Associated Press
Maybe too confidently, if you ask us. There hasn't been this much optimism in South Bend after one week since – well, before the last time the Irish didn't lay an egg against BYU after foolishly selling out and moving a potentially dangerous road game before the Michigan contest.
As for Rudy … seems the true "Rudy" story didn't really unfold as advertised in the movie. On TNT's "Dinner and a (B) Movie" presentation a few years back, Ruettiger admitted as much when prodded by his hosts during the film's showing. It went something like this …
Host: "So, the big fella (played by Jon Favreau) who was your tutor and who helped you out – do you guys still talk?"
Rudy: "Well, his character was kind of a compilation of all the people who helped me during my time at Notre Dame."
Host: "Oh. Okay. Well, how about the stadium worker (played by the actor better known as 'Roc') – the one who helped get you your job and let you sleep inside Notre Dame Stadium when you had nowhere else to go?
Rudy: "Well, his character was kind of a compilation of all the people who helped me during my time at Notre Dame."
Host: "Hmm … and that priest who gave you guidance?
Rudy: "Well, his character was kind of a compilation of all the people who helped me during my time at Notre Dame."
Host: "Ara Parseghian?"
Rudy: "HE was real!"
Sounds fishy to us (kind of like ND's 1947 "National Championship" team). For all we know, the Rudy story was about one man's struggle to become the Fighting Irish leprechaun mascot. Still, we're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the benefit of our Irish friends across the country who still weep in their O'Doul's every time they see it on television (usually on some obscure station at 3:30 a.m., just before the Girls Gone Wild commercials hit the airwaves – or so we've heard).
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)