Those who doubt the possibility of comebacks (Republicans, for instance) can take heart from the revival of Notre Dame’s football fortunes, this morning’s number one college team.

It has been 19 years since Notre Dame has been ranked #1 in the polls.  Its last national championship season was 1988.  Notre Dame’s fortunes had declined so grievously that the school actually began losing to the Naval Academy, which it had been accustomed to treating as a doormat, beating the Midshipmen 43 consecutive times before 2007, after which Navy won three of the next four.  Notre Dame went through several coaches during the long years of wandering the football wilderness.  It endured the usual scandals, which were all the more embarrassing since the university likes to consider itself a model program that does not recruit sub-average students and borderline (and some not so borderline) outlaws the way most football powerhouse schools do.  Some Notre Dame faithful had wondered if perhaps the school might ease off on those high standards, just a little, and admit a few of what one of its former stars called “criminals,” if it wanted to regain the football heights.