As I promised to Ben, I will attempt to provide a glimpse into the insanity and pure enjoyment that is a ND football home game, particularly one in times such as these. What times, you ask? Well, all you need to know about the Weisage shall be explained in good time, oh inquisitive amoungst you.
Not counting the weeklong anticipation for the game, the football weekend began on Thursday with a large pep rally sponsored by one of the guys dorms. Plates were broken over heads, Brady Quinn and other stars spoke motivationally while girls (and some guys...) swooned, and God's instrument on the feild, Weis himself, appeard to speak breifly. Regretfully, the festivities ended early due to inclimental weather (namedly, a lot of rain) but people still had fun. After, those so inclined set out to local apartment complexes and other off campus venues to begin the ritual here-known as "pregaming". Further revelry was had on the quad, but all I heard of this was the screams. And the resulting muddy clothes... Friday classes were more or less ignored, as what appeared to be roughly half the student body slept in. After class Friday, (or perhaps during?) the pregaming resumed, as did other assorted insanities. Games were to be found aplenty on the quads, there was a showing of Rudy on an inflatable screen, several rooms in Stanford were converted to one of the biggest un-fined in-dorm parties on campus (at least, I don't think they got fined...) which attracted females from across campus with the flashing lights and blaring speakers. Not to mention the whispered claims of over fifty cases having been secreted about the rooms. Claims I beleive were only slightly, if at all, exaggerated. Yet here I neglect the key moments of the night. At around 4:30, dorms began massing and donning spirited apparel before making the (distance varying by dorm, ours is quite far away) almost mile sprint to the JACC, where the "official" pep rally was to be held. The Gentlemen of St. Ed's went topless with naught but kilts to protect their manhoods, while the more intelligent (or modest) men of Stanford Hall wore matching green shirts in honor of being irish, from stanford, and hating the choice of yellow (fine, gold) shirts for the student section. Imagine the JHS student body, all of it, packing into the Moyer. This would be accomplished by having students stand in the aisle, on seats, basically everywhere. So close together that they need to turn slightly sideways at times to fit. Then imagine a bhs player walking on stage and taking a crap. In front of us. Picture that rage. Hold it in your mind. Maginfy it by a a hundred, and you have the energy level and pure, unadulterated hatred of our crowd. I would have been terrified to be the "michigan state student{" who came out to aid in firing the students and more energetic alumni up. At games, one chant we do is "Kill, Kill, KILL!". And I'm pretty sure the majority mean it. Mob mentality is a frightening thing. After numerous different cheers that shook the massive, yet completely full, fieldhouse and performances by the cheerleaders, dance team, and band, they brought out Sir Weis and the ND Fighting Irish. Captains and an old coach (who's name escapes me, sadly....he's famous, though. Won lots of games. Things like that) spoke, before Weis took the mic and told us to be fired up, not get too drunk BEFORE the game, and be quiet when the offence had the ball and scream our heads off when we were on defense (apparently, this was a revelatoin for some people...they don't know how to be quiet at a football game). Then the Stanford Syndicate, a group of stout lads "louder than your mother" gather others about them and headed over to the women's soccer game...note that we have always attracted offcial notice of cheerleaders as being louder than them and have yet to get kicked out of a game...or to have a soccer team lose under our encouragement) to yell loud cries of Olay! and Zahm's Gay! while applauding and thumbing-up a ref named Dick. (Can you tell I'm tired at the moment? yeah...)
For most, friday and saturday were one day. For me, I got 5 hours of sleep, from one to six, before being awoken by masked and armed upperclassmen to take a lovely morning jog through two fountains, one dyed green and one dyed blue, and trek at a trot over to the stadium...in nothing but the pair of shorts I happened to have on in bed. I again popped a lense out of my glasses while showing my manliness by jumping through a fire-hose stream of water (a feat no others attempted, proving I was more badass than they) while kiwi's and phone books flew about us. This was our training in dodging opposing fans and doing whatever we must to reach our goal -- the ND stadium on Game Day. Afterwards, we all showered (separately) and naped (also separately) before grilling food in the quad (this was done together...you shoulda seen that grease) and offering bacon to passing female joggers. Surprisingly, a few even had some.
After this were the countless tailgating parties and other pre game fun things that I barely experienced. The game itself...how can I describe ND's entire student body packed into a corner of the stadium screaming their heads off? The amazing band filling the entire field, bellowing the worlds most powerful fight song? The cheerleaders beating up the opposing mascot (that was staged, but still funny)? The emotion of going down big and coming back to win--oh wait, that WASN'T a safety and we're in overtime? WTF?!?! (still a little bitter about that and the fumble on the one yard line by our fullback who I swear didn't run for a single positive yard all game yet ended at least 3 drives by losing the ball or getting taken down in the backfield)
Yeah, ND lost by 3 in overtime, but the game was great. State played well, took advantage of our crap, but we should have beaten them. Our O-Line was owned (to the point my amigos seriously considered lobbying for me to be put in...yeah, some of them were slightly drunk, but they did see me clothesline and gut check large juniors during our no-pads section football event a few nights previously...that was fun times). But the fans...the fans were amazing. Give JHS those fans and they'd win state every year. Our freshman team could win state every year. Its truely frightening how powerful a collegiate student section that wants to win can be.
The post game celebratoins were almost no existant, due to the loss. I hear some state kids lost thier dignity (and some blood), but that might just be drunken bragging. I may post further commentary in a few weeks after we win at home.
But now, I need to sleep...cause I have a ton of homework, studying, and interhall football scheduled for tomorrow.
Go Irish!
-JB
9 comments:
Douglas Puett has no soul.
Yeah... I really don't. I did apologize, however. Anyway, God, I wish I went to ND at times... my football game... defintely not the best. The whole thing seemed like a big high school game. Cornell even does the stupid little tricks that High school teams do. I was really disappointed. Like huddle up before the kick-off to disguise which way the ball is going, but the kicker sucked, and the only reason the ball didn't go out of bounds everytime was he got somre really lucky bounces. He couldn't even kick it inot the endzone everytime. And on PATs, they would line up on the right, and then shift over, but they couldn't even do that right, they were slow, and sluggish, and pretty much killed any advantage they gained by their petty manuever. Oh yeah, and every other play was a qb sneak. WTF? The sad thing was, that it worked. Fuck, QB sneaks don't even work in High School, remember the Beaverton game Junior year? Paul Wilson got owned. Up the ass. So yeah, my team is basically a bigger jv team. OOOh, big momoent: all the freshman got to "rush" the field, but in reality it was a very synchronized exercise, which ended with pmsing women literally nudging us to get off the field, because the game was supposed to bve starting, and maybe if we sprinted, we'd be able to start the game maybe 15 seconds sooner than not.
Yeah, I'll post about Hockey when it comes around... Cornell's version of ND football
A couple of things, JB. First, that was not a safety. I was watching on TV(and rooting for ND by the way) and he clearly got out of the end zone. It was a good call by the refs. The same can not be said about the "fumble" by the fullback on the one yard line. That one actually did get into the endzone. Although you were completely right about his yardage total: 5 carries, -1 yards. And I personally think the reason that you guys lost was that you didn't run once with a running game that, while it did suck in the first half, was picking up steam and turning into a real weapon. Anyway, just wanted to let you know.
By the way, we put up a replica "Play Like a Champion Today"(the one that the players touch before going out on the field) sign in my dorm, only we covered the H in champion.
Sorry for commenting so much but I wanted to add to my previous comments. First, Michigan State is a tremendously underrated team. They play very well, especially on offense. Second, when it comes to playing in South Bend, MSU has every last bit of momentum having won 5 straight(including saturday's win) at ND. Finally, those of you who watched the game probably saw the statistic showing that ND has never won a game in which Quinn has thrown 33+(correct me if I'm wrong) passes. This had nothing, I repeat, nothing to do with the loss. The real reason was the lack of a running game in the first half(and OT) and penalties. It isn't a very good sign when you have more yards in penalties than you do rushing yards(as ND did).
Which goes to show that if they gear it up to play they can beat anyone. Which is why they are underrated.
well other than the obvious reasons why does doug have no soul?
They're a good team when they want to be. And I didn't say they geared up to play everyone. In fact they most likely won't end up in the top 25 at the end of the year.
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