Just like to take to the opportunity to wish everyone on the board a very Merry Christmas, with hope that everyone is able to make it to Mass this Christmas wherever you live. We are snowbound in the Northwest, but should be able to get out tomorrow. #2 son ('06) will be home for Christmas, God willing, from Chicago on Christmas Eve.
GO IRISH! BEAT HAWAI'I!
onehipdad | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 5:53 pm | #

Aloha also means goodbye.
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 7:16 pm | #

Hey now! We won't all be at Mass! Not all ND fans are Catholics. SOME of us are Irish protestant! (Don't shoot!)

Merry Christmas all the same!

Go Irish!
DayBreakBoys | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 8:42 pm | #

Merry Christmas to all.

Hopefully this is not a repeat of Faust's Hawaii Bowl experience - history never repeats... This game will be telling. If we play uninspired, then Weis may have lost this team. Hawaii is, like us, inexperienced. A really pumped up ND should be able to dominate, a flat ND will lose a close one.
Old Fan | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 9:51 pm | #

Kevin White up to his old tricks. Cutcliff gets 2 year extension after an 4-8 season at Duke.
NDcivil03 | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 9:59 pm | #

anonymous, you took the words out of my mouth.
NDdallas | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 11:45 pm | #

The thing about ND football is that it's always about the past, even when it's not...
www.southbendblarney.com | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 11:48 pm | #

So ... the version of this post that originally hit my RSS reader actually did with "In some circumstances, aloha can also mean goodbye." Did you decide that was too pointed, Jay?
John | Email | Homepage | 12.21.08 - 11:55 pm | #

* actually did end with, I mean
John | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 1:10 am | #

Duke's extension for Cutcliffe makes it clear that an improvement by 3 wins, in this case from 1-11 to 4-8, counts as substantial. Here's hoping the Dookies and the Irish each add another 3 or more in 2009.

The comparison to Faust's trip to Hawaii is interesting. I don't get the sense that Weis is struggling with the same "losing the team" issues that Faust had, but I could certainly see a similar outcome for the game. The Irish need to play their best game of the season to win.
Louie | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 8:06 am | #

I'm taping the game and will look at when I get the chance....no way I look at football on Christmas Eve.

Don't tell me who won!
captain jack | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 9:57 am | #

I'll I want for Christmas, is a win. Hopefully the fat man can bring one. I'm taking about santa everyone ....hehe. Good luck to all the players, make us proud again!

Merry Christmas to all :)
NOEL | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 10:09 am | #

"Though it could be argued Faust played the tougher schedule". It could also be argued that Faust had way more depth and talent that Charlie has over the last two years. Faust took a team that was expected to win the national championship and made us mediocre. The only people who think Charlie has had a team that could make a run at the national championship are the ND fans who think a good quarterback with no defense and a crummy offensive line should be enough.
Michael | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 11:18 am | #

In hiring Charlie ,ND made a "Faustian" bargain.

The irony is, both these gentlemen "got" ND in the context of institutional values .

Hopefully, after next year, things will change for the better.
Dana Payne | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 11:19 am | #

DayBreakBoys;

Irish Protestant and you still love Notre Dame? Excellent! I'm glad you didn't default to that team from Syracuse who used to call themselves 'the Orangemen'. Or to William (of Orange) and Mary, for that matter.
Joe Subway | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 11:45 am | #

John,

It was pointed out to me that it appeared as if I may have inside information about something transpiring, which I don't. So I lopped off the end.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 12:01 pm | #

Jay: Got it! Makes sense to me.
John | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 12:03 pm | #

1. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks for the channel to intelligently and intellectually discuss ND football.

2. I tell my friends at Duke to keep Coach K as long as possible. Once White gets control of their Basketball program, forget about ever being invited to the NCAA tournament again.

3. Aloha for CW. I clearly think he deserves another year given the status of the program when he took over.

4. Big problem for CW is that his name is now becoming synonymous (branded to use a marketing term) with losing football games.
Peter | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 12:06 pm | #

Actually Peter, wasn't the ND Men's Basketball team invited to 2, if not 3 NCAA Tournaments during Kevin White's tenure? Plus, wasn't he still the AD when the JACC rennovations were put in motion? I think with the exception of football, Kevin White did pretty well for Notre Dame.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 12:32 pm | #

Oh, don't get me wrong, Duke will be very unhappy if they only go to 2 or 3 NCAA's in the next 10 years, but they are starting from a different place than we were.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 12:35 pm | #

re: Erik '04

Precisely put Eric... White did some good things for other sports at ND... hockey , women's soccer, baseball etc.

Unfortunately, he was a willing participant in one of the greatest travesties in US Sports history ... the de-emphasis and commercialization of ND football.

Usually, when people point out his accomplishments in 'other' sports at ND they are covering up his failures with the football program.
Peter | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 12:58 pm | #

Anyone have any insight into the "personal" reasons Gary Gray won't be making the trip? And anyone have an update on Darin Walls' coming back for next year?
Mark | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 1:47 pm | #

... the "personal" reasons Gary Gray won't be making the trip?

Huh? Uggghhh ...
John | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 2:01 pm | #

"Reserve cornerback Gary Gray did not travel with the team to Hawaii for the always foreboding 'personal reasons,' according to team spokesman Brian Hardin. No further explanation as yet, but read into that what you will."
-This according to the Chicago Tribune's Brian Hamilton.

So what are we reading into it?
Mark | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 2:35 pm | #

There's a presser in Hawaii today. I'm sure CW will be asked about Gray.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 2:42 pm | #

There were rumblings about him being unhappy with PT earlier in the season so wouldn't be shocked if he is transferring especially given that Walls is coming back, Blanton has surpassed him, McNeil is still ahead of him...Sergio Brown may be ahead of him next year also.

This would hurt the depth though at CB, especially if Marlon Pollard decommits to UCLA. Also, EJ Banks tore his ACL in his last game so who knows if he will be ready next year.
jason | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 2:59 pm | #

I'm so sick of players transferring because they're second-string.

Do they want to go pro? Playing time on a lousy team isn't necessarily better than backing up on a good team. Extreme example, but look at Matt Cassel.

Do they want to just have a good 4 years, then move on? Well, you're not going to beat the combination of education and networking at ND.

Are they just sick of how much they suck? Do they know more about the state of the program than we do?

A "fresh start" (come on, Yeatman!) isn't going to make everything better if you're not willing to work for it.

Maybe that's the problem with these transfers. They succeed in high school on talent alone and expect it to last their whole life. I guess you see that in class too. All of my classmates blew their peers out of the water academically in high school without trying. When they got to ND, they found out they needed some effort, and some could never adjust to it.

I just hope I'm not giving players like D. Jones, Reuland, Carufel, and Yeatman enough credit, and all their transfers were well-reasoned and level-headed decisions...

...if not, grow a pair and get some initiative, for goodness sakes!
Matt '09 | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 4:44 pm | #

I can't imagine that a desire to transfer would outweigh a free trip to HAWAII. Take the free trip, then transfer.

A more likely reason (I think) is a relative is ill and Gary wants to spend time with him/her at the hospital. That might not get disclosed right away either, if the family doesn't want it to be.
Erik '04 | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 4:59 pm | #

"Do they want to go pro? Playing time on a lousy team isn't necessarily better than backing up on a good team. "

What does backing up on a poor to mediocre team do for you? ND is far from a good team.

Secondly, I suspect CW's recruiting strategy has consisted of a lot of promising of starting time. That is just a hunch from all of the transfers. Most seem to transfer because they are 2nd or 3rd string. I know a lot of coaches probably recruit this way, but I'm guessing this is a side effect.
Steve | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 7:29 pm | #

Another problem with Charlie:

He is running around to five star recruits promising a easy ride to the NFL as well as nationwide tv playing time exposure. Given his ( Charlie's )perfomance thus far, recruits will soon realize that if they have the talent (NFL quality ) they dont need to go to ND with Charlie to make the NFL.

The real problem is that ( ala the 70's Pitsburgh Panthers ), they will play only to enhace their own prospects and avoid injuries; winning or devotion to the college team is irrelevant.

Always, it ends up with Lou ... find players who want to go to and play for ND !
Peter | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 7:52 pm | #

I wouldn't assume Gray is transferring.
Jay | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 9:32 pm | #

Agree Jay, rumor is not of a transfer.
OC mj | Email | Homepage | 12.22.08 - 10:03 pm | #

There was no further explanation for the absence of reserve cornerback Gary Gray, who did not make the trip to Hawaii. Weis evaded a question about whether Gray will be part of the Irish program moving forward.

"This case was personal," Weis said. "He had to go home. I'll leave it at that. We have to wait and see what happens."

http://blogs.chicagosports.chica...words-in- t.html
John | Email | Homepage | 12.23.08 - 1:08 am | #