What made you the maddest about Notre Dame’s 2020 football season?

The college football season is done — IT’S DONE — and the Alabama Crimson Tide won their 245th national championship of the Nick Saban era. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish finished with a 10-2 record and ranked #5. That’s great for 125 other FBS programs, but for Notre Dame fans, somehow it is just the worst.

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

We’re in “look back” mode right now as we try to put the entire season into perspective. I’m generally an optimistic person about the Irish, and I think there is plenty to be happy about with 2020, but we do need to get some stuff out of the way before we throw up a mighty fist pump. If you’re into the whole ying and yang thing — or even just the Ying Yang Twins — this is your chance to be a part of the process.

So what pissed you off this year? What, “whatever TF” had you seeing red and punching holes? What made you call up your parents to demand a DNA test to prove you’re even in the right family?

Blow up the comments with your negative shit storm. There’s no need for debate (at least a lot of it) because we’ll get to the other side of this later this week.

There are many different routes you can go to find the top thing, so I’m going to briefly lay out some of those in this post.

COVID-19

This is a pretty big umbrella, but it’s such an ugly umbrella that we can’t help but include it as part of the main conversation. College football is greater than just the games on the field. In my opinion, the true essence of college football is that it’s 50% what happens on the field and 50% everything else. COVID robbed us of ¹⁄₂ of the enjoyment this year, and that sucked. Here’s just a sample-size of what we missed that makes me Madder than a mosquito in a mannequin factory:

• Tailgating.
• Playing USC.
• That dope AF Friday feeling in South Bend.
• Packed Notre Dame Stadium for #1 Clemson.
• That my home office was better than the press box.
• The last season with Mike Collins.
• Going on the road as part of the Irish War Party.
• The cancellation of a game during the season.

ACTUAL FOOTBALL THINGS

The Irish still played 12 games in 2020 — and that’s with a cancelled game due to COVID-19 [goes back to list to bulletpoint that]. As someone who runs a website, podcast, and a big social media presence — let me tell you... there were a lot of negative comments this year about the team, the narrative, coaches, and more. Here’s a very short list of some of the stuff that stood out:

• What the hell is going on with Braden Lenzy?
• Why is Jordan Johnson on the bench?
• The entire game against the Louisville Cardinals.
• Losing to the Clemson Tigers in a blowout in the ACC Championship game.
• Losing by 17 to the Alabama Crimson Tide in the playoffs.
• Finishing #5 — one spot below the Texas A&M Aggies.
• Shaun Crawford getting beat deep.
• The lack of turnover creation.

And whatever. Notre Dame fans never find a shortage of things to complain about — and that’s okay in this post. Get down there in the comments and get it all out. Purge yourself of the sin of anger, and then we can move on to peace and joy of other things.