Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1539020
54 SEPT. 13, 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED N otre Dame's workout shirts feature two acronyms, one on each sleeve. On the left, it says "TGS." That stands for "The Golden Standard," which has been Irish head coach Mar- cus Freeman's motto since his introduc- tory press conference in December 2021. He defines it as challenging everything, unit strength and competitive spirit. To this day, the Irish break it down with "TGS on two." On the right, it says "SAS." That's a newer one. It was strength coach Lo- ren Landow's idea, and it's been Notre Dame's defining mantra since its run to the national championship game in January. It stands for "Still Ain't Sh--." "The coaches kind of instilled it from the first day we started," redshirt sopho- more safety Adon Shuler said. "It was just like, we haven't done anything. That's the mindset around the building." The Irish live by "SAS," redshirt ju- nior defensive tackle Donovan Hin- ish explained. It motivated them dur- ing lifting in the winter, practice in the spring, conditioning in the summer and the grind of fall camp. It reminds them that even after they won a major bowl game for the first time in over three de- cades, they still have work to do. As the 2025 season gets underway, the College Football Playoff hangover hasn't been an issue for the Irish. Far from it. "No matter where you're currently at, you still have to prove yourself," Hinish said. "You can't make one good play and then take off the next. If you do that, you're going to get destroyed." LAST YEAR DOESN'T MATTER Sometimes, a small word can mean a lot. For Hinish on Aug. 27, that word was "they." Hinish used "they" to describe the 2024 Irish, of which he was very much a part. "The team last year, they had a tre- mendous season," Hinish said. "This season is still yet to be proven because we haven't even played our first game yet. We can't claim to be something we're not." That's the prevailing feeling at the Guglielmino Athletics Complex, and the overwhelming message from the Notre Dame coaching staff: Last year's team was last year's team. It's not relevant anymore. "What we did last year doesn't even matter," Shuler said. "This is a whole new year. We have a long, long football season ahead of us." "Right now, we don't have a single touchdown pass," redshirt junior offen- sive tackle Aamil Wagner said. "We don't have one rushing yard. We don't have a tackle. We don't have an interception. None of that. We're 0-0, playing Miami. "It's really about being able to set your foundation and start off fast." Dwelling on the past, the Irish believe, does nothing for them. They can feel good about what they accomplished in January at a later date, and if they ever consider reminiscing about the playoff run, they have a reminder on their sleeves. If anything, junior linebacker Drayk Bowen said, the 2025 team has a greater challenge than the 2024 team did. "Now, you have a bigger target on your back," Bowen said. "We're always Notre Dame, but now we're Notre Dame that went to the national championship. We were close, but now people want what we had." That's something the Irish embraced when Landow introduced "Still Ain't Sh--." Hinish said the team's reaction was, "Hell yeah." It applies on an indi- vidual level, too. So p h o m o re co r n e rba c k L e o n a rd Moore mentioned it during fall camp, when he was asked about handling the attention that comes his way after his breakout freshman season. All the ac- colades he earned are in the past. "As Coach Landow would say, 'I'm still not sh--,'" Moore said. "I'm always going to be hungry. I'm never going to be satisfied." KEEPING THE PAIN Notre Dame doesn't dwell on what happened in 2024, with two exceptions. You can probably guess what they are. "We bring up NIU, because that was detrimental to the program," Shuler said. "We don't bring up the highs, because at the end of the day, we ended on a low." Freeman talks about " keeping the pain" a lot, ever since that fateful Sep- tember day. Ask anyone in a blue-and- gold uniform or quarter-zip, and the title game still stings, too. Freeman spent a great deal of time in the weeks that followed trying to figure out what went wrong. Junior running back Jeremiyah Love, in his Players Tri- bune article that dropped Aug. 28, said he can still feel "that knot in my stom- ach" as he watched a national champi- onship "slip away." That's a big part of "SAS," too. "We lost," Wagner said. "That's the biggest thing. We still ain't sh--. We didn't even climb the mountaintop." Two things are true: The 2024 Fight- ing Irish accomplished more than any Notre Dame team since the 1988 na- tional championship, and the 2025 Fighting Irish are more motivated than they've ever been. "This ain't last year," Hinish said. "We haven't proved ourselves at all." ✦ 'SAS' Mantra Defines '25 Season Staff writer Jack Soble has covered Notre Dame athletics for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2023. Contact him at Jack.Soble@on3.com. OFF THE DOME JACK SOBLE The SAS acronym ("Still Ain't Sh--") can be found on Notre Dame's workout shirts, as seen here with freshman wide receiver Scrap Richardson. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER