notre Dame.

4 years later, I'm here...

Freshman year, the Irish would go 10-3 with Brady in contention for the Heisman and being robbed by an awful Troy Smith. (He didn't do shit for the Heisman). We would lose badly to Michigan, USC, and LSU - but the season was exciting, Brady was Brady, and our talent was low because of Willingham.

Sophomore year was shit. We lost almost every game. We were awful. But we were young, we had hope, Charlie was still recruiting and there were two more years.

Junior year came. We had hopes, but we were still young and still lacking in developed talent. We would start out well, but have an awful November culminating in a loss on Senior Day to Syracuse. At least we won a bowl game?

And then this year came. We had Heisman hopes (obviously). We had BCS hopes. Shit, Lou Holtz had National Championship hopes.

We loved the Nevada win. (35-0, wtf?)
We begged away the Michigan loss. "On the road. Forcier had a career game. Floyd got injured." (34-38)
We called Kyle McCarthy a great player against Michigan State. (33-30)
We blamed Clausen's injury for not blowing out Purdue. (24-21)
We loved the comeback chops of this team against Washinton. (37-30 OT)
We blamed a fall for not upsetting one of the best teams in the country against USC. (What? They've sucked since then too.) (27-34)
We finally beat BC! (20-16)
That's the offense we all thought we should have against Washington State! (40-14)

THEN IT HAPPENED
Loss to Navy. Loss to Pitt. Loss to Connecticut.

We have the talent to win every game. What we don't have is coaching or passion.

I've deluded myself all season. I'll probably do it if we're only down by 2 or 3 scores against Stanford this coming Saturday at the start of the 4th.

Notre Dame is not good. I will never care about this team as much as I did before Navy until we get a new coach. Until we prove that we can win. Until we actually become an elite program and not the sham Weis has constructed.

I can think of no better way to end my posts on this website.