The comparison is stark.
Like night and day.
In South Bend, Indiana, the Notre Dame football brand is on the shelf for the bowl season, curling up in a fetal position in protest over College Football Playoff exclusion.
There’s disappointment, detachment, a feeling of dejection over rejection and no revival of team practices, game preparation or travel. Just a projected chosen, unified team tantrum.
In Provo, Utah, the BYU football brand is anticipating another game. There’s excitement, motivation, an itch, an eagerness; team camaraderie is centered on a regular schedule of prep work.
You have receiver Parker Kingston dressed up as a Pop-Tart, photobombing head coach Kalani Sitake during a press gaggle, and players walking around happy for the holidays.
Notre Dame athletic director Pet Bevacqua said team captains and players in position group meetings “couldn’t imagine” taking to the field as a diminished version of the squad due to anticipated opt-outs, transfers, injuries and roster changes.
However, some players said they’d do what the consensus dictated, but no team vote was taken; it was decided for them.
In Sitake’s camp, he has players, including starting quarterback Bear Bachmeier, nursing injuries. Sitake told reporters this week he hasn’t had any players opt out of the bowl game, but he has had players announce they were entering the transfer portal — to get more playing time.
In South Bend, there are no sounds of call signals, younger players getting some reps, pads clashing, coaches barking out calls, signals or advice. There’s no football going on, just Christmas vacation and some weightlifting and running.
In Provo, young offensive linemen Joe Brown, Ethan Thomason and Andrew Williams join linebackers Ephraim Asiata and Naki Tuakoi and receivers Tei Nacua and Reggie Freschknecht, getting developmental time under supervision of position coaches.
They may even get playing time in the Pop-Tarts Bowl without it counting toward their eligibility if redshirting. QBs Treyson Bourguet and McCae Hillstead are getting more reps as Bachmeier is healing with some restrictions at practice.
In South Bend, the team will disassemble and scatter to the four winds for the holidays. In Provo, lists are being made for hotels and excursions as players’ wives prepare to spend Christmas with their husbands on a paid-for vacation in Orlando.
The sting, the hurt, the pain, the unwavering burden of the unfairness of CFP exclusion for 10-2 Notre Dame and 11-2 BYU is evident and as true as taxes and winter flu.
But dealing with it couldn’t be more different.
For Sitake, this is his eighth bowl trip in his 10 seasons as head coach at BYU. He has a 5-2 bowl record. This is the second bowl opponent with P4 status; the other was Colorado last year in the Alamo Bowl.
Georgia Tech will give BYU everything it can handle. Likely more.
“These players love football. I mean, they are excited to play the game, and they are excited that we extended the season and we have a chance to do it with the seniors again,” Sitake said.
“We get to go to Orlando and have fun there, but at the same time, we know we’re going there for a game, so these guys are focused and I feel good about the preparation. I think they’ll be ready when we get there next week.”
BYU has a chance to win 12 games in a season for the first time in 24 years.
It’s called brand enhancement. And fun. And experience. And a team bonding. And a paycheck.
Certainly, there’s some value in all those things. Right?
Sitake said one more opportunity to play is a big thing. True, teams are going to the playoffs, said Sitake. “But the truth is, we have an opportunity to play again, to practice again.”
A year ago, in preparation for the Alamo Bowl, Sitake said he could measure the improvement in development by his team in preparation for this 11-2 season.
“It’s really good for our developmental guys on our team, the guys who are underclassmen. For our seniors, we get to extend the season one more time.”
Sitake said disappointment over the CFP is real. “But that goes real quick. That goes quick when you have an attitude of appreciation of what you get to do.
“These guys love the game. They love that they get to represent the right way and, more than anything, they are grateful they get to play this game again.”
So, there’s the comparison.
There’s the glum, somber, backing away and quitting, and there’s the spark, the elation and exhilaration of preparing to take to the field against an ACC opponent in Georgia Tech.
Ho ho ho.