Counting down to No. 114
By Ted Fox
Fox Sports ... Almost
Three months and 30 days from today, the Fighting Irish football team faces Texas A&M at Notre Dame Stadium and kicks off its 114th season.
I guess it's not that surprising that I'm already in the midst of this countdown. Any one of the mass of Spartan and Wolverine fans back home that taunted me and my team daily for the last 15 years can testify as to how much I love Notre Dame football.
Case in point: at the Blue-Gold game last Saturday, which the defense won 39-31 using a scoring system that required a degree in math to follow, the players were available for a half an hour after the game for autographs.
Like you might guess, many of these signature seekers were young kids with their parents or older fans just looking to wish the players good luck. And then there was me. A college sophomore, in class with some of the guys whose autograph I was trying to get, and supposedly some sort of sports writer, trying to establish himself as at least a semi-professional journalist.
I felt a little goofy and out of place asking all the defensive backs to sign one of my beat-up sports writing notebooks, which will now be retired from active duty. I didn't really care, though. I'm a journalist only because I'm a fan first.
Fortunately for me, I'm not the only one this fired up about Irish football, counting the days until the Aggies come calling. Sophomore wide receiver David Givens and the rest of the team are looking forward to that September date, too.
Reflecting on last year's 5-7 season, Givens pinpointed one of the forces pushing this year's squad toward reclaiming national prowess:
"When you're on a losing team for a year, you get tired of it; you're ready to win," Givens said. "Everybody has a mentality that they want to be national champs. We want to make the sacrifice — [to] win every game."
The hamstring injury that kept Givens out of the Blue-Gold game — triggered by running so many routes that he overused the tendon — stands as a testament to the team's dedication.
"I wanted to play in the spring game so bad and I just couldn't," Givens said. "I didn't want to hurt myself worse."
The team also decided to form a 15-person leadership council, of which Givens is a member, to make sure everyone stays focused on bringing a 12th national title back to South Bend. Speaking for the entire team, he said: "We agreed to do whatever it takes to win."
When the Irish do take the field in the fall, they face what has to be the toughest schedule in the country. Instead of sprinkling a Rice or a Ball State in the mix, Notre Dame opens with Texas A&M and then follows up with Nebraska, coming off last season's dismantling of Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl and Purdue, featuring Heisman candidate quarterback Drew Brees.
Next, Notre Dame goes on the road to Michigan State, which is fast becoming a national power, and then comes home again to play Stanford, the defending Pac-10 champions. All this before they even hit midterms and fall break.
While it's the most demanding schedule you're going to find anywhere, the players look at it as an opportunity and a challenge to be met.
"If we play to our ability and we win those games, we will get respect that we've been lacking for the last [few] years," Givens said. "We look forward to playing all those teams. We've got the talent on our team [to win]. The other teams that we play don't have better athletes than we have."
When I asked David what the team's goals for the upcoming season were, the list he gave me didn't have things like improve third-down defense or cut down on turnovers, only: "To play in the national championship game."
All those other things are necessary for success, but no one wearing the blue and gold wants to settle for individual pieces of the puzzle. They want to complete the entire picture.
Looking at those signatures on the cover of my notebook, now with a wide receiver added to the mix, I wonder if I'm looking at the names of 15 national champions-to-be.
Three months and 30 days, huh? For once, I don't think summer can move fast enough.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, May 3, 2000
