I’m already annoyed with the whole revenge tour thing at Notre Dame.
And more annoyed with the attention paid to it.
At one point during Notre Dame’s body bag game last weekend against Rice, the crowd began chanting “F— Miami.”
Apparently, this is what the revenge tour is all about.
So let’s all try to wrap our minds around this, shall we? Notre Dame is ticked off because the team it lost to last season was chosen to the 12-team field instead of the Irish by the College Football Playoff selection committee.
So immediately my mind turns to Texas A&M. Are the Aggies part of this revenge tour, too? Because Texas A&M rolled into South Bend last year and won in the waning seconds.
Or is this just Miami? Just the team that Notre Dame’s coaches, players
and fans believed it was better than — despite losing when they played. Which, of course, is textbook loser.
Because it can’t be about the CFP selection committee, which admittedly blew it by ranking the Irish above the Canes once Miami lost for a second time — six weeks after Notre Dame lost for the second time. Twice, people.
Let me say that again: Notre Dame lost two games last season, OK? It wasn’t just one game, on the road to Miami, in the first start for quarterback CJ Carr, or any other excuse the Irish want to use.
It wasn’t about who was the better team at the end of the season (also, textbook loser), or who “deserved” it or who “should be there."
You can should all over yourselves, Notre Dame. Those loser arguments aren’t sticking then, now or ever.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand if Irish coach Marcus Freeman needed a galvanizing center point for a talented team, something to keep them focused while easing through a cake schedule until Miami arrives in South Bend in early November.
I ask you, who’s a better boogeyman than Miami?
The team you lost to, the team that was one play away from winning the national title, the team that — are you ready for this? — stole your spot in the CFP. That, and the whole Catholics vs. Convicts thing from decades gone by.
So you hang onto that thing like grim death, while working your way through teams with coaches on the hot seat (Wisconsin, North Carolina) and with new coaches (Stanford, Michigan State), and just plain bad (Rice, Purdue) and/or overmatched teams (BYU, Navy) before the Canes come to town.
You remember the Canes, the team the CFP ranked ahead of Notre Dame ― wait for it ― five weeks after the mistake of ranking the Irish over Miami.
The team that, in the first round of last year’s CFP, went into College Station and beat the other team that beat Notre Dame in 2025. That’s right, not only did Miami beat Notre Dame last season, the Canes beat a Texas A&M team that won in South Bend.
And did it on the road in a playoff game.
But yeah, keep talking about the revenge tour, Notre Dame fans. Keep Miami rattling around your collective skulls for two months, placing everything about this season on a regular-season game against the team you “should’ve” beaten last season, or were “better than” by the end of 2025.
Instead of focusing on Freeman’s most talented team in his five years at Notre Dame, a group that could win it all and bring the storied program its first national title since 1988. And first Heisman winner since 1987.
That, everyone, is a helluva long time in the college football hinterlands — even with pockets of success here and there.
Maybe instead of whining about what was last season — a reality Notre Dame had the ultimate hand in creating — maybe the lovable lunatic Irish fans can focus on this team and this moment. Not Miami.
As the great Lou Holtz was fond of saying, “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
Because the journey may die getting there.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB. Listen to him daily, from 12-2 p.m., on 1010XL-Jacksonville.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A Notre Dame revenge tour? Better dig two graves for that distraction | Opinion
