Well, folks, we've arrived at the bye week.

No game tomorrow night. No opponent to scout. No offensive formations to dissect. No defensive schemes to question. And, for the first time in nearly two months, no reason for me to spend my Friday evening wandering around a football stadium looking like a man who has just discovered that his retirement account has been invested entirely in cryptocurrency.

I don't know what I'm going to do with myself.

My wife has suggested we might actually go to dinner.

At a restaurant.

On a Friday night.

Like normal people.

I'm not sure I'm emotionally prepared for that kind of lifestyle change.

But the bye week does give us an opportunity to do something we haven't really done since August: take a look at the big picture.

We've celebrated some remarkable performances. We've watched some spectacular athleticism. We've witnessed a few moments of football that defy rational explanation.

We've also watched enough yellow flags fly to make me wonder whether somebody at the TSSAA has negotiated a sponsorship agreement with the laundry detergent industry.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, we've watched a football program trying to figure out how to become a championship football program.

Those are two very different things.

So let's get to it...

3 Observations

1. We're 4–4. That tells us where we are. It doesn't tell us everything about where we're going.

Let's rewind to August.

Notre Dame opened the season with a 48–6 victory over Grace Baptist, and for a brief, glorious moment, everything seemed right with the world. The offense was explosive. The defense was aggressive. The Irish looked bigger, faster, and stronger.

Then came Rhea County.

For the first half of that football game, we looked like we'd accidentally gotten off the bus at the wrong stadium. Down 21–0. On the road. Against a good football team.

But our kids didn't quit. They fought their way back and somehow walked out of Rhea County with a 22–21 victory. That was our first indication that this group had something worth building around.

Then came reality.

CAK. Boyd-Buchanan. Lakeway Christian. Webb. Four losses against good football teams, with a convincing win over Providence Christian mixed in.

The frustrating thing wasn't simply that we lost. It was how we lost. There were stretches when Notre Dame looked perfectly capable of competing with anybody on the schedule. And there were stretches when we seemed determined to make life as difficult as humanly possible for ourselves.

Penalties. Missed assignments. Drives that should have continued but didn't. Defensive possessions that lasted considerably longer than anybody wearing green would have preferred.

Then came Chattanooga Christian.

We built a 21–7 lead and appeared to have the game under control. And then, in what has become an unfortunately familiar development, CCS scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

Tie game. No timeouts. Momentum completely gone.

And just when it looked like we were headed for overtime, we found a way into field-goal range. A sophomore kicker, standing in the middle of a pressure situation that would make most grown men reconsider their career choices, drilled a 43-yarder with 34 seconds remaining.

Notre Dame 24. CCS 21.

It wasn't pretty. But it was a win, and maybe exactly the kind of win this team needed.

Because championship teams don't always play well. But they learn how to win when they don't. And eventually, they learn to put four quarters together so they don't need a 43-yard miracle at the end.

We aren't there yet. But last Friday night was a step in the right direction.

2. We have more football players than we've had in a long time. Now we have to become a better football team.

One of the most encouraging developments in the Notre Dame program has nothing to do with Friday night's scoreboard. It's the transformation of the roster.

Not very long ago, we were trying to build a football program with approximately 32 players.

Thirty-two.

For those of you unfamiliar with the mathematics of high school football, that's barely enough players to field an offense, a defense, and a kicking team...with most guys playing both ways. It's fourth quarters that last 45 minutes due to injury timeouts for cramps, guys gulping pickle juice, and a sideline that looks like a MASH unit when the game is over. It is how you go into the third quarter tied 21-21 and end up losing 49-21.

Today, our roster has grown to over 60 players.

That matters. It means competition at practice. It means depth. It means younger players have an opportunity to develop without being thrown into the fire before they're ready. It means Notre Dame is beginning to look like a serious football program again.

And we have some serious football players.

Dremel "Turbo" Green is the kind of athlete who can change a game. In the open field, he's a greyhound. In between the tackles, he's a greased weasel.

Michael "Raptor" Woodley is a sophomore who seems to have been assembled in a laboratory somewhere for the specific purpose of making defensive coordinators miserable.

Jacorrion Tramble is an extraordinary athlete who can impact a game in about six different ways.

Isaiah Ivey is a weapon at wide receiver.

Jamari Whiteside, founding father of the Excessive Athleticism penalty and namesake of the "Whiteside Rule," is not just athletic. The young man is a ball player.

Briggs Hill and Trell Taylor are like Velcro in the secondary.

Jeremy Casey is everywhere on defense.

And then there are the big fellas up front.

When you get that group together, it's hard to tell if they are football players, Sydney Sweeney's security team, or a work crew that specializes in bare-handed stump removal. My goodness...

We've got speed. We've got size. We've got athleticism. We've also got young quarterbacks, young skill players, and young linemen who are learning some difficult lessons against very good competition.

The ingredients are there. But a counter full of good ingredients isn't a meal.

The difference is execution. It's understanding assignments. It's communicating. It's recognizing formations. It's knowing what to do when the other team does something you weren't expecting. And it's doing those things correctly over and over again until they become habits.

We have assembled the ingredients. Now we have to let them cook.

3. The culture has changed. But culture isn't what you say. It's what you repeatedly do.

I've spent a lot of time talking about culture this season. Probably enough that some of you are beginning to wonder whether I'm trying to work up some kind of bootleg TED Talk...

But I believe this is the most important part of what Coach Hill and his staff are building.

The goal was never simply to win a few more football games. It was to fundamentally change the expectations surrounding Notre Dame football: the way we practice, the way we prepare, the way we compete, the way we respond to adversity, and the way we hold ourselves accountable.

There has been real progress. Our players compete. They fight. They believe they can win.

The next step isn't about getting tougher. It isn't about wanting it more. And it certainly isn't about finding a more inspirational pregame speech.

It's about maturity, the kind every young team has to grow into. It's understanding that the standard doesn't change depending on whether it's Tuesday afternoon or Friday night.

Championship football isn't something you suddenly decide to play when the referee blows the whistle. It's something you build through hundreds of ordinary repetitions when nobody is watching.

That's the challenge in front of every program trying to become a great one. It's the challenge in front of us.

2 Questions

1. Can we turn three rivalries into a habit?

To be the program we want to be, we need to make a habit of beating Chattanooga Christian, Boyd-Buchanan, and Silverdale.

There are many reasons for that (it would take another column to list them all), but you get it.

We've taken care of CCS. Boyd barely got us. Silverdale comes to our place next Friday, 10/23.

If we win 2 of those 3 this year, we will have redefined where Notre Dame sits within the spectrum of Chattanooga high school football.

That isn't a someday goal. It's one game away.

2. What does the next version of Notre Dame football look like?

This is the question that interests me most. I don't believe the ultimate measure of this season will be found exclusively in the final win-loss record. It will be found in what this team becomes.

Think about where the program was not very long ago. A small roster. Limited depth. A football program trying to establish a new identity.

Now we have a growing roster, talented young players, a coaching staff building a foundation, and a community that is beginning to believe something special can happen here.

But belief creates expectations. And expectations create accountability. We can't spend forever talking about what we're building. Eventually, we have to demonstrate what we've built.

That doesn't mean demanding perfection from high school kids. It means demanding progress. It means becoming a more disciplined football team in October than we were in August, and a more consistent football team next year than we are today.

And it means creating a program where the standard is passed from one class to the next, rather than starting over every August.

That is how good programs become great programs. Not through one spectacular recruiting class. Not through one remarkable athlete. And not through one emotional victory.

Through the steady accumulation of good habits, good coaching, and good football players who understand what is expected of them.

1 Prediction

WE BEAT SILVERDALE.

There. Loud and proud. That one might actually get the fellas in Las Vegas to adjust the point spread.

Here's why I believe it.

We've spent the first part of this season discovering who we are.

Now comes the interesting part: what we do with that information. I believe Coach Hill and his staff know exactly how to use this bye week, and I believe the players are beginning to understand what it takes.

The team that comes out of this week will be a better, more disciplined football team than the one we watched in August. Not perfect. Not finished. But better.

And a better Notre Dame team, at home, in front of this crowd, beats Silverdale.

One Final Thought...

I've been around football most of my life. I've played it. I've coached it. I've watched it from sidelines, press boxes, living rooms, and stadium seats that seem to have been specifically engineered to destroy the human lower back.

And one thing I've learned is that building a football program is considerably harder than most people realize.

Everybody wants the victories. Everybody wants the packed stadiums, the championship trophies, and the highlight reels. But very few people see the work that has to happen before any of that becomes possible.

The early morning workouts. The summer practices. The coaches spending hours away from their families. The young men learning to do difficult things when nobody is cheering for them. And the parents, boosters, teachers, administrators, and supporters who keep showing up because they believe the effort matters.

That is what makes a football program.

And speaking of showing up: you fine folks, the Notre Dame faithful, are as locked-in and supportive as a fan base can be. Thank you for that.

Last Friday at CCS, our student section was every bit as big and as loud as the CCS student section...in their house. And the visitors' stands were packed.

I know you all feel this coming, and you should. The intensity and consistency of your support is well-founded and all-important. You are the engine driving this program forward.

Notre Dame is going to be a CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL TEAM. It is not a question of "if." It is just a question of "when." Never let go of that.

So here's the ask. Next Friday, 10/23, Silverdale Baptist comes to our place, and there is a massive amount on the line. We need this game. We need you there with a chip on your shoulder, and we need it loud. GATA indeed...

We are considerably further down the road than we were when this journey began. And the destination is worth the effort.

So enjoy the Friday night off.

Take your lady to dinner.

Watch somebody else's football team commit a holding penalty on third-and-two.

And give your blood pressure a well-deserved opportunity to return to something resembling normal.

Because next week, we'll be right back at it.

DMGB.