The whole Notre Dame nation is glued on the 89,000 Notre Dame Stadium today,

where the Fighting Irish (and Fighting Slovaks, etc.) welcome Southern Cal, in

another great game in a great football rivalry. Trouble is, this year So Cal

is stacked with supermen. Trouble for So Cal is, Notre Dame is a new Notre

Dame, tougher and Weiser. Charlie Weis has been Pete Carroll’s nemesis in pro

football for ten years, as Coach Carroll has been ND’s the last three years.

If tomorrow NRO nation wants to follow how the game came out, via a dozen or

more stories about the game, check in at www.NDnation.com And join millions

of others. Today the game starts at 3:30 EST on NBC.

Last night, there were 40,000 ND fans at the pep rally.

The Lord’s Prayer taught us to pray for “our daily bread,” a humble thing.

There will be a lot of prayers today. Not that ND fans think that God cares

which team will win. Only that, to borrow a line from Lou Holtz, we think His

Mother might.

There are a lot of contingencies in a football game, a lot of things no

players or coaches or referees control. The pigskin is even shaped to invite

crazy bounces, and funny tricks on grasping fingers. It leaves a lot of room for

Hail Marys to move around in.

Today, we don’t even care if the best team wins. Just that Notre Dame win.