Of Pep Talks and Seniors

Notre Dame will begin the end of its football season with its last home game tomorrow against Duke, and several Alums tried to give the players some last minute motivation. Most notable are the speeches given by Lou Holtz and Mike Golic.

Holtz's official ESPN Pep Talk, which can be found here at Colonialhead's Irish Blog, emphasizes the importance of representing the university on every down:

"[Notre Dame] stands for intelligence, play smart. It stands for excellence; whatever we do, we do it with class. And it represents faith. You always have faith; you always have a belief you're gonna find a way to succeed."

Holtz also focused on a no excuses mentality:

"It's time to put Notre Dame back where it belongs. We have talent here, that's not the case. It's a matter of a commitment to excellence."

I strongly recommend watching this pep talk. It's easy to see that Lou has a little more emotion when his speech is being directed towards his former team.

Golic, who spoke at the pep rally tonight, also brought up the privilege of being able to play for Notre Dame:

"I played 9 years in the NFL, and was fortunate enough to be able to play in every stadium, but no tunnel gave me the chills that I got when I ran out onto Notre Dame Stadium."

Some may shrug this game off, a contest between two 1-9 teams, but the fact of the matter is that this will be the last home game for many Irish players that have excited us (positively or negatively) over the last few years, and the fans and student body owe it to those players to give them a good showing on Saturday.

The nasties crew will try to get a senior post up sometime soon, but for now, I'd just like to once again acknowledge the season that defensive end Trevor Laws is having. Per the folks at BGS, Laws currently has 98 tackles, which is good for the 33rd rank in the nation. To give you some perspective on the magnitude of this accomplishment: no other defensive lineman is ranked in the top 100.

Go Irish. Beat Devils.