'Wore out my rosary': Fans' best four-word descriptions of the 2022 Notre Dame season and each game
Notre Dame’s 2022 season is over. Enjoy your nine months without your smartwatch heartrate monitor going off every Saturday afternoon. This season might’ve set your record for highest number of abnormally high beats per minute alerts.
The Irish went 9-4 in Marcus Freeman’s first season as head coach. They beat two teams that finished in the final CFP Top 25 rankings and four opponents that won eight games. They toppled both teams that played in the ACC Championship Game.
That’s only half of the story, of course. Notre Dame took a direct transitive loss to Bowling Green by falling to Marshall. Stanford, which fielded a defense that finished 125th in yards per play, shut out the Irish in the first half of a 16-14 home defeat. The Cardinal beat just one other FBS team this season and ousted 12-year head coach David Shaw.
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It wasn’t just the pattern of results that made this season an exercise in mixed emotions. Notre Dame’s 21-10 loss at Ohio State Week 1 still left a somewhat encouraging feeling. A 44-21 win over UNLV and 35-32 skirting-of-disaster vs. Navy were victories that tasted bitter.
All told, this season deserved the final chapter that played out in Jacksonville, Fla. The Dec. 30 Gator Bowl that featured five lead changes, three South Carolina non-offensive touchdowns and 264 Notre Dame rushing yards was the perfectly fitting end. The Irish won it 45-38.
After each game, I asked Notre Dame fans on Twitter to give me their best four-word descriptions of what they just witnessed. I circled back for one more collection, this time asking for four-word synopses of the season.
Here were some of my favorite season descriptions submitted Wednesday and my winners for each individual game.
Your best four-word descriptions of the 2022 Notre Dame season
Notre Dame learned who it was and wasn’t.
About those heartrate monitor trends…
532 times, all told
Can’t forget the quote of the year.
The best four-word descriptions for every 2022 Notre Dame game
Dec. 30 vs. South Carolina in the Gator Bowl (45-38 win): Tyler Buchner delivered in the end
Nov. 26 at USC (38-27 loss): Caleb Williams made some magic against the Irish
Nov. 19 vs. Boston College (44-0 win): Benjamin Morrison was the Eagles’ best receiver
Nov. 12 vs. Navy (35-32 win): That got too close.
Nov. 5 vs. Clemson (35-14 win): Take it from Dabo Swinney himself
Oct. 29 at Syracuse (41-24 win): The dome was kind to the visitors.
Oct. 22 vs. UNLV (44-21 win): Not exactly inspiring
Oct. 15 vs. Stanford (16-14 loss): Sometimes one word is enough
Oct. 8 vs. BYU (28-20 win): Michael Mayer stole the show
Sept. 24 at North Carolina (45-32 win): See, Notre Dame can play good football
Sept. 17 vs. California (24-17 win): Only fitting for a game that ended on a Hail Mary attempt.
Sept. 10 vs. Marshall (26-21 loss): Hello 0-2, bye-bye College Football Playoff
Sept. 3 at Ohio State (21-10 loss): It sure felt this way
