A is for All-American | by Pat

After celebrating Notre Dame's 7 Heisman winners at Gate B last year, phase two of the multi-year project to honor ND's rich football tradition is up and running. Now inside of Gate A in the House that Rock Built is a large display depicting the 79 Consensus All-Americans who have played for the Fighting Irish. Und.com has the rundown on the project.

Each display inside Gate A at the stadium is a 10-by-16-foot Notre Dame blue powder-coated aluminum plate with the ND logo in gold at the top. The displays are entitled "Consensus All-Americans" in Notre Dame gold letters eight inches high across the top of the blue panel. Featured on the panels are authentic Notre Dame helmets with nameplates representing the consensus All-Americans from Notre Dame, plus room for four future consensus All-Americans.

Interesting last line there. Four future consensus All-Americans? I can see two names potentially being added this year in Quinn and Zbikowski -- remember that Samardzija is already up on the display -- but that's about it as of now. I'm guessing the four open spots are just a way to avoid having to redo the sign for next year without having too many open slots.

No pictures of the display on und.com yet, so if anyone has any, kindly send them to us in an email so we can post them. The future plans for the remaining three gates include a display commenorating ND's national championship teams and championship winning coaches. Hopefully the latter includes plans for that statue of Ara on campus that is long overdue.

Speaking of celebrating ND's past, in case you missed it, each home game this year will feature a different former ND Heisman winner being honored during a ceremonial coin toss prior to the game as well as featured on the cover of the official game program and on the actual game ticket itself.