Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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STAYING THE COURSE Fighting Irish will run the table for the first time since the 1988 national championship season. It's also very conceivable that a 12-0 record won't punch Notre Dame's ticket to the title game in Miami in January. Against Pittsburgh Nov. 3, Cave and N Braxston Cave through five years BY WES MORGAN for Notre Dame has fueled A deep-rooted love otre Dame went 29-22 over the first four years of center Braxs- ton Cave's career. It's possible that in his fifth season the No. 1 spot in the BCS rankings, and Oregon and Kansas State jockeying for the No. 2 position, the fourth-ranked Irish might not see the ultimate payoff for doing all the right things. "If that's the way it ends up, all we can do is what we're doing," he said. "We played the toughest schedule in the country. We've done our part. Everything else slides into someone else's hands." As early as age 6, when Cave was the offensive line created enough of a push for sophomore quarterback Ev- erett Golson to cross the goal line for a game-winning touchdown in the third overtime — the latest example of this year's team finding a way to win, and a departure from the disappointments that were commonplace in previous seasons. "That's kind of the story of our ca- reers, being on the other side of that," Cave said of the senior class. "This year we've put everything together and done the right things." With Alabama's stranglehold on the standing on the coffee table inside the living room of his parents' nearby home in Granger, Ind., shouting Knute Rockne's "Gipper" speech while a worn-out VHS copy of "Rudy" played on the television for the umpteenth time, he dreamt of slipping on a gold helmet and helping lead the Irish to where it finds itself this November. His little hands, which eventually would pound away at some of the na- tion's top defensive tackles and nose guards, held onto a football nearly half his size as he made promises to his mother, Kim, and father, Rick. "I said, 'I believe you, son, I believe