The Notre Dame Hangover: Punching The Clock

Have you ever gone out on a weeknight and just got absolutely wasted? Have you ever met up with some friends at a local watering hole for some dinner and a few drinks, and ended up, 5 hours later, covered in vomit and running down an alley with the cops in full pursuit? Did you wake up 3 hours later on your front porch with your pants around your ankles while your phone alarm has been blasting for 20 minutes plus?

If so, you remember that feeling of OH MY GOD I HAVE TO GET TO WORK IN 30 MINUTES. Sure, you could call off, but staying at home doesn’t payoff the loan sharks that got you that sweet fishing boat (that you’ll fix sometime).

This, in a nutshell, is where the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are right now. They are probably still a bit drunk, but have a wicked hangover headache and smell like sweat and puke as they get back to work.

The Stanford Cardinal football team is heading to South Bend for another home night game, and the Irish have a choice to make. Do they call off of work, such as the end of the 2014 season, or do they clock in and do their job like in the 2010 season?

It’s anyone’s guess right now.

Where is this team mentally? Where is Brian Kelly and his staff mentally? Are they even able to make it to the stadium on Saturday night to clock in for that PREMIUM time?

Frankly, I think it’s going to be a mixed bag. Notre Dame is desperate right now for that “money” and Stanford is a shell of what it has been in recent years. Perhaps Notre Dame and Brian Kelly can sense this with their beer goggles and-

I’m all out of crazy shit to say. To make it simple, it’s going to be interesting to see just how Notre Dame plays against Stanford. Win or lose (and once again this season Notre Dame is the favorite), we are all on the lookout for something that tells us that this team hasn’t died and that it will fight through the rest of the season. Hopefully- and hopefully that translates into wins.

The goal should be more than just clocking in. The goal should be more than just getting enough wins for a bowl game. The goal should be to finally put this mix together and play like the team we had hoped it would be. That alone would be enough to transcend what has happened this season- at least for a primer for 2017.