Wait, what? What is 4pointshooter doing in a football post? Why is he referring to himself in the third person? Okay, he's gonna stop now.
In the wake of last week's minimalist 5WF this week's edition turned into some personal ramblings, and while I did my best to keep it entertaining, I apologize in advance for whatever you may regard as verbose and superfluous. Well, might as well keep this part short. This week's 5WF is after the jump!
You have been granted access to a time machine and can go back to watch one Notre Dame football game live and in person. Which game do you choose?
I watched the 2005 USC game two days later on Star Sports Asia while I was right in the middle of writing American college applications from the Philippines. I was merely considering Notre Dame at the time and after that game, I was pretty sure I wanted to go. As a Korean I’ve always related to pain and longing in an explicable manner (it’s called ‘Han’ in our native tongue and there is no English equivalent: click here for the Jed Bartlet - best ND alum ever? - version) and the painful passion I saw in the faces of the home crowd drew me to Notre Dame in the first place. Falling in love with Our Lady’s university in person, right then and there, would have been something special.
Describe your emotions after a tough Notre Dame loss. Do you get angry, depressed, sad, or full of rage? How do you best move on from the heart break of an Irish loss?
Up until the 11th hour of my college decision cycle, I was virtually a lock to UCLA. They had recently offered me a full merit scholarship, and even placed me in their honors program while Northwestern was too pricey for my family to afford. 3 days before the decision deadline, Notre Dame sent me their financial aid package (this was my equivalent of a 4:30am Bob Diaco visit) and the numbers on that piece of paper swayed my decision. So after every painful loss – ’07 Navy, ’08 Pittsburgh and Syracuse, ’09 Michigan, USC, and UConn, ’10 Michigan and Tulsa, ’11 South Florida and Michigan – the first thought that comes in my head is "I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO UCLA!
I have a few friends that went to school in Westwood and visited the campus in three separate occasions in the last 6 years. The weather is always perfect, the girls – specifically the Asian girls – are unbelievably beautiful and though the football program has been awful, with the two previously mentioned things, I probably wouldn’t have cared about it. I don’t regret my decision to attend Notre Dame – it is still the best decision I have ever made to this day – but in those painful moments after the clock strikes 0:00 and we are the losing end, I like to think about this alternate reality where I’m sitting under a palm tree, wearing shorts and flip flops with a hot Korean girl lying next to me as I proceed to not care about college football.
But how do you best move on from a tough Irish loss?
Notre Dame decides to put you in charge of the in-game musical arrangements. What do you do?
I’m okay with "Shipping Up to Boston" before kickoff. And the mix of hard rock is good at times. I also know that the Band of the Fighting Irish is still an integral part of the football experience so I wouldn’t add too many or completely change the structure of the stadium music as is. However, I would like to add a few U2 songs – "Vertigo" seems like an easy fit before a kick off (and NO I DON’T CARE IF HE’S COUNTING 1-2-3-14), as does "Pride." And am I the only one who thinks the chorus from "Beautiful Day" would be nice at some celebratory point? (Maybe in the fourth quarter of a blow-out win). I am, aren't I?
Do some quick research and give us the one 2013 prospect that you want to come to Notre Dame.
Oh I have more than just one: I want the recent streak of elite D-Line prospects to continue and while Robert Nkemdiche seems like an SEC lock, one can always dream right? Or how about after losing out on Deontay Greenberry last minute (sorry for bringing this up), don’t we need an elite outside the lines WR like Robert Foster or Ricky Seals-Jones? But if I’m indeed forced into picking just one, Vernon Hargreaves III is the name I’d spit out with that gun pointed at my head. VH3 (already like the ring of that nickname) is the consensus #1 CB of this class and ideally a 3 year partner with Tee Shepard in our defensive backfield. Teams already can’t run much against the Irish D with Louis, Stephon and Aaron holding down the line, I’d like for teams not to be able to pass against us too.
The year is 2048 and you are an old man watching the Irish play on a beautiful Saturday with your children and grandchildren. At one point in the game you witness a sideline interview with a bald and aging Jimmy Clausen, back on campus for the first time in years. Let’s assume many of his passing records are still intact---what is going through your head during the interview?
Most Irish fans know the manner with which Jimmy Clausen’s career at Notre Dame started. He pulled up to the College Football Hall of Fame in a white stretch Hummer limo, hair spiked and state championship rings in full display. He committed to play for Charlie Weis and declared that he would win four national championships and four Heisman trophies. In that moment if you were to look up the word "bombastic" in the dictionary, you probably would have found this picture:
We were all excited about what Jimmy could do on the field, but aside from that he was not well received in the social circles of Notre Dame at the time. I remember my first encounter with the guy in January ’07. Notre Dame was its usual snowed in self and I was heading back to my dorm (Knott Hall!) after classes when I felt like there was someone behind me was struggling to control the bike he was on. It was Clausen laboriously controlling his bike not to slip and it was made even worse by the fact that he was not wearing any gloves and was trying to pull down his (mind you he was double hoody-ing) sleeves to keep his hands warm while riding. I got out of the way just in time and he continued on without offering any words of apology – so I yelled at him as he biked away, "IT’S CALLED F***KING GLOVES DOUCHEBAG!"
But by his third year, he had matured by all accounts and he was brilliant on the field. I mean you replace the ’09 defense with the ’11 one and Jimmy Clausen gets an invite to New York. And if I’m witnessing this interview taking place (on the jumbotron obviously) I’m thinking about him getting sacked against Michigan in ’07, then I’m thinking of that perfect pass he threw to Golden Tate against USC in ’09. But at the end of the interview, I would wonder if he ever got those gloves that I told him he should get.
Those are my very personal ramblings, what are your answers to this week's 5WF questions?