In anticipation of the launch of NCAA Football 2011, EA Sports is sponsoring a series of posts across the SBNation college blogs about the essence of fandom.  Specifically, the fandom of you, the reader.  Everyone is starting to get the early signs of football fever, so join us in the comments to tell the story of your all-time favorite Notre Dame squad.

Granted, I can only really select from 2004 on - I could get all sentimental about a team I didn't watch or wasn't alive for, but I'll assume "When You Were A Fan" is implied - but the answer is fairly easy: the 2005 squad.

It was Charlie Weis' first year and really the only time during the Weis Era that the Irish smacked around the teams they were supposed to and went down swinging in every loss.  Following Ty Willingham's dismissal, no one knew what to expect.  Weis had a pedigree of bringing in good offenses, but who knew if the pieces were in place or if it was going to take a few recruiting cycles to get his guys in.  Could he turn Brady Quinn into Tom Brady, or something close?  How would Weis' offense translate to the college game? 

For all of the criticisms leveled at Weis over the last five years, both justified and not, I don't know of an Irish fan that wasn't smiling after his dissection of Dave Wannstedt's Pitt team.  Jeff Samardzija went from a confusingly-named back-up to in the running for the Biletnikoff, pulling in highlight reel catches all season.  Maurice Stovall was a monster, both leveling defensive backs blocking and bringing in jump ball after jump ball over top of them.  (The two combined for 26 receiving touchdowns.)  Anthony Fasano notched 47 receptions while Darius Walker had over 1500 yards from scrimmage.  It was an offensive juggernaut that set all manner of Notre Dame records.

On the defensive side of the ball, linebackers Brandon Hoyte and Corey Mays dominated the middle, combining for 172 tackles and 11 sacks.  Tom Zbikowski was a revelation at safety, racking up five picks, four deflections, 71 tackles and a sack.  The pride of Dillon Hall, big Vic Abiamiri totaled fifteen tackles for loss and eight sacks from the defensive end position.  The defense that year was a little leaky in the secondary and gave up some big plays, but they also made a lot of big plays.  In the game against USC, they shut down both Matt Leinart (17 for 32, 0 TD's and 2 INTS) and Lendale White (10 carries for 26 yards), only being foiled by Reggie Bush, who was violating all sorts of NCAA rules and shouldn't have been playing.  (I think that was the first time I've been officially able to write that, and boy does it feel good.)

Brady Quinn, just like Weis wanted, was the engine driving everything.  He went from a sophomore with a 54.1% completion percentage and 17:10 TD:INT ratio to a junior completing 64.9% of his passes, throwing only seven picks versus thirty-two touchdowns.  Looking back on it, it's become apparent that Quinn was almost spoiled by the skill at wide receiver, as The Shark and MoSto brought in every ball thrown in their general direction.  Still, it was Quinn who was too good in the final drive against Southern Cal, putting the Irish ahead too early on a gutsy scramble up the middle.  There will be a lot of people wearing Number 10 jerseys in the Stadium this year for Dayne Crist, but I'm going to guess a lot of those were bought in support of Quinn during his tenure.

People will say that Notre Dame hasn't competed for a national title in twenty years, but the 2005 team was just a hair away.  They lost their two games by a total of six points, one in overtime to Michigan State and the other on the Bush Push.  They only had two close wins (at Michigan when they led 17-3 and the comeback at Stanford to end the season), dominating the rest of their opponents by an average of almost three touchdowns.  They lost the Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State on a day no one but D-Walk played well, but they were right in the game, trailing by only a touchdown late into the fourth quarter despite a bevy of big plays from the Buckeyes.  I'll go to my grave believing that if Justin Tuck had come back for one more season the Irish would have been the ones who were made to look silly by Vince Young in the Rose Bowl.

The team that came back in 2006 was similar to the '05 squad, but the few players that did graduate were so important (MoSto, Hoyte, Mays) that despite an even better season from Quinn, the Irish found themselves getting blown out in their losses (Michigan, USC, LSU) and barely eking out a handful of other wins (Georgia Tech, Michigan State, UCLA).

So until one of Brian Kelly's squad wrests the title of favorite team from Charlie Weis' first offering as head coach, those 12 games will still be the standard-bearer of Irish teams for me.