Notre Dame hockey fans and college hockey fans in general will want to have their televisions tuned to Versus cable network on Saturday, December 31 at 9:30 p.m. to watch “Onward To Victory — Notre Dame Hockey,” a one-hour feature that gives viewers a look at the Irish hockey program including retrospectives on its early days to its current status as one of the top college hockey programs in the nation. More information:http://www.und.com/sports/m-hockey/spec-rel/122611aab.html
My favorite new follower!
I think one of the best recruiting tools the Irish have are the ICON videos. Love these things.
I wish we could do that, to be honest with you. I always tell myself we should do a full black-out jersey — black everything or white everything or green everything to switch it up sometimes.
Can somebody somewhere please tell us what the hell this is?
“With all due respect”
Great summary from HLS.
Execution is obvious when it’s failed. Execution is clear when a student manager tweets a bad photo of a novelty helmet design before the official ND media pathways have a chance to deploy “the message.” Execution is blatant when nobody is exactly clear if the guy claiming to be the leprechaun on Twitter really is or ever was the leprechaun for Notre Dame, and whether or not he is a voice to be heard while he proclaims a “green out.” Execution is foolish when a giant green shamrock causes a spouse to ask why the helmets look “cartooney.” Execution is a terror when a design of anything involving a brand causes a massive portion of the fanbase to quip, “Hey! My Trapperkeeper from when I was 9!” Execution keeps bugging you with animated paper clips when you just want to format a table, or when you’re trying to complete a purchase for a gift for a friend and can’t navigate the 10 step process. Execution is everything - while it all falls apart - when it fails.
Someone at Adidas should lose their job.
Now, I am not in the same boat with a lot of the NDN folk who are saying that this is the end of Notre Dame football. But I am certainly of the opinion that these helmets are damn ugly.
Color theory apparently wasn’t on the course schedule for the Adidas designers.
Look at the helmet on the left. Regardless of your stance on whether ND should wear custom helmets or not, you can’t really say that that helmet is ugly. The shamrock might be a little too big for your liking, but at least it matches the face mask.
What’s worse, those helmets were leaked this summer with people saying that they were the ones that we were going to wear against Michigan. They are so similar in design to what we are wearing for Maryland that I have a hard time believing that they aren’t actual mockups from Adidas. So what happened? How did they get from that to this?
When you are messing with a uniform as simple and as traditional as Notre Dames, you have to keep in mind that the details ARE the details. Every thing matters. So when a helmet only has three elements to it—the shell, the mask, and the decal—and two of them are going to be the same color then MAKE THEM THE SAME COLOR. It’s a damn sticker for crying out loud. It took you guys years to get the helmet paint right…I get that. But if the color of the sticker doesn’t match the drapes, then fucking print it again!
So right off the bat, you’re striking out with these helmets. But then they go ahead and decide to make the gold helmet look like a leopard skin rug that’s been shot by the man with the golden gun.
I don’t get it.
I don’t care that they’ve decided to put shamrocks on the helmets for certain games. I don’t care that we wear green jerseys. I like those things. I don’t fear change. But what I hate is when clearly no common sense at all went into the decisions for change.
Do better.
Charts help explain everything.
Pat (Moco) continues his dominance on the Internet…someone get his kid a blog. With his permission, we are reposting his assessment of the fan base that he shared over on the forum that isn’t THAT forum.
Pat lists himself a 10. I’ve met him in person and agree that he’s the perfect 10…wait, what? Anyway, take a look at the chart and see where you fit and list it in the comments. It’s a fun exercise.
Personally, I think I hover around the lower left corner of the top right quadrant.
One thing this chart is missing however is any thoughts on black jerseys.
1. Pro-Jumbo, Like Kelly
-Love him no mater what he does or says, i.e. would have to kill a puppy but even then they’ll just start to hate dogs.
2. Pro-Jumbo, Wary on Coach
-Thinks a jumbo brings more positives than negatives but have not made up their minds on the coach
3. Pro-Jumbo, Hate Kelly
-Nothing Kelly does would save him in their minds but they love gigantic video screens.
-I think these people are a myth since I have yet to encounter one.
4. Anti-Jumbo, Like Kelly
-Want to preserve ND in its traditional state but generally favor the coach and like the direction the team is headed in.
5. Anti-Jumbo, Wary on Coach
-Same as above but want more time to decide whether or not Kelly has the team headed in the right direction
-I think this is one of the more popular positions.
6. Anti-Jumbo, Hate Kelly
-Think Kelly is all that is wrong with the world and his suggestion of a jumbo is poisoning the sanctity of Notre Dame
7. Indifferent/Wary Jumbo, Like Kelly
-Don’t care about the jumbos OR concerned about them but not up-in-arms and love the coach because he leads the lads.
8. Indifferent/Wary Jumbo, Wary on Coach
-Don’t really care about a jumbotron/concerned about it’s use if implemented but want more time to decide if Kelly is Holtz.
-I think this is another popular selection.
9. Indifferent/Wary Jumbo, Hates Kelly
-Pretty much what it says, though, like with the one above, I doubt any of these people exist.
10. Pro-“Whatever the obnoxious fans don’t want simply because they don’t want it because their ranting is comical”, Wary on Coach
-Generally don’t care one way or the other on a video board and are waiting to make up their mind on the coach but find a particular segment of the fanbase so obnoxious that they favor the exact opposite whatever said-portion of the fanbase supports so as to wallow in said-portion of the fanbase’s misery.
Fool’s Gold
Standing at the Backer on Friday afternoon, I sent this email to a fan after he wrote me.
I expect big things tomorrow…we’ll look back years from now and will be able to point at this game and say that’s when it started. I’ve been coming to games since I was [redacted]’s age and there’s a vibe in this town that is different than anything I’ve felt before.
I meant it too. The whole weekend felt electrified.
Right after that, I tweeted “We’re gonna win.” Eric responded, agreeing and saying that it wasn’t even going to be a competitive game.
We were—like so many others this weekend—foolish.
The Irish came out flat. Unprepared. At times, unemotional. And at others, undisciplined. We had our flashes…followed by our fumbles.
And as everyone is searching for answers and demanding changes or placing blame on reasons that they can’t support, there’s really not much consolation out there to be had.
We are back to where we began, wondering what do we have in this team?
Well, we have a good team. Not yet a great team. Despite all the shortcomings of this game, we were in it until the fourth. We were in it til we had bad breaks, or tried to force things, or refused to stone up.
That’s why we are a good team…but not a great team. Great teams finish. Great teams can overcome turnovers. Great teams don’t turnover as often as we have and do.
My friend Pat pointed out LSU and Auburn when talking about this very thing. LSU is a great team. Their closest games were 13 point victories. The rest have been blow outs. Auburn has three of their victories by 4, 7 and 3 points. A couple bounces the other way and they could have lost all of those. LSU is a great team. Auburn is a good team.
And at the moment, we are sitting in the same situation as the Auburn’s. Great athletes. High expectations. Crumbling under pressure.
It’s frustrating, I know. But that’s sports…and at the end of the day that’s all this really is. And as a Cleveland sports fan my entire life…this is nothing new. So rather than throw it all away, I’ll happily continue being the fool and cheering for the Irish on Saturday’s.
We’ll be great again.
Sick, they’re going to look even better in a couple years with black jerseys.
Since many are on the topic of receiving a card for being too noisy, can we ask the cheerleaders to stop doing that stupid “We Are N D” that goes around the stadium as they hold up cards?
We aren’t in HS anymore. The fans just want to cheer - no need for handholding.
Clearly, this is a major issue holding back the program
NDerpNation has been created. Go. Follow.
If you haven’t started watching the Irish Connection (or ICON) yet, you are doing yourself a huge disservice.
Night games are made for bad beer, grown men wearing jerseys with ketchup stains, and skoal.
To my friends, family, and anyone else that has found my posts from any other source whether it be Twitter, Facebook, NDN, or Google, thanks for reading and spreading my work around. I sure hope all of you will be following me over to HLS and continue to read my work as well as everyone else that does some fantastic posting over there (yes, even Poot).
All that paragraph is missing is a #DammitPoot.
And if you haven’t read his first post yet, check it out here.
