Weekend Notes

Unfortunately, this was the last weekend of the 2005 college football regular season but you would have never guessed it was December around this part of the nation. With no ND football on Saturday, I talked Dale into driving to Panama City with me for some basketball games. My team played down in PC today and yesterday – we won both games (despite my less than stellar play). Dale always provides great morale support and superb coaching tips – I am so lucky. Anyway, walking straight out of the gym this morning into 70-plus-degree weather, palm trees, and the Gulf about a quarter mile away off in the distance, made it extremely difficult to want to drive home. The food was pretty good there too … ate grouper both Friday and Saturday nights. It was wonderful. Safe trip back though and now here we are … back at home and settling back in for work tomorrow.

On to more notable news … we made the drive back just in time to catch the start of the college gameday show on ESPN – the bowl game preview. Caught Charlie’s interview with Reese Davis and all. I asked Dale what was the one difference between Charlie and the rest of the coaches (whose teams were selected for bowl games … Spurrier, Paterno, Poodle, etc.) that were interviewed throughout the night. He guessed it exactly right: Charlie was the only coach in a suit and tie. What a first-class guy … and oh yeah, runs a pretty first-class program too. ND is going to the Fiesta Bowl, baby. ND is back. Just like Jerome Bettis said on ESPN radio the other day, “The world is better place when ND is winning.” Amen.

Renae out …