Ten years ago I would have been so asleep right now, I may have been just falling asleep, or at least passing out into a state of unproductive unconsciousness. Given that those glory days have been replaced by a 3 year old tugging at my blanket and demanding "peeenotbutte-n-julli" at 6 AM, I though I would write a quick post before embarking on the 3 hour journey until College Gameday comes on the air.
Game day at Notre Dame is awesome. I am not here to compare Ann Arbor to South Bend, or judge the ND rivalry against Michigan's other annual(ish) rivalries, but just to say that Michigan at ND is one of the best spectacles in sports. There is something about when coverage is picked up at ND stadium for this game. The stadium is packed, the two best fight songs in college football are piping from all angles, players are so jacked for this one. As it is always a 3:30 game, you know that at some point mid third quarter, the twilight glow will emerge, no it won't get to completely dark, but dark enough that it is has a night game feel for the second half.
Out of all of Michigan's rivalries, which it seems is virtually every game on their schedule, M at ND has a particular feel, maybe it is because college football is so fresh at this point, and Michigan is embarking in hostile grounds to make an early season statement. I don't know, but this one is always special.
Happy Michigan at Notre Dame Day. Hope you got better sleep than I did.
I think it is because it is always early and often the first big test for both teams. I remember when I was in school at UM, it drove us crazy that ND was our first game but their second game (no fair! They get a chance to iron out the bugs).