Sabbatical Over: 2009 Season Nears

VaticanSmoke is firing back up after a few months off. Why have I taken time off? Largely because Notre Dame athletics, particularly football, are dormant during the late spring and early summer. The fact that Charlie Weis is on Twitter has definitely been entertaining. Certainly I have been Twittering a decent bit also (my Twitter page here). And I have been doing meth with Jeremy Mayfield.

The timetable for ND Football between now and the opening kickoff on Saturday September 5th at 2:30pm central standard time in South Bend vs. Nevada is pretty simple. Currently, players are all on campus taking summer school. Freshman arrived on June 21st, while the upperclassmen arrived June 22nd. In addition to summer school, the players are working out both in the weight room and on the practice field. Coaches are not allowed to supervise these workouts, which typically include 7 on 7 drills. Then comes August 8th - the first practice of fall camp.

In my mind, summer - the most relaxing and dullest time of the sports year (coincidence?) - begins after July 4th. Each year about this time a few days after the all star game, I come to the realization that the only thing I am really looking forward to in the world of sports is the Irish kicking off in early September. Since kickoff is still 7 weeks and 2 days away, this final quiet before the storm always seems excruciatingly long. Once practice starts in early August, however, the daily practice reports, injury updates, and countless national articles will begin flowing all over the interwebs, getting me my "fix" just like Jeremy Mayfield does in his RV before races.

We'll get into the specifics and predictions for the coming season later. My only current observation is that it's absolutely amazing what a convincing bowl victory can do for a program. I can vouch for this particularly since the Irish last bowl win preceding the 2007 Hawaii Bowl was the 1994 Cotton Bowl(!). The bowl game performance has provided 7 months of fuel for growing confidence and optimism - which more often than not are key ingredients leading up to any successful season. Imagine how much worse we'd feel if the Irish hadn't had such a convincing performance in Hawaii? The pressure and criticism of Weis and the coming season would be much more unbearable than it already is. The bowl game victory has alleviated quite a bit of that pressure, at least until September 5th.

I realize that lots of teams are optimistic in July! And I've been wrongly optimistic before, certainly. However, the key question that must be answered this fall by every college football team that dares to be good is simple: How will your team handle adversity? The answer is something the Irish have lacked the past two years - Maturity. Maturity is the act of merging in game experience and mental fortitude, while having grounded confidence. The Irish have #1, appear to have #3. Do they have #2? Certainly taking your coach to the brink of losing his job over the past two seasons provides the Irish players with experience in tough situations. Whether they have learned from the past two seasons' lessons will tell the story of this 2009 season.

So check back more often, as I plan to post a bit more frequently than quarterly :)