Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FAN FORUM • A two-point conversion attempt when you are up by 11 (40-29) and you don't need two more additional points, just one? His excuse was he was wor- ried about the kicking game. Really? Notre Dame had 105 out of 106 PATs (if my stats are correct). How is that a concern? Now if you talk about field goals, maybe I can understand going for it on fourth down, but not when it is late and the game is on the line. You always want to put the opposing offense where they have to score touchdowns instead of field goals. • Coach Kelly says he never thought about nor has never kneeled down at end of games where he might have to kick it away. Why not? Clock control is a very im- portant factor in this game, especially in the fourth quarter when an oppo- nent has no more timeouts, specifically when your team has been sloppy for the past several weeks and your team has continued that sloppiness all day. In these situations where a team needs to rely on its Coach to make right decisions, smart decisions and safe de- cisions to ensure victory, and avoid em- barrassing losses and critical defeats. • And what about defense? Why is it that Notre Dame always has the excuse of the opposing team play- ing its best game against it — 547 yards from Northwestern, who has struggled all year, 454 yards from Navy, 510 from North Carolina, struggles against Syra- cuse, Purdue? I am afraid that this type of play, this type of cowboy coaching decisions and these type of inexcusable losses can and will drive a program back several years from where it has grown. Rob McCabe New York City ENDLESS DROUGHT It's been 26 years since our last na- tional title. This is truly a sad remem- brance. It started with running out Lou Holtz in the 1990s, and all the people since who were supposed to be responsible stewards of the Notre Dame brand — from the president right on down through the athletic directors and coaches. All have failed in that stew- ardship. Notre Dame is an awesome, more than well respected academic institu- tion, and I am proud to call it my own, but let's be honest, its brand was built on football, and that seems to be for- gotten. It is truly sad that the current generation has no real knowledge of or appreciation for that. I've been tak- ing my three kids out to Notre Dame for the past 20 years, my oldest being 28, and it's sad he has never seen them when they were what they used to be. We've been to some great games, like Stanford in 2012, but have never really seen what used to be. We continue to pray that this university somehow re- 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