Notre Dame has made it to the College Football Playoff. I meant to do this post last week, but I’ve been busy. Much like in 2012, it came down to a game on the road against USC. I definitely expected to win. I thought it would be pretty easy, but we got off to a bad start. USC went up 10-0 in the second quarter and the score stayed that way until the last three minutes of the quarter. We finally scored a touchdown on a nice pass from Ian Book to Chris Finke. Finke seemed like the only Notre Dame player who came to play in the first half. We got the ball back before halftime, but some bad clock management by Brian Kelly cost us a chance to get at least three more points. The half ended up on a completed Hail Mary inside the five yard line. We had a timeout that we didn’t use on the possession. If we had used it, we could have run another play or two to either set up a field goal or have a better shot at a touchdown.
I was pretty annoyed at the start of the game. People from work were texting about bringing in ornaments for the Christmas tree in the office. I did not care one bit about that when we were playing terribly in our biggest game in the last six years. But when we went into halftime down only three after playing a terrible first half, I felt very good. All we had to do was play one good half and we were going to win. I had confidence that USC wouldn’t play as well in the second half because they just weren’t very good this year. Dexter Williams gave us the lead early in the second half on a 52-yard run. We never looked back. A field goal made it 17-10 late in the third quarter. We were totally outplaying USC in the second half, but it was still a one possession game. That changed when Tony Jones took a short pass 51 yards for the touchdown with 3:09 left. It didn’t look like it was going to be a huge play right away, but it got to a point where only one defender had any chance and Jones had Miles Boykin as a blocker. I was calling for Jones to cutback as the play was happening and when he did, Miles Boykin took out the last defender with a great block. At that point, the game was pretty much over. I was watching the game with my brother Sean. He was lying down. I think it was after the Jones touchdown that Sean put his hands up in the air and I just slapped one of his hands without thinking. It made me think of how the high five was invented spontaneously at Dodger Stadium in 1977. Anyway, USC scored a touchdown, but we finished the regular season with a 24-17 win over USC, the same score that we beat Michigan by to start the season.
So we are going to our first College Football Playoff. Strangely, we’re the first team to wear blue to make the playoff. We are a big underdog against Clemson and we should be. I don’t really expect to win, but I do think we have a chance. Everybody remembers what happened when we took on Alabama six years ago for the National Championship. Nobody seems to remember three games that were more recent than that:
October 18, 2014: Florida State 31, Notre Dame 27. Never have I been less upset with Brian Kelly about a loss. We deserved to win that game and some terrible officiating killed us at the end. That Florida State team went 12-0 before losing to Oregon in the playoff (they’d say they were 13-0, but I refuse to give any of the teams I’m about to talk about any credit for beating FCS teams).
October 3, 2015: Clemson 24, Notre Dame 22. The game was played in a huge rain storm. We got off to a bad start and made a valiant effort at a comeback. Brian Kelly went for two before he needed to and we didn’t get it. We scored with seven seconds left and failed at another two point conversion. Kick two extra points and we’re going to overtime (this wasn’t the first or the last time that Brian Kelly has made this mistake). That Clemson team went 13-0 before losing 45-40 against Alabama in the National Championship Game.
September 9, 2017: Georgia 20, Notre Dame 19. Georgia never led by more than one in this game. It was close for the whole game, but we couldn’t pull it out. That Georgia team went 12-1 before losing 26-23 in overtime against Alabama in the National Championship Game.
Three games against teams who made the playoff in our four previous seasons. All three were highly competitive. We just haven’t come out on top yet and I’m not going to believe that we will until we actually do. I think Brian Kelly will have the team ready to play a competitive game, but I’m going to predict a loss. You think you know how much I want to be wrong, but most of you probably don’t understand.
I’ve had a complicated relationship with Brian Kelly as Notre Dame’s head coach. I wanted him fired after 4-8 in 2016 (his seventh year). That would have been totally defensible, but keeping him has worked out. If we compare this season to 2012, it feels very different. 2012 felt like a magical season and we were a team of destiny. It looked like we might go undefeated and not make it to the National Championship Game because Oregon and Kansas State were ahead of us. And then they both unexpectedly lost on November 17. We were number 1 and all was good in the world. But that might have been what cost us a National Championship because that meant we had to play Alabama instead of one of those two teams. Still, I thought we would beat Alabama (crazy in hindsight, I know). This year has been fun. After 2012, I didn’t know if we could get back to this point. And now here we are. But the big difference is that I have no expectation of winning it all. I think we have a chance to beat Clemson, but if we do, I’m definitely not expecting to beat Alabama. Going back to Brian Kelly, I wanted him fired after 2016. After 2017, I said that he needed to make a major bowl this year. Well, we’re not going to the Peach Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl (which I would have been satisfied with), we’re going to the Cotton Bowl in the College Football Playoff. If he loses to Clemson, there’s no shame in that (I really don’t want to get blown out, though). But we need to get to where Clemson and Alabama are. They are clearly the best two programs in college football. I mean, I guess Ohio State is pretty close, but I have have no desire to have anything in common with Ohio State other than beating Michigan all the time and winning lots of games every year, but Urban Meyer will be gone soon and they’ll most likely take at least a little bit of a step back. Winning a major bowl has to happen soon. It’s been far too long. And then we need to win a National Championship (also far too long).
Just some quick thoughts on Oklahoma making the playoff and some silly thoughts we’ve heard this season. I don’t want to see Oklahoma in the playoff. Their defense is terrible. Like really, really bad. They’re going to lose to Alabama 56-24. I’d rather see UCF get a chance (even though they’d probably lose 63-10). I’d rather see Georgia play Alabama because as we’ve seen, Georgia can give them a game. However, Georgia doesn’t deserve it. While I definitely think Georgia is better than Oklahoma, the games have to matter. Georgia lost by three scores against LSU. They had their chance against Alabama and blew it. If you’re not going to give UCF a chance, Oklahoma is the most deserving team. Along those same lines, we heard for two months that even though Notre Dame beat Michigan and was undefeated, Michigan was better. Fortunately, Ohio State put an end to that. Obviously there are lots of factors to consider, but when two teams played each other and there are no other losses between the two of them, no other factors really matter besides head to head.
We play Oklahoma in basketball tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden. Tickets are weirdly expensive. It is a doubleheader, but it’s December and the four teams are Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Florida, and West Virginia. It’s not like we’re talking about Syracuse, Villanova, and Duke, and somebody (there’s a lot more interest in Notre Dame football than Notre Dame basketball in New York). So it looks like I’m not going. But maybe I’ll be totally wrong about football and we’ll be playing them in football next month for the National Championship.
Go Irish!
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