Notre Dame must have though they wandered into the Twilight Zone after Saturday's truly extraordinary events surrounding their season opener when they lost to University of South Florida.

As the lightning crashed and the thunder rolled and the players resembled the Three Stooges with dropped passes, interception,stupid penalties, I found myself wondering if there was something more at work.

Bad enough that they lost the game, but the fact that it took well into the evening hours to finish it after an afternoon start made the Twlight Zone truly a reasonable comparison.

No game in the history of Notre Dame had been interrupted and ended in such a way.

The lightning bolts and thunder rolling reminded me of the opening scene of Macbeth where the witches gather to brew their evil spell. ‘Hubble bubble toil and trouble.” they incant.

Toil and trouble is how it has been for Notre Dame recently.


I’m beginning to feel there is a curse on the Irish and there is precedent.

Back in the 18th century an Irish witch called Biddy Early cursed her native county of Clare because they mistreated her and they never won an All Ireland final for generations.

Then of course there was the Babe Ruth curse that Boston finally overcame after generations.

Notre Dame have slumped through the most unlikely and crazy losses in recent years form the ‘Bush Push; against USC to the Tulsa defeat in 2010 and now the South Florida debacle.

There was the tragic loss of the young Sullivan lad last year and various other bad happenings that really test the patience of even the most committed domer.

As a good Irishman Brian Kelly will be keenly aware of the superstitions and fable that surround Notre Dame folklore.
But even he could not in his wildest dream have imagined the bizarre circumstances of the latest defeat.

Maybe there is a curse.