There is an expression that people who follow sports tend to know.

“Drinking the Kool-Aid.”

It means that you’re buying into the hype-whether you have actual reason to or not. Most fans do this at one point or another in their lives. For example, your team gets a ticket to the big dance by feasting on cupcakes that can’t tackle. However, when they have had the opportunity to play against an upper-tier opponent, they couldn’t come close to breaking Brian Urlacher’s tackle. No matter, the Urlacher result doesn’t mean your team isn’t really all that good. It couldn’t be that (they’ve still won a ton of games, after all). All that is needed is another chance.

Put another way, you still think that because your guys can out-cool Steve Urkels of the world again and again, they are good enough to win the girl the next time they have to go against a Zack Morris. Guess what? Just like against the tough competition before, the results aren’t usually the same.

The story above illustrates how fans get burned by this type of thinking again and again.

Yes, I’ve been around long enough to know that one should refrain from “drinking the Kool-Aid”.

However, with Brian Kelly, I just can’t help it. He upped my expectations even more in his most recent presser. The man is so focused, polished, and confident, that I am starting to expect this season to be a good one for the Irish. Like Nine or Ten wins good. BK set a tone early by calling out his best and most important players (Floyd, Te’o, and Crist), saying they had to step it up (and they are responding, BK now has a man-crush on Mike Floyd), demanding attention to detail (the locker blueprints), and turning back the clock to the days where the Irish earned their nickname (The Fighting Irish). Today showed that he’s not stopping there, the goal is to make practice so fast-paced and difficult that the games are easy by comparison. On top of that, Paul Longo’s strength training is working so well that new names of possible contributors are popping up seemingly every day (Tyler Eifert? Who?), and BK cites team depth as a strength (When was the last time that could be said for Notre Dame?).

Oh, and don’t forget, Brian Kelly took Cincinnati to 12-0 (they tailgate in parking garages, people)!

(Deep breath.) Drink The Kook-Aid? Hell, I’d do more than drink the Kool-Aid.

I’d let the Kool-Aid crash through my wall, and wreck my living room.

And steal all of my beer.

And try to sleep with my sister.