Knights hoping the force stays with them against Loyola

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So the theme the Notre Dame seniors picked this year for their homecoming is ‘Star Wars’ -- how original. I know my high school’s senior class was mulling over the same idea back in ’99 when George Lucas finally decided that a new generation of space geeks were ready for commercial manipulation.

Hey, I’m not saying I didn’t buy into it, but I’m just glad I didn’t ditch school (like a lot of my classmates did) to see ‘Phantom Menace’ in my Jar-Jar Binks costume.

Luckily, we went with something less Hollywood for our homecoming theme (although I can’t remember what it was). But I have to tip my hat to the Notre Dame student body for pulling it off with class. The band actually sounded really good playing that Star Wars opening theme song and they got two suckers -- I mean students -- to dress like Darth Vader and Yoda. I just wish I hadn’t left my digital camera at home by accident.

Anyways, enough with the ‘Star Wars,’ let’s get back to what’s actually going on in the game.

The (Jedi) Knights lead Loyola, 7-3, at halftime and not much has happened since my last blog.

It seems as if Notre Dame is attempting to establish a running game behind RB Thaddeus Brown, but it isn’t really working too well against Loyola’s front four. However, Crist has had a little more luck. The Notre Dame University-bound QB has 32 yards rushing and a TD -- nearly as much as Brown’s 39 yards.

Crist has also completed six of 11 passes for 75 yards. His Loyola counterpart, QB Stephen Rokus, has completed 10 of 16 passes for 66 yards.

And one last thing: Tonight marked the Notre Dame band’s 450th football game performance.

- Austin Knoblauch