I’m usually an optimist concerning most things. I’m the guy who sat in front of the television every Saturday afternoon during the 2007 football season yelling obscenities and screaming that the football team wasn’t playing as well as I thought they should. They weren’t playing up to my expectations, even though the expectations I had for the team were founded in wishful thinking rather than …

Based on pre-season expectations, most Irish fans are starting to grumble about the state of the football program at Notre Dame. Some people are waiting to see if the two previous close wins will catch up to the Irish, similar to the Michigan game. Around the nation, Irish fans are starting to ask themselves “Are the Irish as good as we thought at the beginning …

“‘Right now, you’re a six and five football team. And guess what, that’s just not good enough. It’s not good enough for you and it’s certainly not going to be good enough for me.” —Charlie Weis

Those words echoed a feeling of hope that the future for the Notre Dame football team was bright and it brought temporary ease to the gruesome year that the …

With the Blue-Gold game over and the football team taking time-off until June, the staff of Clashmore Mike sat down to determine several key players in this year’s team. Some are needed for the Irish to have a great season. Others have been named as players to watch and are expected to put up record numbers for the team or to emerge as high-profile players. …

This past weekend was the annual Blue-Gold spring football game for the Fighting Irish. It was a game that, at times, lulled me to sleep and, at other times, got me excited for the young, developing talent on display. After a rigorous post-game debriefing with my brother and my dad, I was certain that the morning would bring a newspaper stuffed full of interesting perceptions …

“…the day to day consistency. We’ll flash that we know how to do it at times and then we’ll not do it another time. So the consistency of doing it over and over are things you harp on.” – Frank Verducci

If you’ve read my previous article, you’ll notice that, at times, I love playing devil’s advocate. I wrote that article as much for other …

What I appreciate most about the Notre Dame fan base, and what normally annoys anyone who doesn’t bleed Blue and Gold, is our unending devotion to the Irish and our blind support of the football team—including to the point of humiliation (see: 2007). If we sit around long enough and think about the team enough, we start to rationalize why Notre Dame should go undefeated …

Spring cleaning…for anyone who isn’t a spitting image of Danny Tanner, this term evokes many feelings of disgust, hate, and loathing. At least, that’s what I feel when I think of spring cleaning. It’s a tedious task that usually takes up an entire Saturday–a Saturday that could be spent watching TV, playing video games, or watching videos of Jerome Bettis clown-stomp the Florida Gators. However, …

A year ago, I wrote an article discussing who Notre Dame’s true rival is. It was an open and shut case and nobody can deny that throughout their respective histories, Southern California is Notre Dame’s biggest rival. However, with the instability of Weis’ tenure at Notre Dame, most people are pegging Charlie’s success this season on two things: total wins and losses and the team’s …

Signing day has come and gone, leaving a clearer picture of the 2009 recruiting class for the Fighting Irish. Head coach Charlie Weis and his staff reeled in the 20th ranked class according to Rivals, and 24th ranked class as judged by Scout. The writing staff here at Clashmore Mike weighs in on each recruit.

Offense

Alex Bullard

OG, 6’3″, 275 lbs
7th ranked OG …