"To whom much is given, much is required." - John F. Kennedy
People forget that prior to last fall, the Notre Dame football team was coming off three consecutive losing seasons, and many people (including someone whose picture lies somewhere on this page) didn't really believe that last season was going to be the one that the Green Knights returned to glory.
Of course, 20/20 hindsight shows outstanding lines on both sides of the ball, speed to burn, and an outstanding leader and winner in Conor Keniry.
Notre Dame hopes that there won't be any hindsight needed in December. They will begin the season this week No. 1 in the Courant poll, the Register poll, the WELI poll, and - presumably - the Gallup polls.
Rumors of their preseason beatdowns of other traditional powers have spread like wildfire through the football underground.
But, unlike last season, the hype comes with a giant target on their back, one that Notre Dame will have to embrace if they want to avoid the snipers.
"We don't talk too much about last season," Notre Dame coach Tom Marcucci said. "It's a new story, a new group. We graduated eight starters on offense, seven on defense. We have some skill players back and we have some talent, but it is a different team."
No one will be feeling the heat more than senior quarterback Sean Goldrich, because he's the most heralded player returning from last year's Class L title squad, throwing for 20 touchdowns with just 1 interception last season and completing nearly 69 percent of his passes.
However, his role will almost surely be increased this season. Goldrich never threw more than 15 passes in a game last season, and although the Knights should still run plenty, there will be times where the game may rest on Goldrich's strong right arm.
"I just want to win games, that's what's most important to me," Goldrich said. "I know interceptions will happen from time to time, so I'm not worried about it. Coach (Marcucci) has told me we're probably going to throw a little bit more, which is obviously exciting as a quarterback, but as long as we're winning, I'm fine."
You want an example of how things have changed for Goldrich? At a recent visit to Notre Dame, I was told I couldn't talk to him. After explaining that it was set up through Coach Marcucci, the message came back, "Well, he can't talk to college coaches during school."
For whatever reason, major colleges have been slow to warm to Goldrich. He had looked at Iowa, but they grabbed another QB. The same appears to have happened at Villanova.
What makes it doubly strange is trying to find someone with something negative to say about Goldrich, either on or off the field, is darn near impossible.
"In my opinion, he is a Division I quarterback," Marcucci said. "He has a big-time arm and he's faster than people give him credit for. He's a good runner. And he's a fantastic kid. He does everything the coaches ask, and it's always the team first."
You can tell the college thing stings Goldrich a little, but while he's not exactly a tragic figure, he has had his share of adversity growing up in West Haven.
When he was in seventh grade, his mother, Tara, died suddenly, and therefore never saw him play a down in high school.
"It dawned upon me a couple of times last season," Goldrich said. "It was a little emotional in the playoffs that she couldn't see the success that we had. In the end, although I wish she could be here, it's nice to know that there's someone up there looking out for me, and she'll always be a big part of who I am."
You want weapons? Goldrich (who somehow didn't even make first team Division I last season, as he was beaten out by Xavier's Alex Pace, Hamden's Jason Lassiter, and Cheshire's Greg Palmer) has weapons. Phil Bentley and Tirrell Young-Williams, who each had big plays in big games last season, were 1-2 in the 100-meter dash in Class MM track last spring. Running back David Rose was not spectacular, but consistent and should be stronger with a year of experience under his belt.
Sometimes it's not the most fun position to be in, anything but a repeat as state champion will likely be a disappointment.
However, it certainly beats having a losing record.
"We have a lot of things we can still do to get better," Marcucci said. "This won't be easy."
STEWART LEADS FALCONS: As of Sunday, there was only one name on the MaxPreps roster for Xavier: Graham Stewart.
The linebacker spurned UConn (yeah) and Syracuse (boo) to play at Boston College, ending a fairly contentious recruiting period and allowing him to concentrate on football.
Stewart and fellow linebacker Austin Ahern are among the top 10 recruits coming out of Connecticut this season, which alone means the Falcons should be a handful (Just YouTube Stewart and you'll see some pretty good hits against Division I opposition).
Xavier also won their final nine regular season games last season, including a win over Notre Dame, before giving Staples all it could handle in the Class LL semifinals.
But it was a strange season for the Falcons defense, which posted three shutouts and nearly had two others, but was run off the field by Wilbur Cross (37-19, their only regular season loss), and gave up 20 or more points five times, including to Staples.
Will they have enough to unseat Notre Dame atop the SCC? We won't have long to find out, will we?
EXTRA POINTS: Tony Martone returns to Hamden, and he might have his work cut out for him with a brutal schedule and losing 24 players to graduation. He does have running back Jordan Teague (who, strangely, didn't play any running back in the final scrimmage against Greenwich) and he should have enough athletes to be competitive. But how competitive? ... Yea, I was the one that put Cheshire 8th in Division I to start last season. All they did was win the Class LL state championship. Oops. I'm semi-inclined to look at the fact that they look likely to use two quarterbacks again (Michael John Ecke and Max Slade) to prove that the might have some problems, but it's worked for them in the past, and they should have enough talent to be in position for a possible playoff berth ... Shelton will be without Mike Georgalas for its opener against Wilbur Cross after he was ejected from last Thanksgiving's game against Derby (the CIAC never forgets). They will also miss Ryan Deangelis for the season with an ACL tear, so the Gaels may take some time to get going, and that may be enough to cost them a postseason run ... Wilbur Cross has Dontay Long (QB) and James Ward (RB), but it's hard to tell what else this early. Last season, they started with an 18-point win at Palmer Field, but later in the season lost by 24 points at home to West Haven. They finished 5-5, and you expect you might see more of the same this season ... Hand has some players returning, but it's hard to see them having the athleticism to keep up with the Notre Dames and Xaviers of the world ... West Haven is another mystery, they haven't looked particularly good in the preseason, but they never do, do they? ... Fairfield Prep and Amity, both with new coaches (Tom Shea and Bert Mozealous, respectively), appear to be swimming upstream in Division I, at least for this season ... Couldn't fit this into Inside the Numbers, but the least amount of points Notre Dame scored last season: 28.
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PLAYER OF THE WEEK
GAME OF THE WEEK
Xavier at Notre Dame, Friday, 7 p.m. - By all preseason accounts, this should be the game of the season as well in front of what figured to be a giant crowd in West Haven. Is Notre Dame's offense that good? Is Graham Stewart that good? Is the SCC that good? All questions we've been waiting months to answer will finally begin to be come this week, thankfully.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
32
Number of playoff teams in the CIAC football playoffs this season, up from 24 last season. Seeing that I was one of the ones that was pushing for a change, obviously I like it, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I surmise there will still be some teams that feel they should get in and don't, but that's the way it goes.
D-I POWER RANKINGS
1) Notre Dame (11-1; Opener: vs. Xavier) – Knights don't have to leave West Haven until October 22. Nice scheduling.
2) Xavier (9-2; at Notre Dame) – Have to survive ND and Cheshire (both away) in the season's first three weeks.
3) Cheshire (11-1; at Hamden) – Usually, they lose to Hamden, then go on big win streak. Tough to do that this year.
4) Shelton (7-3; vs. Wilbur Cross) – Won last six games last season, will know much more after Friday's opener.
5) Wilbur Cross (5-5; at Shelton) – Ward will take them as far as he can, but he's going to need some help somewhere.
6) Hand (5-5; at Fairfield Prep) – Less cool storylines for opener, same amount of rush-hour traffic on I-95.
7) Hamden (7-3; vs. Cheshire) – Dragons don't play Wilbur Cross this season. Seems kind of wrong, doesn't it?
8) West Haven (5-5; at Amity) – Fairly kind opening to schedule may give the Westies much-needed confidence.
9) Amity (3-7; vs. West Haven) – Mght be a little bit of a rough start to the new regime, but they'll battle in D-I.
10) Fairfield Prep (0-10; vs. Hand) - Well, it really can't get much worse, can it?
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