No quick-fix seen for Notre Dame
BOSTON -- The nation's only Catholic schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision, Boston College and Notre Dame meet for the fourth straight year in a rivalry that has lost much of its luster as the teams have struggled.
BC is on its third coach since 2006.
The Irish are on their third since 2004, with Boston-area native Brian Kelly taking over this year and starting out with a 1-3 record.
"At 1-3, the food doesn't taste good. It's not as enjoyable to hang around my family, (and) I love my family," Kelly said. "Nothing feels good when you're 1-3. That's just the life we live in as coaches and players. We're 1-3 together."
Defensive coordinator Bob Diaco said the players understand that, and they understand that the only way back to a winning record is hard work.
"So many times now, with instant popcorn and DVR and DirecTV and everything else, and microwave dinners and hot-now Krispy Kreme and all that other business, you can just go in and it magically happens," Diaco said. "Well, this is going to take some time as coach Kelly develops a system. They know that, and we're going to do it the right way. Coach Kelly is going to do it the right way, demand we do it the right way."
Notre Dame beat Purdue to open the season, then lost three straight to teams that are now in The Associated Press Top 25. Now the Irish are on the road against a team that has traditionally been one of its toughest opponents. Despite the greater prestige and larger trophy case in South Bend, Ind., BC dominated the rivalry with 6 straight wins from 2001 until the Irish won at home last year.
BC coach Frank Spaziani isn't exactly brimming with confidence.
"They have all the pieces in the puzzle there," he said. "They just ran into a little bit of a buzz saw early on with a new regime. So we're looking for a very good football team coming in here and a very hungry team."
BC sophomore Jonathan Coleman said he knows the history of the rivalry it's mostly a rivalry only for BC from walking past the display cases and checking out the videos in the lobby of the football team's headquarters.
"I've been watching that sometimes when I'm bored," he said. "I'm looking at video about the history. I'm excited to be a part of it now. When I talk to the regular students, they're excited for it, so that makes me excited, too."
Chase Rettig, who had been heading for a redshirt this season, is expected to start for the Eagles at quarterback. BC coach Frank Spaziani won't commit to the freshman over sophomore Mike Marscovetra, but teammates say Rettig has been taking most of the snaps with the first team in practice this week.
It didn't matter much to Kelly that BC wasn't officially divulging its QB. The Irish looked at high school film of Rettig and figured that he is the same type of pocket passer as Marscovetra, who has appeared in seven games over the past two years.
"They are all cut from the same cloth," Kelly said. "At Cincinnati I had a running quarterback versus a pocket quarterback. You would have to prepare for us in two different ways for those two different quarterbacks so I was never going to tip my hand."