Positive losses....If there is such a thing

Now I know I have explained to you that I love Notre Dame football with my life but I don't think you all really understand the extent of my obsession. When I talk about the Irish, I use the word "we" as if I am apart of the team. I am not one of those fair weather fans that will say "we" won and then turn around the next week referring to the Irish and say "they" lost. When my boys lose, I lose. When my boys win, I win.

We are now two weeks into the college football season and yes, my beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is 0-2. Did I expect this? Yeah, kind of. I knew we were going to struggle. I mean how can you lose the most prolific passer in Notre Dame history and first round draft pick in Brady Quinn and not have some what of a let down the next season.

I don't want to make excuses for being winless so far this season and I am not going to. I am just stating the fact that we lost some fire power and we have work to do but the Irish will improve.

It started this past week with finally settling on a starting quarterback to replace Quinn. Highly recruited freshman quarterback Jimmy Clausen took over the reigns against Penn State this past Saturday and head coach Charlie Weis says he will be the man the rest of the way. In the opening game loss to Georgia Tech, Weis started sophmore quarterback Demetrius Jones, then shuffled in junior Evan Sharpley and Clausen.

Clausen looked posed in his first start in front of 110,078 Penn State fans even though the Nittany Lions won the game 31-10. Watching Clausen gave me a reason to believe my boys have a positive future ahead.

We will go through rough times as Clausen and the rest of this young Irish team gains experience but I can promise you the Irish will be back.