Notre Dame Football: 3 Thoughts from the Bye Week

It’s Navy Week.

A time to start stressing about how we will play against that obnoxious triple option. I’m already having thoughts that the Navy Midshipmen will inevitably throw a deep pass for a TD on Saturday just to make us go insane.

But, before these thoughts have happened, I was in relaxation mode on Saturday. I love Notre Dame Fighting Irish football, but bye weeks give us less stress, and they are awesome. I got to watch other games while also getting involved with a big event in South Bend (more on that later). Even though there is no game to recap, I want to offer you my thoughts about what a bye week is like in the world of Matty G. There were a few cheeseburgers involved, obviosuly, but I’m not going to talk about that. This is unsolicited, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Matty G’s Bye Week Musings

It’s awesome just to watch games on a Saturday.

I wasn’t waiting for or stressing about our game. It’s incredible to get up and turn on College Gameday while not worrying about what we might do that day. I can let other fans freak out about their games. I saw this with Michigan-Michigan State. Bye weeks are a time for me to remember why I love college football - because I can bask in the glory that is other games while having zero stress that day.

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

When the Irish are good, bye weeks are even better.

This past week wasn’t just a relief from the stress. It was a chance to puff out the chest a bit while having a Top 4 (now Top 3 - thank you cheeseburgers) team. This was a welcome break because I could fully enjoy the success that the team has had so far. The bye week this year was welcome in a different way. All good stuff.

I got to experience a cool, non-football event in Notre Dame Stadium.

It was a bye week, and I still found myself in Notre Dame Stadium. Yes, I went to the Garth Brooks concert there. What a time that was. An awesome experience and show. That was my non-football activity for the bye week day. During the concert, Garth played “Hey Jude” by The Beatles, and he cut the music to hear the whole stadium sing the “Na Na Na Na” part. It was really cool. It got me thinking that if our fans could do that for a home game (or something similar) like Washington State’s fans singing “Back Home” by Andy Grammer, that would be incredible. A scene that could be unique to us and show some stadium solidarity. The chant from that song was chilling, and it is something that I think could work with our fans. Obviously, that would take people actually buying in, but I can have pipe dreams on a bye week.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images