As Rocket Ismael said at last year's USC pep rally, THIS IS NOT A GAME. As students, we do not watch Notre Dame football games dispassionately. We are there not only to observe football but to affect the outcome of the game. It is this mindset that differentiates diehard fans from mere spectators. Unfortunately, the typical Notre Dame fan is known as observant and quite. This makes it vitally important for us students to get loud if we want to give our team the home field advantage that they deserve. I think that there are two important ways in which we can improve our performance.
The first thing that we can do is to get rid of the "Celtic Chant" while on defense. This mindless moving up and down of fists may be cute and cool to look at from a distance but does not make Notre Dame Stadium an intimidating place to play. This cheer, where no one but the band makes noise, is fine when the Irish are on offense. But when the opposing quarterback is in the huddle trying to communicate a play, we cannot allow silence! This cheer also has the propensity to be vastly overplayed. At least play something that we can sing to while on defense. Livin' on a Prayer, I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Africa would be loud and fun songs to sing to in these situations.
The second thing that we can do to make Notre Dame Stadium a more intimidating place to play is to bring vuvuzelas. Imagine the opposing quarterback attempting to call out a play over thousands of 120 decibel noise machines. Sure the noise would damage our hearing, but isn't that a price that we are willing to pay as loyal sons and daughters of Notre Dame? In fact I believe that Notre Dame should be handing out vuvuzelas to every Notre Dame fan who enters the stadium. If so, Notre Dame would instantly become the loudest and most intimidating place to play in the nation.
Don't flinch. Go and get it. This is not a game!
Matthew Keenan
sophomore
Dillon Hall
Sep. 9
