Blue and Gold Illustrated

December 2012

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

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Revenge Of The Nerds MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY Notre Dame president John Jenkins understands that it hasn't been an easy road to be the No. 1-ranked team in the nation both on the field and in the classroom, but more programs are following the trend. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND I is over. The nerds have beaten you at your own game. As Saturday tumbled into Sunday in t's time to wave the white flag. Ogre, slowly walk away from that bespectacled poindexter. The war the hours that followed Notre Dame's 38-0 home finale blowout of Wake For- est, the dominoes started to fall. No. 1 Kansas State crumbled in a 52-24 loss to the middling Baylor Bears. On the West Coast, a Stanford team that glee- fully calls itself "Nerd Nation" was busy knocking off No. 2 Oregon with an overtime field goal. Notre Dame was left alone at the top — the only unbeaten bowl eligible team in the country. How could this be? For the better part of a quarter cen- tury, the Irish were relegated to brag- ging about their report cards. They were told they had to trade for a few D's and F's if they wanted more W's. They needed more criminals, more chest-beating meatheads to carry them back to a gridiron Promised Land. They got there anyway, albeit with some help from their pencil-pushing friends in Palo Alto. Notre Dame as- cended to the No. 1 spot in the BCS rankings, making the Irish the first team to reign supreme on the field and in the classroom with the nation's best Graduation Success Rate. "I took the Notre Dame job because I wanted to get an opportunity to play

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