Irish past the point of "Pep"

It was a blast from the past last night, watching ESPN's Lou Holtz dressed up in Notre Dame garb, giving one of his "Lou's Pep Talks"- a goofy segment which airs on ESPN's college football programming, where Lou puts on the get-up of a team facing a specific challenge that week, and acts as their coach giving the pre-game pep-talk. This week's team: Lou's old team, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Their challenge: Beating a team who is as perennially awful as the Irish are this season: the Duke Blue Devils.

Holtz's pep-talk included all the stuff you would expect: summoning the glory and prestige and tradition that is Notre Dame football. All in all, a decent locker room speech. It certainly stirred up memories of the late 80's-early 90's for me, and not only because it looked like Lou was wearing actual articles of clothing he wore on the sidelines back then- foregoing the sleeker, streamlined dandies worn today by coaches and players alike. And it certainly stands to reason to use these elements of history to inspire these kids who seem to have lost their way, if not their will. I would suggest though leaving all that behind and dumming it down to the simplest of messages: Go out there and just be the second worst team on that field!

Inspiration, it lacks. Reality? It is is chock-full. Duke: You fear them on the basketball court and you run them over on the football field- whether you are Notre Dame or Southern Methodist. But as the case is this year in South Bend- it doesn't need to be pretty, it doesn't need to be dominating. All Irish fans can possibly hope for is for their team to suck less than the Blue Devils, and come away with at least one more point on the scoreboard than their foes. Another notch in the nearly empty W column.

That's all folks: there is no bowl-eligibility this year, and it's too late to win a few to salvage the season. Just Duke this week, and another basketball power in Stanford next week. The echos don't need to be woken up- let them sleep 'til next year. Just find a way to win this battle-of-the-bads, and salvage- not the season- but at least a shred of pride. Lou appealed to the seniors in his "pep-talk," and on senior day in South Bend- let's hope the tears will be more of joy, than of another microcosm of this forgettable season.