Random Thoughts From A Random Guy: Michigan vs. Notre Dame

Here we are. The day of the big Michigan/Notre Dame game. My thoughts, I hate this game. Why? Because I live just outside South Bend, IN. Which in case you didn’t know, is where ND is. Which means, 90% of the people that surround me at all times, are ND fans. And what do I hate the most about ND? Their fans. First let me say, I’m not referring to all of them, just most of them. Some of them, mostly those in my family, I can carry an intelligent conversation about the rivalry or about the school. But the others are delusional idiots. They talk so much crap before the game it isn’t even funny. YOU JUST GOT BEAT BY SOUTH FLORIDA!!!! And you want to talk how your going to walk all over my Wolverines? Seriously? I wasn’t talking crap after we got beat by Appalachian State, I knew we weren’t that good. I know we haven’t been good for the last few years. I can admit it. My Facebook wall has all kinds of anti-Michigan stuff on it from ND fans tagging me in their crap. I’m all for rooting for your team, but I guess I’m just more conservative. I can trash talk with the best of them, but I don’t. Don’t tell me Michigan sucks when we’ve beat you 4 out of the last 5 years. Don’t tell me your schedule is harder because you play a bunch of bowl teams but only play 2 ranked teams. According to Wikipedia, there were 35 bowl games, that’s 70 teams who make a bowl. We play 5 ranked teams, we play in a conference with a bunch of good teams. You play the armed forces on a regular basis. The fans I can’t stand are those who you put facts in front of them and they still won’t admit to being down. I understand the media hypes you every year and you hop on the bandwagon, but it has always been this way, get used to it. Just a week ago, some fans were saying they could see ND going undefeated. Seriously? Like I said before, I’m all for rooting for your team, but let’s not be ridiculous.

Just because you’re a catholic school, doesn’t make you better than everyone else. Your old excuse of “We can’t recruit as well because ND has higher standards” doesn’t fly anymore. You lowered your standards when you allowed Michael Floyd back on the team after suspending him for the summer, yes, the summer, you know, when football isn’t being played. So apparently your standards are now, it’s ok to drink and drive if your on the football team, we’ll take care of it. Michigan’s 2nd leading wide receiver got a DUI, he’s being red shirted for a year as a penalty. He can’t play any games this year. That makes me proud of my school. Apparently my school has the standards you say you have. You lowered your standards when you allowed football players to rape a student and then tried to slide it under the rug. So apparently your standards are now, well, I guess you just don’t have any standards. Like I said, that excuse doesn’t fly anymore.

It’s real easy to be a Michigan fan when you can see past the curtain that is the ND perception. I am by no means saying that Michigan is perfect, all schools have problems, it’s how you handle those problems is what defines the school. I don’t like how ND handles their problems, trying to keep them from going public isn’t handling it. I’m not stupid enough to believe that what happened at Ohio State doesn’t happen at Michigan. I’m pretty sure it happens at most if not all schools. I love my Wolverines, but I also see them for what they are. College Students.

Delusional is a word I like to use a lot when speaking of ND fans. They believe every year is their year. They believe they should be ranked every year in the pre-season. The sad thing is, every year they get ranked, somehow. I don’t know why they get so much love from the media. All they do is feed the delusions of the delusional. A friend of mine’s Facebook status earlier this year was, I just looked at ND’s schedule and I can see us starting 6-0. Seriously? I’ll give you South Florida, Purdue and Air Force. You should be able to beat them fairly easy. Oh wait, never mind. But can you serious look right past Michigan State, Pitt and Michigan? Regardless of how ND or Michigan is, it is almost always a close game. Michigan State is ranked and has been good for awhile now (damn it!) and Pitt isn’t exactly a slouch. Do you see what I have to deal with?

I admit it, some of my hatred for ND is because around here, EVERYTHING is Notre Dame. Where is the campus, why it’s in Notre Dame, IN. Yes, they even have their own Post Office. The local NBC affiliate, well, it’s WNDU. If you read the local papers, the South Bend Tribune and the Elkhart Truth, 90% of their front page will have a ND story on it. 100% of the sports section has a lead story with them on it. I’ve always said the president could get shot and the lead story would be something about Notre Dame. I realize it’s probably like this in most college towns, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. And it would be different if they actually give the love to all the sports but they don’t. It’s all about football. I’m not sure they even have classes over there anymore. It may just be a football organization.

As far as tonight’s game goes, my family all gets together, Michigan and Notre Dame fans, and watch the game. My aunt (ND fan) makes the Mexican Salad she is famous for. And she makes a lot of it. My family is a bunch of eaters. I’m the thinnest of the 4 of my generation and I weight a touch over 250 pounds. We are all over 6 feet by a few inches as well so as you can tell, we are some big boys. I love getting together with my family to watch this game because we talk about the game. I can say “Floyd should have caught that” and it’s not a fight. The ND portion of the family will usually agree. I can say “Not sure what Brian Kelly was thinking with that play call” and they’ll usually agree or give me a reason why, such as when we ran that play against whoever and it worked. See a normal conversation about a football game. We do all our trash talking all year round. But they are jokes about each other’s team. No fights over it. No hurt feelings. No crying. They are realistic about their team. When I used to say Jimmy Claussen sucks, they agreed. They realize it doesn’t make them less of fans, they still rooted for him because he played for ND. But they don’t have to like him.

I fear this game because rankings are out the window. Previous records are out the window. It doesn’t matter if we are the better team, or they are the better team. It’s almost always a close game and it can almost always go one way or the other. That’s why I fear this game. Not because I fear ND. I fear having to deal with the delusional ND fans in this area. If they win, I have to listen to them all year. If we win, it doesn’t mean anything to them. They are still the better team, we just got lucky. Whatever! I think I could truly live without this rival. I’m not worried about our offense, I think we can move the ball. I liked what I saw last week. They spread the ball around, it wasn’t just the Denard show. I liked it. I worry about our defense, especially our backfield against Floyd. Maybe our defense should carry a six pack and offer him a beer. Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Hopefully, we’ll see a lot of this.