Today is the day, you are the team.
So much of sports is about the ride for me as a fan. Some of my favorite seasons of Notre Dame Football have ended in disappointment. 1989. 1992. 1993. 2006. 2012. 2018. 2024 might be the best ride of them all and I don't see it ending tonight.
This team has grit. Character. Leadership. They have good coaches pushing them through. They played the first ever on campus playoff game against an upstart instate opponent and took it to them in front of the world. They went into SEC country and knocked off the SEC Champions who have been competing for national championships for the last eight years (amid a national tragedy that happened in New Orleans the night before they were supposed to play). Now they face a formidable opponent who they have played 19 times. They have tied once, won 9 times and lost 9 times. The stakes are higher than history now.
They're the best of us. Riley. Howard. Jack. Xavier. Pat Fucking Coogan. They live a dream daily that most of us could only do just that. Dream. I would have settled for Rudy. I didn't need to be Tim Brown or Rocket or Zorich or Bryant Young. Rudy would do. Give me a helmet. Let me dress so I can run out of the tunnel. I don't need a championship. Just let me run out one time in full uniform and live that dream. Marcus Freeman said it. He wasn't going to let Notre Dame pass by twice in one lifetime. Most don't get one shot, let alone a second. He's making the most of it and then some. His NFL dream ended prematurely. Suddenly he's here, in this moment, ready to make dreams come true for so many. On the doorstep of ending 36 years of longing in the first season where you have to win more games to make in happen.
They are the best of us. Today is the day. They are the team. Stay buckled up. There's still more ride left.
Go Irish. Beat Penn State.