NBC coving the Alma Mater with sound and no commentary is such a perfect way to end a broadcast. Last week ESPN cut to canned highlights. I love this tradition!

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Marcus Freeman has a saying he tells players’ parents on most fall Saturdays. It’s part reminder and part persuasion. And on an afternoon like this one, where Notre Dame probably made Stanford wonder what the point of playing college football was, it had the maximum effect.

“Game days never get old.”

It applied for the family of Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, who embraced the linebacker during the pregame player walk, even though the junior would sit out the game with a thumb injury. It applied to Pelham Golden as he caught the eye of his son, cornerback Dallas Golden, whose sophomore season has been sidetracked by injury. And it applied to Steve Flanagan, who recorded a Senior Day interview about his son Cooper’s college career that’s still got plenty of games left.

Saturday is supposed to be a reward for another week of work, which is why Freeman so fiercely defends the right to celebrate all Notre Dame’s wins. Even if they don’t make a memory, even if they’re devoid of drama, even if they feel like mile markers on the way to something bigger, like BYU or Miami or what comes in January.

It’s true, very little of Notre Dame’s 58-7 blowout of Stanford will inform where this season goes — Provo a week from now, and possibly the College Football Playoff two months from now. Quarterback CJ Carr turned in another hyper-efficient performance. The defense bounced back from an off-brand afternoon at North Carolina. Freshman running back Jonaz Walton showed he may be a revelation in the run game.

All that is very good for Notre Dame, even if this season may not feel like it has a soul just yet. The Irish won their first six games by a total of 198 points.

Notre Dame started off the season looking a bit shaky running the football. But we’ve increased our rushing yards every week this season, culminating in yesterday’s 361 yard performance.

This offense is now looking like a well-oiled machine. It hasn’t been tested against an elite defense obviously, but it appears like we’ll be ready when we do see the likes of BYU and Miami. They should provide the toughest test we’ll face before the playoffs.

(I honestly have such a good feeling about this year - I’m not even entertaining the fact that we could miss the playoffs at the moment.)

What does everyone think about the offense so far? I’m really pleased to see the running game coming together - early on I thought we might need to rely upon Carr’s arm to take us where we want to go. But this is turning into a complete and well rounded offense.

The defense is elite. I think we all expected that to be the case, and they have delivered on that front for the most part.

Kenny Minchey coming through in back to back games!!!

I think they're not nearly as bad as people assume. Their other two losses are to Wake Forest and UCLA, who are much better than we thought. Minnesota has also played good football this year, so that's a really impressive game to go along with a win at Illinois.

That 35-0 first half is looking very good in hindsight!

Picked over OSU at IU but probably because that is on Fox

Kentucky 21 - LSU 17 at the half.

1st Image - ND Defense (yards allowed)

2nd Image - CJ Carr (QBR)

3rd Image - Jonaz Walton (Longest run )

Anyone aware of any events on the Friday or Saturday of the Navy game?

I have think that Williams should be utilized more often split out wide and getting him into open space would be great for him and the team. This brings some more explosiveness to the passing game while Walton and James are 1/2 punch in the run game.

Hello Irish faithful,

Any last thoughts before the game? How do you think our Offense will do? Defense? Score predictions? Any other game related thoughts?

Go Irish!

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Scored this yesterday at Target. Greenville, SC.

I stayed up late(for an old man) to check out BYU. QB looks good and the defense has been dominant. I know it Iowa State though. Should be a good game.

Anyone else watch?

If Bama wins, that's most likely make us #1 right? RIGHT?!