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Notre Dame‘s slaying of the dragon that was Denard Robinson (on D-Rob’s birthday, no less) and the Michigan Wolverines Saturday night, means a lot of things. Of course, it means that Fighting Irish football is again for real, and to wake up Sunday morning to find Notre Dame relevant—and Rick Reilly not—always means a lot. But if the Irish can string together several more wins, it will mean much more, especially to the legacy of Notre Dame’s Hawaiian linebacker and captain, Manti Te’o.
As a tribute to Te’o, whose grandmother and girlfriend died on successive days two weeks ago, various groups distributed what some guessed were as many as 20,000 leis.
“It was humbling,” Te’o said of the fan support. “Why I came [to Notre Dame] is starting to unveil itself. I felt I was told to come here.”
“Four years ago, I made the decision to come here and I didn’t really know why,” Te’o told the crowd. “It’s times like these I know why.”
Indeed, Saturday night may have been the day Te’o, who had eight tackles and two interceptions against the Wolverines, not only proved my prophecy that he would turn into a “turnover machine” his senior season, but was the night he began the transformation from being a great player to becoming one of the few mythical, mystical heroic-tragic figures such as George Gipp and Knute Rockne that separate Notre Dame football from all the others.
Of course one part of this “legendary” question concerns not only Te’o’s play, but his understanding of Notre Dame. When Te’o points to the sky (to acknowledge the two women he just lost) does he sneak a glance at Our Lady on the Dome too? Or when he raises his hands to the home crowd to raise a ruckus, does he also ask for the intercession of Our Lady, Notre Dame’s #1 fan? But the other question is far more pedestrian.
“I’ve never been around a kid like [Te’o],” Coach Brian Kelly admitted, but he would also be the first to admit you can’t become a legend at Notre Dame, no matter how gifted an individual you are, if the team goes 8-5. On the plus side, the last time the Notre Dame defense was this dominant after four games was 1988, which not so coincidentally was the last year they won the National Championship. That year, they decided on a quarterback, Tony Rice, who was nowhere near the calibre of ND’s Heisman Trophy QBs. Still, Rice was smart enough to never lose a game that season for the Irish, but talented enough to help win a few too.
Meanwhile, Kelly appears to be 0 and 2 in picking quarterback winners, with 2011’s starter, Dayne Crist, lasting one half for the Irish (and going 10-25 last Saturday in leading Charlie-Weis-coached Kansas to a last second loss at Northern Illinois) and this year’s anointed, Everett Golson, being pulled for the second time in three games only to have yeoman Tommy Rees right the ship. To date Kelly continues to stick to his guns (and I don’t mean my first choice, redshirted freshman QB Gunner Kiel) at the same time denying any quarterback controversy saying, “Well, certainly we’re 4-0, so I’d say that having Tommy in there the two times that he did play, if you measure it from that standpoint, it’s worked out okay. You know, I’ve made this pretty clear every time that this has been brought up: You want to go with one quarterback, but we have an [inexperienced] freshman quarterback, [so if] I can prop him up with a veteran to win a football game because we’re in this to win it, then we’ll do that…characterize it any way you want, that it’s two quarterbacks. I look at it as supporting Everett with Tommy, and if we need to do that, we’ll continue to [to be]…successful.”
When pressed about Golson’s lack of success against Michigan, Kelly offered this curious defense of his starter, “[Golson] just had a lot on his plate, Notre Dame has got our student athletes they’ve got to go to class, and they have to work hard…[a]ll I was saying was that he had a lot on his plate this week. It may have been…too much…” (does not Rees have to attend class also?) before concluding with his assessment of the camaraderie between Everett and Tommy. “[It]…transcends both of them…the entire team…supports [both] quarterbacks. But that relationship uniquely is that Everett has a lot of respect for Tommy, and particularly his knowledge of the offense, and so any time Tommy can help him with that, you know, it makes for a very, very good relationship. And then on the other hand, Tommy has a lot of respect for Everett’s skill set, and so…it’s more about a respect for each other, and that’s really been key for us moving forward.”
They say when you’re 4-0, it’s all good. But in order to be great, I’m sure Kelly knows he’ll have to settle on one of them, and settle soon. I sure don’t envy being in Kelly’s position concerning this Solomon-like decision; with some saying (indeed, the fans are remarkably evenly divided, as noted in today’s Chicago Tribune poll where 51% support Rees and 49% Golson) the defense is good enough to go all the way with the slow-but-steady Rees leading the offense, while the others claim to beat the Oklahomas and Southern Cals, the flashy-but-fragile Golson needs to be given (at least) one more chance. I’m not sure…IS Rees good enough…or maybe the fact Golson wears the same number as Te’o (#5) means good karma for him…
Or maybe Te’o should just play quarterback too.
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