DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP

If you look closely at the crowd of Middies in Notre Dame Stadium tomorrow, you may see them holding a flag that reads, "DONT GIVE UP THE SHIP."  The Fighting Irish will need to draw some inspiration from this famous Naval battle cry as they take on a fierce opponent in the wake of a humiliating defeat.


After a brutal loss at the hands of our bitter rivals from Southern California, several Trojans spoke out about the lack of fight in the Fightin' Irish when it came to the fourth quarter of that contest.  Chris Galippo, a linebacker who is still bitter over being passed up by Notre Dame after visiting on a recruiting trip with Jimmy Clausen, claimed, "At the end there, when they didn't call those timeouts, they just quit.  And that's what Notre Dame football's about.  They're not anything like U$C."  Running Back Marc Tyler (of TMZ fame) chimed in with less-than-perfect-English by sputtering, "That's what happens when you beat them down.  We wore them out.  They didn't want to play us no more.  We out-physicalled them and beat them down."  While such statements do little more than prove the lack of class spewing forth from the Kiffin-run program, they do sting somewhat when their impact is considered. Perception often is reality, and right now much of the country perceives the Fighting Irish as weak.


Lou Holtz was famously quoted as telling his National Championship team, "One thing nobody in this world can give you, men, is respect... the self respect you have for yourself, the way you play the game, and the way you believe... the way you do things.  This is a game of respect.  You are Notre Dame.   You are special.  You represent Notre Dame.  You represent everybody that came before you and everybody that will come after you.  At Notre Dame there is a spirit.  The spirit is something that's within ya.  Ya gotta listen to that spirit, and you gotta fight for it. Ya gotta believe."


On saturday, the Fighting Irish need to find the fightin' spirit within them, listen to it, and earn the respect that is needed to turn this program around for good.  They're on the cusp of greatness, but they stand at a crossroads.  This classic matchup against our historic rivals stands as the perfect opportunity to prove that we have not and will never give up the ship.