The Fighting Irish vs. the True Champions of Ireland
Tech’s first stab at bowl eligibility in 2024 will come against the only other college football team with more wins on Irish soil: Notre Dame.
Let’s unpack that, though. Notre Dame (3-0 in Ireland compared to Tech’s 2-0 record) has played the same opponent in all three of their appearances—that opponent being Navy, a team they once beat 43 times in a row. Even if there’s a cool bit of history behind that particular series, one could be forgiven for wondering if the Domers might have just maaaybe stacked the deck a little in their favor.
Then again, who are we to talk? Any of those Navy teams would have probably dusted 2024 Florida State. But Tech actually did, and thus we get to claim the current crown of being Champions of Ireland.
Notre Dame is in the curious position of not being as utterly intolerable as they usually are. A lot of that has to do with their coach, Marcus Freeman, a likable guy who’s genuinely hard to root against. His meteoric rise—from fielding some remarkably fun defenses at Cincinnati to becoming the head coach of a historical powerhouse—has genuinely made for a cool story. And he’s thrown us all a bone along the way, finding ways to lose in very funny fashion to Marshall and Northern Illinois. Truly a man of the people, and such a breath of fresh air compared to his predecessor.
Amid all that, and even though he’s 24-9 so far… it’s almost guaranteed that eventually the old guard at Notre Dame will still shove him out the door for not matching Brian Kelly’s highest highs.
Because Notre Dame is, of course, special. Their fans and alumni and NBC cheerleaders would love to regale you with tales of how special they are. They’re a private school, which no other school is. They’re a Catholic school, which no other school is. They have grades, which no other school does. They play football, which no other school does. They have cheating scandals, which every other school does, but Notre Dame delivers mild punishment to those who cheat while their alumni bemoan how sad it all is, which apparently no other school does.
Anyway, don’t take all of that from me. Take it from one of the most painfully sycophantic pieces of journalism I’ve ever read.
It is also worth noting that Notre Dame had their most famous football player—a guy who had a movie made about that time he was offsides—get arrested for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It just goes to show that Notre Dame truly can’t compete with the SEC.
They did once compete with the ACC, though. I for one will always appreciate the 2020 Notre Dame team for being the eighth different Coastal Division champion in eight years despite, of course, the division only ever having seven teams. They helped us see past reality into what is truly possible if we put our minds to it.
And hey, maybe someday they’ll join the Big 12.
The game itself will feature a battle between very mobile quarterbacks in Riley Leonard and… either Haynes King or Zach Pyron, because Bront has chosen to be cagey about King’s availability for this weekend. So it may well come down to which defense does better at spy discipline and containing QB runs. Fortunately Tech has never struggled in that regard. Never ever. But as long as the Jackets can score a point in this game, it’ll be a step up from the team’s last showing under [INSERT NAME OF JABRONI WHO, IN WHAT I CAN ONLY CONSIDER AN ACT OF DIVINE JUSTICE, WATCHED HIS EEEEELITE DEFENSE GIVE UP A 68-YARD TD IN THE FINAL SECONDS TO A GUY WHOM HE NEARLY RAN OFF CAMPUS LOLOLOL MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE PUT THE BALL DOWN HARDER BECAUSE HIS BIG PEOPLE DIDN’T BEAT UP THE SMALLEST PERSON ON THE FIELD BEFORE HE RAN CIRCLES AROUND THEM] back in 2021.
Whatever happens this weekend, while Tech can no longer claim a more recent national title than Georgia, we can absolutely claim a more recent one than Notre Dame. It’s the little things.