Bagpipe Monday: Can Notre Dame Survive Destiny’s Path?

Welcome to another Bagpipe Monday on One Foot Down! Friends, it’s finally game week for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Clemson Tigers await the Golden Domers at the end of the week in the Cotton Bowl, and there has been a healthy dose of naysaying going around. The Irish are two touchdown underdogs, so the easier and more common conversations have been steered in that general direction.

@phillykelly

And that’s fine — it’s absolutely fine. This isn’t an article bashing those that are bashing the Irish (although I’m almost certain I’ll post one of those later this week — just for fun). No, that preamble was just a gentle reminder of what is in store for Notre Dame this week and possibly next week.

What’s more important to me right now is the idea of destiny.

It’s a word that gets used quite often in sports, but rarely holds much meaning. The “team of destiny” is oftentimes the best team, so that meaning is lost in translation as the best team wins the title.

Regardless of the results, we all have a destiny. Often times it’s a brutal and cruel kick in the nuts. Notre Dame’s 2012 football season was an excellent example of all of that. The way Notre Dame kept winning close games, and just the overall history of the program — that team of destiny moniker was thrown on the Irish pretty easily. That was, until, Alabama showed up and stuffed destiny down our throats.

It was so vicious and so jaw-dropping that six years later, Notre Dame still has been unable to shake that moment from the public conscious. It’s pretty unfair to this 12-0 team, especially given the fact that only a small handful of coaches from that 2012 team are still in South Bend. How can any reasonable person begin to use the 2012 team as a talking point for this season?

Well, that’s what destiny is sometimes... unreasonable.

What lays ahead for the Irish this time around? If it’s something similar, how much damage will it do to a program that finally (in year 9 with Brian Kelly) looks like they are capable of sustained success with a 22-3 record over the past two years? Does destiny’s path open up and welcome Notre Dame, or does it go around the bend into a storm of darkness and uncertainty?

We’re going to find out the answer to most of these questions on Saturday. Without sounding too dramatic or just some guy that’s too full of hyperbole... it’s the most important game in the last 30 years. How this all goes down will help define the next decade.

Maybe that is too dramatic and maybe it is just hyperbole — but that’s what it feels like, and that’s what moments of destiny feel like. Are we ready?

Enjoy the pipes (which are being substituted by the greatest Christmas song ever)!