Notre Dame recently announced that the football team’s pregame player walk will be changing in 2011.
Brian Kelly is becoming one of the most progressive head coaches in Notre Dame history. I’m no sure if Kelly was ultimately the one who came up with the idea, but it seems to go hand in hand with the new entrance for pregame (the players walk down through the student section and onto the field before their warmups for each home game).
All of this is very refreshing for a program that had been drowning in its own tradition for years. There are far more important traditions to actually keep than ones that need changed or scrapped all together. For years, Notre Dame alumni and fans have had heated debates over the uniforms, jumbotrons, fieldturf, schedule, conference affiliation- you name it, and we have debated it.
Just yesterday, I myself got into a very low brow debate about a jumbotron. Brian Kelly wants one, and from where I’m sitting, Brian Kelly is getting what he wants at Notre Dame. My feeling about a jumbotron can easily be summed up wig this tweet:
@mkmcfrlnd Rockne would want a jumbotron. #Nuffsaidless than a minute ago via Tweetbot for iPhone 
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The Subway Domer
TheSubwayDomer
Rock was progressive in a time where it was absolutely necessary to make a small Catholic school a national power. In many ways, Brian Kelly is being asked to do the same. His job is to make ND relevant again. Notre Dame is absolutely relevant and powerful when it comes to TV and national appeal, but that is far different than being relevant on the field and in the polls.
That’s why things like this walk are important. Whatever Kelly thinks will help Notre Dame win- whether it be off the field stuff or with the X’s and O’s on the field. If Kelly does that, he will do what everyone on the outside has said is impossible. He could become this generations Lou Holtz, or even this generations Knute Rockne.
Notre Dame must be progressive in it’s pursuit to become an elite football team again. I believe they are doing that with the best man for the job in Brian Kelly. Remember, the race for the title always begins with a walk to the starting line.
