The Tailgate: No. 18 Notre Dame

Jeff Hafley still remembers standing in the Pittsburgh locker room after the Panthers' 2007 win over West Virginia. The 4-7 Panthers were 2-0 before losing four consecutive games, but after redeeming their season with a win over nationally-ranked Cincinnati, a 1-3 stretch dropped Dave Wannstedt's team into bowl ineligibility following a loss to South Florida. Their season would end after the last game of the season, and on December 1, they traveled south to Morgantown to play their annual Backyard Brawl game against the Mountaineers.

This wasn't exactly any old West Virginia team, though. This was the No. 2 team in the nation, and it already was the Big East champion after beating Connecticut, 66-21, one week earlier. It was arguably the best team in the nation, and after starting the year ranked third, the Mountaineers had climbed back into the second spot in the Bowl Championship Series computers by destroying teams over the last two months of the season. Their lone loss to South Florida was a distant memory, but the chaotic season cost a whopping six teams - including Boston College - the No. 2 overall ranking in what was already deemed a cursed year.

West Virginia was the latest to hold the second spot, and the Mountaineers were a loaded football team. Rich Rodriguez was the hottest coach in the country, and quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton had combined for over 2,300 yards and 31 touchdowns on the ground. White separately threw for 1,700 yards and 14 scores with just four interceptions, and an offense featuring Darius Reynaud at receiver contrasted an angry, physical defense. Pitt was down to backup quarterback Pat Bostick and was a four-touchdown underdog, on the road, against that.

It was all the more shocking, then, when Pitt beat West Virginia, 13-9, after White dislocated his thumb in the first half before kicker Pat McAfee missed two field goals. Like any good rivalry, it didn't care how good or bad anyone's season went, and nothing else mattered outside of the good, clean hate involved. It never occurred to Pitt's players that they weren't supposed to win that game, and West Virginia lost a chance to play for a national championship. It was a rivalry, the kind where opponents just want to tear each other apart, and it's what Boston College hopes can lead the Eagles to a victory over Notre Dame in the Holy War matchup on Saturday afternoon.

"Rivalries are important," Hafley said. "I was part of the Backyard Brawl, which, in my opinion, is one of the best rivalries in college football. They're really important for college football, for the tradition of college football, and it's getting harder with conference realignment and schedule changes to more teams, but I think you have to keep the rivalries. They're really important, and this is a game that should be played."

Boston College has the unique opportunity to end its season with its two biggest rivalries this year. Playing Notre Dame and Syracuse echoes an ancient history when years ended with games against UMass and Holy Cross. Players waited for those games all season, and the wins and losses defined the offseason and the lasting memories leading into training.

Notre Dame remains the largest fish on the BC schedule, and the Eagles can eject any talk of a bad season with a win over the Fighting Irish. The momentum coming out of the NC State win was real, but nothing would match a win over the No. 18 team in the nation, on the road, at the House That Rockne Built. There's an old saying that ghosts and aura exist at Notre Dame Stadium, much like how the New York Yankees spoke about old Yankee Stadium, but the fact remains that no history book, no ghost, no spirit, and no…anything, really…has ever scored a point in this rivalry. It's up to the players to win this one for their program, for their fans, for their alumni, and for Boston.

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The Podcast For Boston: "For The Podcast" Ep. 11 -- George Takacs

Here's what to watch for when the Eagles and Irish renew the Holy War:

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Game Storylines (Dropkick Murphys Edition)

I wanna be back where people tell it like it is.
Everyone remembers, but nobody forgives.
I wanna be home by the ocean, so I can smell the sea.
I wanna be around a bunch of salty knuckleheads
Like you and me.
-City By The Sea

Dropkicks has a number of songs that make me think about the old neighborhoods littering towns and cities throughout the Commonwealth, but this one in particular makes me shut my eyes and reimagine myself into the back of my parents' Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon as we trekked to Revere Beach for a Kelly's Roast Beef sandwich. My brothers and I used to sit in the back with the window open, and I'm sure it was totally normal behavior to fire fries out the back of the tailgate as often as we did.

That Pepto Bismol-colored station wagon was where I listened to David Gordon's kick that won the 1993 game. I was at the Meadow Glen Mall in Medford with my mom and siblings, and we heard the kick sail through the uprights thanks to the fact that my middle brother and I hadn't disconnected the antenna from the front of the car (we had a habit of that). It mattered, and to eight-year old Danny Rubin, it was probably the biggest sports event of my lifetime.

"I have a ton of respect for Notre Dame, the tradition, and the history," Hafley said. "I've looked back at the rivalry against Boston College, and I thought it was a game that was played every year because growing up, I always remember those games. I think it's an important game, but looking back, we haven't won since 2008. So we have to do our part and make sure it becomes a rivalry by winning some of those games."

This year is the 29th anniversary of that kick and the 30th anniversary of when Lou Holtz's fake punt birthed the rivalry. That still matters, but it's drawing further back into the rearview mirror. Rivalries are only rivalries if both sides have an equal shot at winning, and BC has to step forward and eventually claim something from the Irish to reclaim status in this particular matchup before it goes on hiatus for another couple of years.

"We have to do our part and make sure it becomes more of a rivalry by winning some of these games," Hafley said. "For us right now, it's our next game, but we know what we're up against. We respect the heck that they have good players, they have a good staff, and they're another ranked opponent."

They beat us down, but we survived.
Talked out of school and made up lies.
But we don't listen, we do what we do.
We don't care about them, we care about you.
-Blood

The history of Notre Dame football is littered with big time bowl games and national championships, but the Irish entered this year on the tail end of a drought dating back to Holtz's undefeated season in 1988. For the first time in the program's history, acknowledging how the dark years existed during the 2000s required reading to understand how difficult it was for Brian Kelly to rebuild the proud tradition in South Bend.

Kelly left to coach LSU after last season, and replacement Marcus Freeman found his sea legs after becoming the first Notre Dame coach to start his South Bend tenure with an 0-3 start. The 36-year old former Ohio State linebacker has this team up to seven wins after starting this season with two consecutive losses, and after directly tumbling out of the polls as a top-10 team after the loss to Marshall, Notre Dame returned to the top-25 last week before upping its stature to No. 18 in the most recent College Football Playoff poll.

"[Offensive coordinator] Tommy Rees has been doing this for a long time," said Hafley. "He might be young in age but he's not young as far as an offensive coordinator goes. And Al Golden has been doing this [forever]. I remember, as a young coach, he was at Virginia, and I was at Pitt with a ton of respect for him. I remember one coaches' clinic, and he probably has no recollection of this, but I think we sat down and hung out, and I picked his brain. I thought he was the greatest guy in the world because I got to meet and hang out with Coach Golden. As a young coach, it was a big deal to me."

Coaching staffs always experience turnover when a head coach leaves, and Notre Dame is finally starting to gel in the aftermath of the season's start. Quarterback Drew Pyne is throwing passes at a 63 percent completion rate with 1,547 yards and 18 touchdowns, and after losing the starting job to now-injured Tyler Buchner, he's led the Irish to wins over four nationally-ranked teams. Having three running backs behind him didn't hurt, but he's made the job his own while developing chemistry with tight end Michael Mayer, one of the best receivers in Notre Dame program history.

"A lot of the pass game is going to go through him," Hafley said, "especially on some [particular] down-and-distances. You better know where he is, and you better have a guy on him. He's a game changer, and the thing about him is that he's a good blocker, which is what the NFL will love. He can run routes, he's big, he catches the ball. He's got a huge catch radius. He has a really good run after the catch. You better have a plan for him because he's a great player."

This one's for the mighty sea.
Mischief, gold and piracy.
This one's for the man that raised me.
Taught me sacrifice and bravery.
This one's for our favorite game.
Black and gold, we wave the flag.
This one's for my family name.
With pride I wear it to the grave.
-Rose Tattoo

Every Dropkick Murphys song feels like a piece of lead singer Ken Casey's Irish identity, and while Rose Tattoo isn't the most popular song in comparison to Shipping Up To Boston, it's steeped in inner spirituality about the actual tattoo that's a memorial to Casey's grandfather. It's my favorite song by the band, and the remake with Bruce Springsteen is a particular sweet spot for anyone who has heard it.

This rivalry is ordinarily full of emotion, but this year feels like a bigger piece of the puzzle than most seasons. John McNulty was the tight ends coach for Michael Mayer and George Takacs last year, but he joined Jeff Hafley as BC's offensive coordinator before Takacs transferred for more of a pass-catching role in an offense. In addition, former Eagle linebacker Al Washington, a former assistant coach in Chestnut Hill before moving home to Ohio, is now on staff under Marcus Freeman, meaning he's crossed enemy lines to play for the school he once tried to destroy.

"Al was on our defensive staff when I was at Ohio State," Hafley said, "so I got to work with him for a year. I think he's an incredible football coach and an incredible human being. He played here, so he understands Boston College. He's so passionate, loves the kids, loves the game, and he and I became really close. I know he left Ohio State last year and he's doing a great job at Notre Dame, but I think he's an up-and-comer and an incredible coach."

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Question Box

How does BC build on last week?

It's amazing how one win changed the entire tenor of the college football season. People went from predicting 2-10 overall records to believing BC could finish with a 5-7 record, which itself is an indication of the emotional investment that truly existed into this team. Nobody - and I have to own it but that includes me - believed they'd win that game last week, and it changed the entire trajectory of the season.

It's important to reconsider expectations after that win, but it's also critical to avoid looking past one opponent at a time. There are only two games remaining, but this week is like any other week where BC is marching forward towards one opponent. Syracuse isn't on the list, and neither is a bowl game. It's all about Notre Dame, and that's it for now.

Can the offense continue stepping forward?

The quarterback situation at BC has the same story for the second week in a row: if Phil Jurkovec is healthy enough to play, he is the team's first string quarterback, but if he isn't healthy enough, Emmett Morehead is expected to get the call. Morehead's two monster games against Duke and NC State are enough to make that statement confidently, but if Jurkovec is healthy, he's still the team's top option heading into this week's game against Notre Dame.

Beyond that, the sheer number of "OR" designations are finally dwindling down for an offense that was racked with injuries for the first six weeks of the season. Offensive linemen are starting to settle into their roles, and for the third straight week, BC is expected to take the field with the same lineup as the previous game. That traction can't be underwritten, especially since Notre Dame runs a strange, different defensive formation under former Miami head coach Al Golden.

It's not a traditional 4-3 or 3-3-5, and the different alignments make it tough to recognize how coverages blend into one another. It's struggled at times in the red zone, but it's been very good at stopping the run while muddying opponents' passing efficiency. It doesn't cause many turnovers, but its objectives are simplistic at stopping opponents.

Can the Eagles shake down some thunder from the sky?

Saturday is Senior Day at Notre Dame, and anyone who has ever experienced the day from inside the locker room understands the emotional tides of watching sons run out of a tunnel for the final time. It's a really big deal to the players and the families, and it's a unique opportunity for fans to show their appreciation to people who chose to represent their university for four-plus years.

The visiting team is obligated to try and ruin that day's result, so if BC can tap into any of the old spirits of Notre Dame, that would be phenomenal. I remember watching many Senior Day events at Alumni Stadium while reminiscing about the players who gave four years to the team…and BC lost. So it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to pay that feeling forward, would it?

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Meteorology 101

Snow arrived this week. Glorious, flaky, white snow. The first flakes of the season were here, and when they lit up the dark, night sky the other night, I couldn't help myself but enjoy the vision of the cold winter that's quickly approaching.

I'm almost guaranteeing that half the people reading that think I have severe issues, but I'm ready for the first really frigid nights of winter. Fall remains my favorite season, but I love curling up on the couch under a blanket while holding a hot cup of tea or a hot chocolate or something. It's especially the best when it's snowing, and I can watch the snow just cascade down from the sky for hours as long as I'm nestled into a pair of fleece pants and a thick sweatshirt.

Snow in the Northeast is also very different from other parts of the country, as folks in Buffalo are probably attesting as they prepare to tailgate for the Bills-Browns on Sunday under about five feet of lake effect snow (unless they're in Detroit for the game), but even seeing a football game played with a general coating is perfect. Buffalo is going to be very different, but I'm very excited for the prospect of playing Saturday's game in the cold, raw conditions of a South Bend winter.

The forecast isn't calling for snow during the game on Saturday, but that lake effect snowfall hit South Bend on Wednesday into Thursday before tapering off on Thursday morning. A chance of snow existed for Friday and Friday night, but Saturday morning's forecast - at least as of Thursday - had partly sunny skies opening before more snow came barreling down on Saturday night.

I don't know much about weather in the Midwest, but I think that means a window is going to open where the game at Notre Dame is going to start in clearer skies before turning gray with snow. The flight out of South Bend might get a little funky for the Eagles, but Sunday is going to offer cold, sunny skies once everything's over.

I'm so ready for a snow bowl. We haven't had one, I think, in years, and the last one I actually remember was a late November game against Syracuse where a few intrepid souls pulled their shirts off as soon as the snow started falling. Those guys…probably weren't smart.

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BC-Notre Dame X Factor

The Holy War

The rivalry between BC and Notre Dame isn't as long as Army-Navy, Harvard-Yale, or Alabama-Auburn, and it's not even as long or as frequent as the Eagles' historic rivalry with Holy Cross or UMass. The two schools are paired as permanent partners in other sports, but the modern football alignment and Notre Dame's ongoing independence forces them to take marked steps to play one another as semi-annual opponents. From a pure football standpoint, the argument that Syracuse is BC's primary rival holds significant water and requires a cursory acknowledgment given the tenor and tone of this week.

All of that said, games between BC and Notre Dame stick out. The David Gordon Kick came one year after Lou Holtz called for the fake punt in the first game between the two programs, and in 1994, the unranked Eagles, who had lost the first two games of the year to Michigan and Virginia Tech, blasted eighth-ranked Notre Dame with a 30-11 win that really wasn't that close. The Irish responded by winning out for the rest of the decade, but BC scored a win in 1999 with a 31-29 victory on the road.

By the turn of the century, Notre Dame and BC competed as equals with the Eagles arguably passing the Fighting Irish after the Tyrone Willingham era morphed into the Charlie Weis era before Brian Kelly arrived to fix the issues in South Bend. Their subsequent rise coincided with BC's initial downfall in the 2010s, and in the years since, the tiered feelings from the 1990s seem to have laid a second foundation at the turn of the decade for a national championship contender and its slightly smaller, upstart rival program.

It doesn't feel like a rivalry for anyone who grew up after Pete Mitchell, David Green, and the Hasselbeck brothers, but all it would take is one win to silence the doubters and create a new generation of hate. The current college students understand Notre Dame's place in Boston College's history, but they need their own memories and highlights. They need to see their contemporaries take their own bite from Touchdown Jesus. They need their moment to celebrate beating Notre Dame.

The rivalry started when Lou Holtz fake punted against BC, and it continued well after the No. 4 Eagles restarted the matchup with a 27-14 win in 2007. BC hasn't beaten Notre Dame since shutting the Irish out in Chestnut Hill with a 17-0 win in 2008.

Eight straight games have gone to Notre Dame.

That needs to stop this year.

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Around College Football

Like everyone else in college football, I woke up on Monday to the emerging news of the tragic shooting at the University of Virginia. Five people in total were shot, including four from the football program, and the events resulted in the deaths of Devin Chandler, D'Sean Perry, and Lavel Davis, Jr.

I wish I could make sense of it, but there is no good reason why this happened. The suspect was taken into custody, but three families still received the most nightmarish phone call of their lives. Scott Mutryn said it best on our For The Podcast episode this week when he said, "Parents aren't supposed to outlive their children." I don't know how else to express how sorry I am.

For the greater UVA community, it's an irreparable hole, and the canceled game against Coastal Carolina feels a whole lot more meaningless. I promise that one day, there will be joy, but in the meantime, I know I can speak for everyone at Boston College when I offer prayers and condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives or were injured. We are praying for you, and may the memories of those lost remain a blessing.

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Dan's Non-Sports Observation of the Week

I know I mentioned this during an earlier week, but I love coffee. I mean, I really love it. I love trying new coffee beans and blends, and local coffee shops with their own roasts are the perfect place to sit and relax while reading the news or getting some work done. I particularly enjoy buying and brewing it in the house, and I will drink any coffee if it gives me the right caffeine kick.

I need to go back, though, and note that coffee has a supreme function in my life, and lately I've drifted away from gourmet blends. I went back to whatever I could get at the supermarket strictly to make sure I could mass produce it in my house, where my wife returned to drinking it in her postnatal state.

What was once pleasurable is now a requirement to keep us going, and I made the comparison this week that my coffee intake is a lot like the way Larry Bird underwent therapy on his back just to play in that night's game. I watched a documentary where a doctor or trainer said he basically "unlocked" Larry's back with hours of therapy, and that really resonated with my strategic coffee intake.

I'm up every morning between 3:30 and 4:00 a.m., so that first coffee has to keep me going after a couple of hours. The second cup needs to get me ready for the morning slog, and a third, early afternoon cup gets me over the mid-afternoon hump before I can start to power down for the night.

I know I'll eventually go back to drinking it for fun, but for now, this is a crazy pattern. Thankfully the water bottles are keeping me hydrated because this whole no-sleep thing is for the birds.

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Pregame Quote and Prediction

Ni neart go cur le cheile. -Irish proverb

The line translates to, "There is no strength without unity," and it emphasizes the importance of working together for a common goal. In college football, there's no greater responsibility, and sometimes it's as simple as that.

This week made for great fodder, and I particularly enjoyed the podcasts and phone calls reminiscing about BC destroying Notre Dame at home in 1994 as much as I enjoyed talking about the wins in 1999 and 2001. I really enjoyed talking about William Green's 195 yards against the Irish in the latter as much as discussing Matt Ryan's performance in 2007, and there's always the obligatory mention of Rich Gunnell pointing a finger directly into Jimmy Clausen's face after he caught 179 yards in the 2009 loss at Notre Dame Stadium.

Few matchups galvanize the entire BC community into this form of togetherness. This is our rivalry and our matchup. This is our bowl game. This is the Holy War, and this is Boston College's opportunity to take back the glory that hasn't been won since 2008.

Boston College and No. 18 Notre Dame kick off on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. from Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. The game can be seen on national television via NBC with streaming available through the Peacock app. Radio broadcast is also available through the BC Learfield IMG Sports Network, which is on local radio in Boston via WEEI 93.7 FM with satellite options available via Sirius XM channel 383 and App channel 973.

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Players Mentioned

Phil Jurkovec

Emmett Morehead

George Takacs