Blue and Gold Illustrated

December 2019

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DECEMBER 2019 5 FAN FORUM TAKING THE FIFTH When a football player is invited to participate for a fifth year, I assume that player has graduated and thus, would enroll as a graduate student. What happens if the student-ath- lete is not admitted academically as a graduate student at Notre Dame? For example, if the player graduates with a 2.4 GPA, he would surely not be "admittable." Christopher Kashnig '72 Madison, Wis. Mr. Kashnig, the Faculty Board of Athletics at Notre Dame has to approve three areas of the team: schedule, cap- tains and fifth-year players. With schedules, football is fairly cut and dry, but in other sports where games are played on weekdays, the premium has been placed on not missing more than three class days a semester because of travel. Before captains are approved in foot- ball, or any sport, the board reviews his academic standing, and he must keep his grade point average at a level of which they approve. The same applies to admittance for a fifth year in graduate school. He must first earn his undergraduate degree, and be in satisfactory standing. That is part of why the university does not make any formal announcements on who is return- ing before they actually do come back that following preseason. However, if someone like quarterback Ian Book is practicing in the spring of 2020, there is a safe assumption that as long as academic standing is good and there are no off-the-field transgressions, he will be back. TAKING ATTENDANCE The last two Saturdays without selling out Notre Dame Stadium is, to me, a prefiguration of steady decline. I know television dictates money, and kickoffs are set to accommodate the networks. However, as opposed to here in the Bay Area where com- petition for audiences is extremely stiff, Notre Dame is the only game in town. Every game should sell out, especially because Notre Dame is a pretty darn good team. Notre Dame is not located in a cli- mate conducive to 3 p.m. starts, or later, from mid-October onward. And really late starts, like this year's USC game — which I did attend — are ridiculous. Statistics show steady decline in attendance at college football games, for lots of reasons. I think the fans who attend the games deserve some consideration. Kickoff should be at noon. This is just a rant that I had to get off my chest. I know it won't happen. Woody Nedom Via the Internet BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Letters Blue & Gold Illustrated P. O. Box 1007, Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com There has been some divide on how Notre Dame's 2019 regular season is perceived. On one hand, not many Power Five schools finish 10-2. On the other, the losses against the two top teams on the slate — Georgia and Michigan — create a "Notre Dame hasn't beaten anyone really good" ennui. Here were a small sampling of thoughts on BlueandGold.com: MagicInTheName: 33-6 over 3 years, with two bowl wins over quality opponents and one playoff appearance, would represent a stellar success for the program given the last 25 years. The next three need to include more marquee wins. FightingVac: We were homeless a few years ago. Now we have a very nice condo in a good school district but are bitching about not having a man- sion in Beverly Hills. Rockne1988: Since that horrific 2016 season, it's been a pretty good run, but the Miami debacle, losing to Georgia twice, still not beating a ranked team on the road, Michigan this year and the Clemson beatdown still has people concerned and questioning a few things in regard to the program/ Brian Kelly. Vonteego: Notre Dame is the ONLY legit top 10 team playing real schedules, with real students, with real standards academically and behavior- ally. Period. NDorBust: It's a weird translation for ND and it's fan base once again. If we went 10-2 during the Ty Willingham and Charlie Weis eras, we'd have ticker-tape parades. Hence Weis and 9-3 isn't good enough slogan, (going 9-3 was a big deal at the time). Now we're accustomed to 10 wins plus 12-0 regular seasons mixed in. Playing for the champi- onship in 2012 and being in the playoffs in 2018. Kelly has done a ton to turn ND around — and people won't realize it until we're going 7-5 and 8-4 again. Chamgel: This has been a very good run for Kelly and the program, but it doesn't remind me of 1988-93 because we're not beating elite teams like we were then. Since the start of 2017 we've beat one team ranked in the top 10 at kickoff and that was Stanford in 2017 (which finished with four losses). Nothing about this team reminds me of the teams we saw during those years that could take down elite opponents. Polaris6: ND finishing in the top 10 each year is all I can ask for and what I consider their ceiling. Even with the great record last three years, I don't see this team as top 10 unless they beat a top 10 opponent. Wlk277: ND has top 3-5 OL talent — but run- ning the ball in big games has literally not been an option. Kelly even said on his radio show this week that he thinks they are "doing well enough." Well enough is not acceptable. We need a coach to realize that changes need to be made during good times to avoid another Brian VanGorder Year 3 debacle (after going 10-3 in Year 2). Mgormal1: The record is outstanding. I think it's the big game beatdowns that make it much less sweet and sometimes bitter. If we lost to Clemson 21-3 or Miami 24-10 or Michigan 31-14, it would be much different. Can't get steamrolled on the biggest stages three years in a row. FROM THE WEB JOIN THE CONVERSATION! GET A 60-DAY FREE TRIAL WITH CODE IRISH60 Quarterback Ian Book is among the seniors with a potential fifth year of eligibility remaining in 2020. The Faculty Board of Athletics at Notre Dame has to approve all such fifth-year requests. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS

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