Notre Dame Gets Its Chance To Earn Respect This Weekend

Notre Dame has plenty of chances to silence its critics this season, but it requires the Irish to start winning games it hasn't won the last few decades

The disrespect of the Notre Dame football program is all around us, and it's not going to stop until the Irish program does something about it. This didn't come about because people don't like the Golden Dome or because they are jealous or because Notre Dame is elitist or for any other reason. Those might be reasons to not like Notre Dame, but the disrespect came from the same place that respect for other programs exists.

It was earned.

Notre Dame is a 17.5-point underdog to Ohio State because the program Brian Kelly, Charlie Weis, Ty Willingham and Bob Davie created rarely, if ever, showed up in these types of big moment games. The last time Kelly took his team on the road for a matchup against a Big Ten opponent they got destroyed by a 45-14 score.

We all remember the Miami debacle of 2017, and the ACC title game against Clemson, Kelly's two College Football Playoff appearances, the BCS title game matchup. In those games - all against teams that were ranked in the Top 10 at the time - the Irish lost by an average score of 35.6 to 9.8.

That's why Notre Dame is a 17.5-point underdog to Ohio State.

That is what Marcus Freeman was hired to fix. The first-year Irish head coach is tasked with turning a program that has mastered the art of beating inferior opponents into one that can go toe-to-toe .... and beat .... the best teams in the country.

As the great Lou Holtz once said, respect is earned. This is especially true for Notre Dame. There are reasons that some might have to dislike Notre Dame a bit more than other programs, but Holtz's teams did something about it. You could hate Notre Dame all you wanted, but you had to respect them. Why? Because not only would they punch you in the mouth (usually that was figurative), they would beat you up on the field and beat you on the scoreboard.

From 1988 to 1993, Holtz and Notre Dame went 24-8-1 against opponents that finished ranked in the Top 25. That included an absurd mark of 14-5-1 against opponents that FINISHED ranked in the Top 10. In six years Holtz and Notre Dame won 14 games against opponents that finished in the Top 10. Kelly only did that three times in 12 seasons.

In 11 season at Notre Dame, a Holtz led squad won 21 games in matchups against teams that were ranked in the Top 10 at the time the games were played. In 12 season at Notre Dame, a Kelly led squad won those games just four times, and twice the Top 10 team they beat ended the season unranked (Michigan State 2012, Stanford 2018).

Davie and Willingham combined for as many wins in eight combined seasons over Top 10 teams at the time the game was played as Kelly did in 12 years.

That's why the disrespect is there. It was earned. It was earned over decades of Notre Dame largely looking uncompetitive in those big games. 

If Notre Dame wants respect it at has to earn it. It will get that chance again Saturday night when the teams travel to No. 2 Ohio State. The Irish will get another crack at that on November 5th when No. 4 Clemson comes to town, and if USC is as good as the media thinks they will be the Irish will get another shot at a top team when it ends the season in late November.

The opportunity is there for Freeman to change the direction of the program, to restore Notre Dame to its former glory. It won't come with highly ranked recruiting classes and fiery speeches. It will come by what happens on the scoreboard. 

Freeman arrived with that purpose in mind. He hired coaches with that purpose in mind. This season's preparation was with that purpose in mind. Now the Notre Dame team under Freeman, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, defensive coordinator Al Golden and the rest of the Irish coaches and players get their chance to be the team that not only gets that opportunity to silence the doubters, but they seize that opportunity and announce to the college football world that this is, in fact, your grand daddy's Notre Dame.

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