W2WF: Notre Dame (2003)

The 2002 Holy War will forever remain a seminal shift in the balance of power between Boston College and Notre Dame. The undefeated Fighting Irish swashbuckled their way into a rivalry game with national championship aspirations, then watched as the Eagles flushed their hopes and dreams down a drain. It obliterated the Notre Dame swagger after Tyrone Willingham's program reinstalled its vigor in wins over Air Force and Florida State.

Calling that game an upset, though, is a parlor trick. It's a one-year analysis of a rivalry tilting away from Notre Dame since its run of dominance in the last decade. The Irish were prohibitive favorites last season, but BC, even en route to a sub-.500 record in the Big East, held two wins in the previous three seasons. It had earned the right to pump its own tires, and Notre Dame seemingly and deliberately ignored the respect.

"We were ready to go, and they were, too," quarterback Brian St. Pierre said after the win. "One of their players said to me, 'Not today, it ain't happening today.' I didn't say anything back to him, but I was just like, 'We'll see about that.' And we went out and we took it from them."

The loss eradicated the Notre Dame football myth. The team wore its green jerseys at home for the first time in a generation, but five red zone turnovers and a Josh Ott pick-six unraveled the Irish myth forever. Notre Dame used to don that green with the intention of waking up ghosts. Boston College ensured the green look would never again be worn without recalling a massive failure under the watchful eye of Touchdown Jesus.

"It hurt," defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. "It was like they didn't respect us. It was almost as if they were down-playing us, like they could do whatever they wanted out there, and they didn't prepare for us."

BC completely shattered the image and took the soul out of Notre Dame football. It exposed the holes in the Irish offense, and Notre Dame scored 20 points combined in its last two games against USC and NC State, both blowout losses. This year, the hangover contributed to three straight losses to Big Ten teams in September, none of which saw the offense score 20 points. At 2-5, Notre Dame is having a poor season, and there's no questioning the white-hot, audible questions coming out of South Bend.

The Eagles, meanwhile, are chugging along with a standard season. They beat Penn State, which was a nice surprise given the long history of those from the independent days, but last week's loss to Syracuse hurt. Quinton Porter isn't quite Brian St. Pierre, but Derrick Knight more than makes up for it. The loaded defense hasn't missed a beat.

Ordinarily, Notre Dame could swagger into this game with its history even if the Irish faced down a poor overall record. Now, though? BC is looking for its fourth win in five years. It's not the little brother in this matchup. Beating the Irish isn't an anomaly like it was in 1993 or 1994. It's replaced with expectation, which feels weird to say. The Eagles can swashbuckle into this week's game, even if they know not to get caught up in the emotion of it all.

"There's a good buzz around campus," Porter said. "There's been a good buzz around campus. I think it's going to be a good, competitive atmosphere. We wrecked their season last year, and I'm sure they're going to be bitter about it."

Here's what else to watch for in this week's game:

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Weekly Storylines

Luck running out.

Notre Dame's echoes and shadows exist because of a legacy of all-time greats at the college level. The players built the image of a team capable of defeating any opponent at any level, and years rolled into each other by stacking talented recruiting classes on top of one another. It's very rare to see a Fighting Irish team without the same pop as the years of old, and it's an indication of just how far this season fell from the ranks of other great years.

Quarterback Brady Quinn possesses a rocket arm and can physically make any throw on the field, but his decision making needs to improve, which further makes it impossible to judge the two "highlights" of his season. He threw for 297 yards against Purdue, but his completion percentage sagged under 50 percent with four interceptions. He didn't throw a pick against USC, but he also failed to hit 50 percent of his attempts or 200 yards.

Quinn's lack of accuracy puts Notre Dame at a distinct disadvantage against a BC defense harboring the same physical nastiness as last year. He took the job from Carlyle Holiday after the older quarterback's struggles overshadowed his opening game against Washington State, but he lacks the polish he'll eventually obtain. It's going to be really interesting how he handles a BC defense with 11 interceptions on the year.

"I was in the right position in every situation I could be (last year)," Josh Ott said. "(Notre Dame) gave me the ball a couple of times, (and) it was kind of picturesque. I just hope I can do something to help this team this year that maybe will compare to that."

Pot of gold.

A dominant running game can work wonders when quarterback play underwhelms an opposing defense. Julius Jones, for his part, is an interesting tool in the shed for Notre Dame in that regard because he's a dominant back capable of breaking a defense with dynamic speed. Earlier this season, he destroyed Pittsburgh with 262 yards and two touchdowns, not coincidentally the last time Notre Dame won a game.

"It's at that point in the season where you need to establish some clear direction," Notre Dame head coach Tyrone Willingham said. "The winner of this football game moves a step closer to doing that."

Jones supplanted Ryan Grant, a thunder-style back who ran for 1,000 yards last season while Jones sat out the season with academic issues. Grant gains yards by running directly into the teeth of a defense, but he isn't crushing defenses the same way he did last season. He gained 107 yards against BC last year in South Bend, and he hasn't come close to that number since gaining 98 yards against Washington State.

Establishing the ground game is going to be imperative for both teams. Derrick Knight is the Division I-A leader in rushing and is poised to go over 1,000 yards for a second consecutive season. He's on pace to break Boston College's all-time leading rushing record and no longer lives in William Green's shadow. He's assumed the mantle the team hoped he would this year, especially after St. Pierre graduated, and his steady hand now gets set for another year against his hated rival.

Emerald eyeballs.

It was once unthinkable to put Boston College atop the list of Notre Dame's historic rivals. The schools maintained an annual relationship through their religious connection, but the Fighting Irish play longer standing rivalries against schools like USC and Michigan.

Navy hasn't beaten Notre Dame since the stone age, but Fighting Irish fans probably still consider the Midshipmen a bigger rival than they do BC. That should be changing in light of BC's wins in recent years, but Tyrone Willingham just couldn't help himself this week when he said he wasn't sure if the Eagles were his biggest rival.

"There's always that possibility," Willingham said of the green jersey blowback last year. "I'm not sure how much difference it made to them. It made a difference to our guys because I think they were excited about the game when they went into the locker room and saw those (jerseys). In some cases, maybe they were a little too excited and didn't play within themselves."

It's easy to say that in hindsight, but the scattered turf around the Ireland Trophy says otherwise.

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Scoreboard Watching (aka my annual Red Sox rant)

This game is the perfect opportunity for me to completely avoid watching the World Series tonight. Sure, the Florida Marlins lead the series, three games to two, but the thought of watching a 10-year old franchise win its second championship at Yankee Stadium actively makes me nauseous.

Let me put it this way. Nine days ago, my beloved Boston Red Sox were five outs away from exorcising generational demons. They were up, 5-2, in the top of the eighth inning with both Scott Williamson and Mike Timlin sitting in the bullpen. Timlin hadn't allowed a single hit in the postseason, but manager Grady Little decided to leave Pedro Martinez, who I readily admit is the greatest pitcher of my lifetime, on the mound. Three runs later, it was tied. Three innings later, Aaron Boone nearly killed me.

Sure, the New England Patriots lifted me last weekend when Tom Brady fired that long ball to Troy Brown in overtime, but you have to understand how much beating the Yankees at Yankee Stadium would have meant to this region. My grandfather was born in 1925, a full seven years after the Red Sox last won the World Series. My dad has never seen it. I've never seen it. My brother was born on the day Bucky Dent hit the home run in 1978 (true story).

And now I might watch a franchise that didn't exist before the 1990s win its second championship behind Josh Beckett, a young flamethrower?

I will never see the Red Sox win a World Series. Nomar Garciaparra is the one player who defined my childhood, and he will play 20 years in Boston without ever seeing his franchise win it all. I am still not okay with this fact of life and probably never will be.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

We thought we had the answers, but it was the questions we had wrong. -Bono

This has been a real tough week for me. Grady Little left Pedro Martinez to rot on the mound in last week's American League Championship Series, and it was reported this week that he potentially doesn't want to come back next year as Red Sox manager. I'm going to keep my thoughts to myself, but nothing comes close to the bitterness I'm feeling this year during the World Series.

Few things quell the pain from that series loss, but other rivalries are doing a good job. The Patriots' win last week in Miami subtly exorcised one demon because of the baseball field still exposed at Pro Player Stadium. Beating an AFC East rival to grab an early-season lead in the AFC East did a lot to boost my spirits.

That leads to the prospect of beating Notre Dame. I will never forget being told last year that the Irish came out of the locker room last year in green jerseys because it felt like a smack in the mouth. It fired me up to another level, as a fan, so I can only imagine what it felt like for the players to see it on the field.

That all happened in South Bend, and this year turns the series back to Boston. I know tons of people who are huge Notre Dame fans in this area, and it's been great reminding them all week about what happened last season. They all responded with the same notion that Notre Dame, even in its struggles this season, will rally to beat Boston College this season. There's an intent to prove last year was some kind of fluke, that Notre Dame, even in a bad season, still owns that big brother status.

That all can end this weekend, on national television, at Alumni Stadium. This is BC's turn to do to Notre Dame what the Fighting Irish attempted to do last year to the Eagles. It's a role reversal, but it's a way to claim equal status in this rivalry, once and for all.

All quotes originally provided to The Boston Globe.

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