Notre Dame should be proud of what their team accomplished in 2012. It didn't end the way Irish fans had hoped but it did serve as a catalyst to this upcoming season and seasons on. I found this quote by Nick Saban at the end of his first season at Bama when he went 7-6. I find it useful when thinking of what he has done since that first year. Keep digging and getting better. College football is way better when the Irish are at or near the top.
“ I don’t think it is normal to be great. I think it’s special. The human condition is to be average and survive. And everybody assumes that everybody wants to be as good as they can be all the time, but that is not true. If that was the case, everybody would be doing fantastic, right? So it’s special to be as good as you can be. It’s special to work to reach your full potential.
It’s hard for all of us. And the people who can do it the most often come closest to reaching their full potential. And that doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t happen in one speech, in one talk. It happens by developing habits over time, developing discipline over time, which changes behavior, which changes judgments, which changes choices, which change how people do things.
We’re making some progress, but we are not where we need to be.”
N. Saban