Notre Dame Has A Golden Opportunity In Front Of It vs. Clemson

Notre Dame has a chance to take a big step forward when No. 1 Clemson comes to town on Saturday

Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has done a lot of great things in his 11 seasons in South Bend. A middle of the road program has in recent seasons become a perennial top 10 caliber team, and 10-win seasons are now expected.

Just look at last season, when Kelly’s 11-2 record was rightfully deemed by some - including me - as a disappointment. That speaks volumes to how far Kelly has brought the program, and he deserves a great deal of praise for that. Back in the late 1990s, and throughout the early 2000s, an 11-2 season would be considered a “we are back” moment with Irish nation, and that says a lot about how good Notre Dame has been in recent seasons compared to the abysmal 1994-2016 stretch.

At Notre Dame, however, the ultimate standard by which a coach should be judged is and should always be more than just being “really good.” It should be more than going 11-2, with your best win being over Navy. It should be more than being 6-0 against a schedule filled with opponents that have a losing record.

At Notre Dame, the bar should be playing with, and beating, the best teams in the country. It should be about playing for and winning championships. If we’re being honest, Kelly has fallen woefully short in such scenarios, even in recent seasons.

Notre Dame is 39-6 since the start of the 2017 season, an incredibly impressive stretch of football for an Irish program that had been down on its luck for about two decades prior to the recent run.

But like any stat, the numbers can be misleading, at least when you look at what the standard for excellence is and should be at Notre Dame.

For example, 31 of those wins came over opponents that finished the season unranked (31-0). During this stretch, the Irish are just 8-6 against opponents that finished the season ranked in the Top 25, 4-4 against opponents that finished in the Top 15 and 0-3 against opponents that finished ranked in the Top 10.

In fact, Notre Dame has not defeated a team that finished ranked in the Top 10 since a 17-13 victory over Michigan State all the way back in 2013.

It should also be noted that three of the four wins against Top 15 opponents came with Brandon Wimbush as the starting quarterback, so it’s been awhile since the Irish have defeated that caliber team. The only Top 15 win since Wimbush was replaced in the starting lineup was a 36-3 victory over Syracuse back in 2018. During Notre Dame’s recent 17-2 stretch, the Irish have defeated one team that finished the season ranked …. and that was Navy.

Saturday gives Kelly, Notre Dame and quarterback Ian Book the opportunity to earn a win that will give the program a much-needed boost in respect. It will show that Notre Dame can do more than just beat up on inferior programs, it will show the Irish can go toe-to-toe with the nation’s best, and win.

Right now, Notre Dame’s best resume builder is that it lost close games to Georgia. A win on Saturday gives the Irish the chance to beat a truly elite program.

No, Clemson won’t have quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and no, this Clemson team isn’t nearly as good as the 2018 squad that Notre Dame faced (and lost to by a 30-3 score), but Clemson is still very, very good. They are still one of the four or five best teams in the country even without Lawrence. Beating Clemson would be a big step that could only be dismissed should the Irish get blown out in a Dec. 19 rematch.

Beating the Tigers on Saturday would be a statement victory for Notre Dame, and it would be one of three things that must happen this season for Notre Dame to take a big step forward as a program, short of winning a national championship.

NOTE: I prefer to go with season-ending rankings. In-season rankings can be very, very misleading. For example, Notre Dame beat a 14th-ranked Georgia Tech team in 2015, but the Yellow Jackets were only ranked 14th based on preseason expectations. That team finished 3-9. I am not going to say Notre Dame beat a Top 15 team that year.

The same is true of the “Top 10” win against Stanford in 2018. Stanford was ranked in the Top 10 because of its preseason expectations. That September victory by Notre Dame exposed Stanford, who lost four of five games. Stanford did not beat a single Top 25 program that season, and they simply were not a Top 10 caliber team.

Most of the wins that others point to and say “What about this win” are September games, and the fact is September rankings are more about preseason opinions, not evaluations of what that team is, which is why post-season rankings are the better gauge.

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