- Brian Kelly is in his first year as head coach for the Irish after accomplishing unprecedented feats as Head Coach at Cincinnati.
- Quarterback Dane Crist replaces last year’s starter Jimmy Clausen who was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in April’s NFL Draft.
- This team (and its fans) have been through a lot lately. Last year was the final year of the five-year Charlie Weiss era, which saw the Irish football team perform at historical levels of failure. The Weiss era followed the Ty Willingham era, which was just three years and despite his lack of success, the fact is that he never had a chance given such short tenure. The alleged facts are that ND wanted Urban Meyer and fired Ty so that they could get him, but Urban went to Florida, which is when they hired Weiss. And to further complicate matters, the only reason they hired Ty was because of the George O’Leary mess. O’Leary was hired then almost immediately fired due to the untimely exposure of the lies on his resume. Prior to the Ty era was the Bob Davie era, which is quite forgettable. BUT, prior to that era was the Lou Holtz era. And he was great. He won a National Championship for Notre Dame in 1988 and almost followed it up in 1989 and 1993. His last year with the Irish was 1996 and fans still miss all of those AP Top Ten finishes.
- Things to know about Notre Dame: The Golden Dome (which is why ND students are called Domers), Knute Rockne (that’s why they call Notre Dame Stadium “the house that Rock built), Touchdown Jesus (Jesus is on the back of the library and from inside the stadium it appears he is signaling for a touchdown), the Four Horsemen (four players in the offensive backfield given this name in 1924), the Gipper (his ghost still remains on campus at Washington Hall and Rockne attributes Gipp’s story as well as the quote below that he gave from his deathbed to propelling the underdog Irish over undefeated Army at Yankee Stadium in 1928).
- The famous quote from George Gipper, who died after contracting pneumonia (Ronald Reagan plays him in the 1940 film “Knute Rockne—All American”):
I’ve got to go, Rock. It’s all right. I’m not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.
