OK, so Notre Dame is 3-0 and up to No. 6 in this week’s Associated Press college football poll. That’s not really a huge surprise given the hype and hope invested nationally in this edition of the Irish. But even the most avid fan of the ‘Golden Domers’ would have to admit that the path the Fighting Irish took to where they are is a curious and circuitous one. They opened the season with a new quarterback, after last year’s starter transferred to Florida State. Everett Golson saw the handwriting on the wall in December when he split snaps with Malik Zaire in the bowl game against LSU in Nashville. So right after spring practice, he left South Bend for Tallahassee. The coaching staff and most Irish insiders were ok with that, given that Golson had spent much of the year back from a season-long academic suspension throwing interceptions or fumbling the ball, and games, away to opponents. So Zaire took over and was off to a pretty good start. He completed 19 of 22 passes for 313 yards and three scores in a 38-3 rout of Texas. The offense was great, the defense was impressive, and it could not have gone better … except top running back Tarean Folston went down with a knee injury. The next day it was diagnosed to be a torn ACL, and Folston was forced to the sideline for the season. Ugh! Then, during a running play at Virginia in Week 2, Zaire’s ankle got bent in a direction God did not intend for it to bend. It broke, and so did the hearts of the Irish and their fans. Ugh! But just as dreams of a national title seemed to be about to end in Charlottesville, red-shirt backup QB DeShone Kizer came in and went 4-of-4 on the final drive and hooked up on a 39-yard pass with Will Fuller in the final half-minute to pull a rabbit out of the hat. So at 2-0, without their No. 1 quarterback and No. 1 running back, the Irish would have to circle the wagons as the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets were next on the docket. Then it happened again. Starting tight end Durham Smythe was lost for the season after he had surgery early last week. It left the Irish and their fans asking the question “what ELSE could go wrong?” Life tip: DO NOT EVER ASK THAT QUESTION! The very minute the word “wrong” rolls off your tongue, you immediately set in motion the mechanism of living that allows you to find out what else in-fact COULD go wrong. Fast forward to the second quarter of the game against Georgia Tech. With the ND defense totally stifling the vaunted and unpredictable triple-option attack, defensive back Drew Tranquill was injured on the field in the worst possible scenario; he was celebrating a good play. Celebrating. Really? Really. I will not pile on here. There can’t be anything more embarrassing for a person that in front of 80,000 people and millions watching on TV to have your poor judgement be on full display. Tranquill, who played his prep career at Carroll High School, is a really nice kid and very smart … but he did a dumb thing and it cost him. Smart kids do that too sometimes. It’s a torn ACL and Tranquill’s season is over. Maybe the managers should paint a red cross on the side of the gold helmets. So the Irish, who started the season rated No. 11, are now No. 6. Yes they are 3-0 and, yes, they have looked very good in two of their three games. But you cannot simply ignore that they are not going to get back their top quarterback, running back, tight end, a defensive lineman and a dime-package safety. At some point, that has to catch up to them. It will catch up with them … won’t it? There are still nine regular season games to play, and quality opponents are waiting like Clemson in Death Valley, USC in South Bend, and at Stanford to end the regular season. It is hard to imagine that they can survive that unscathed. But then again, this was billed from spring ball as the deepest and most talented team Notre Dame has ever run out of the tunnel with Brian Kelly. Guess we’re going to find out.
