SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Friday night, at the Notre Dame pep rally, a bold gaggle of Boston College fans made their way into the Joyce Athletic Center. The maroon and gold sweatshirts formed an odd, yet distinguishable combination among the sea of green partisans who normally attend the event.

But the way they invaded the gym, and brazenly interrupted the proceedings, provided a strange, unrecognizable plot twist to the Notre Dame season.

	Ryan Grant had one of the seven ND fumbles, three of which it lost.

That continued on Saturday against BC.

When the Irish players emerged from the tunnel wearing shiny green jerseys, those who led the charge were the same. But Shane Walton, Gerome Sapp, and Glenn Earl were unrecognizable in the aesthetic sense.

The fumbled handoffs? Just as unrecognizable, but in the fundamental sense. This team has put the rock on the ground a few times this year, but those were all the results of precise and vicious shots from defenders. There were no precise and vicious shots Saturday. Just, well, fumbled handoffs.

Even the dramatic end featured a crunch time character who, until Saturday, was unrecognizable to most. Needing some offense late in the game, it wasn't Arnaz Battle reprising his role as playmaker. Instead, it was freshman Rhema McKnight running a curl and hauling in Carlyle Holiday's pass on fourth and six. It was McKnight's first catch since the season opener. The throw was pure, the catch even more so.

The only thing that was recognizable, that had its comfortable predictability, was the postgame demeanor of Willingham and his players. Polite, soft-spoken, and direct, Willingham didn't offer any excuses, not even for the inevitable green jersey question.

"We've been talking about the sea of green all season," he said. "And I wanted to get our team involved in it." And he said it with his usual forthright manner.

Just as identifiable was Omar Jenkins, whose response to the same topic was accompanied by the smile that always seems on the verge of a laugh. When asked about the "unlucky" green, he provided a response heavy on pragmatic thought, and light on superstition. Like his teammates, Jenkins was excited by the change, and undeterred by the outcome.

"I would love to wear the green jerseys again if I could," he said.

Optimism in the face of second-guessing and doubt -- something we've all come to recognize from a Willingham team.

Alan Grant, a senior reporter for ESPN The Magazine, is spending the season in South Bend. Look for his regular reports on ESPN.com. E-mail him at alan.grant@espn3.com