ND-USC TV Intro...

My intro for the ND-USC game on October 15, 2005:

When summer is finally forgotten, as daylight dwindles each day, look around the corner...just beyond Main Street. Chances are there's game in a backyard; Children in the midst of imagining, some with a notion, innocent but powerful. You eagerly followed your team, listening to that distant voice. You couldn't sleep after a victory and couldn't wait for a day when it might be your time. Then that day arrived, that moment, that affirmation, when you were told you were special. And so you worked and you sacrificed, pointing toward that October day in the Fall when all of America would be watching you, watching your team....the kind of day dreamed of in a back yard just around the corner from Main Street.

Here are the questions confronting #1 USC. Are these to be the Trojans that at last run the full gauntlet of grueling competition and withering expectations? Is Matt Leinart to be USC's repeat Heisman Trophy winner? Will Pete Carroll and the Men of Troy yet again be crowned national champions? Will the 27 game winning streak simply jump to 28? But between these hopes and their fulfillment there is the myth: the stadium in South Bend...and history's team, Notre Dame.

Eleven national titles. Seven Heisman Trophy winners. No other school has won as many championships. No other school has had as many All-Americans. And in their home, you also play against their past: galloping shadows from 1924, echoes of legendary coaches. In South Bend, they've become accustomed to teams chasing championships, and now, after a 12 year hiatus at the hands of Davie, Willingham, and Malloy, there comes a re-birth: a new cadre - Charlie - joining Mary atop the dome - bringing with him 4 superbowl rings, offensive wizardry, and a 40+ inch waist line...inspired by a tradition without equal.

So here we are - a game in a perfect place...when it actually matters. A collision for history. One school hoping to stay atop college football's summit. And another hoping to return to glory. Notre Dame and USC. The coming of a day dreamed of...in backyards...just around the corner from Main Street.