In the Notre Dame football program, success is measured by national relevance, not local. In 2016, it’s college football playoff or bust. This is true not only because ND is independent, and thus has no conference championship to play for, but also a consequence of the very high bar set by the program’s unparalleled history of success.
The Fighting Irish now have two losses; and we’re only in week three of the season. This cold hard truth places them in the exact same boat as other traditional powers like Oklahoma and USC. That boat is the S.S. No Playoffs This Season.
For all three programs, a New Year’s Six Bowl is pretty much a pipe dream too. In order to make it to that tier, you’d have to win out, and have a few breaks go your way.
I have no doubt that Notre Dame football will one day return to where it was in the 1980s and early 1990s, given a.) the deals they’ve struck with social media and internet companies and b.) the facilities upgrades underway.
These two forces will come together to get them back even with the Ohio States, Michigans and Alabamas of the world in the recruiting arms race. And make no mistake about it, top tier college football is nothing but an arms race these days.
That’s big picture stuff, for down the road someday. What about this fall? Where does Notre Dame football go from here with nine games left in the season? With no conference championship game to play for, where do the Irish refocus their efforts and regain their motivation?
It’s the question that a lot of reporters were asking the players after the upset home loss to Michigan State late Saturday night. It’s exactly the right question to ask, but it’s extremely difficult for a Notre Dame football player to answer.
“I have no idea how to refocus,” quarterback DeShone Kizer said.
“We just got done losing. I have to reevaluate the situation and figure out what we have in front of us. We were focused right now on beating Michigan State. We didn’t do it, and we will game plan tomorrow and figure out how to go about it. We have a 24-hour rule, so we will figure out what we did wrong against Michigan State and go from there.”
Here’s how Brian Kelly handled this exact question on his Sunday media teleconference:
Q. Open-ended question. When you start off with two losses, the goal to make the College Football Playoff, it seems like that is not going to happen. How do you keep these guys motivated? What is the carrot you dangle in front of them?COACH KELLY: They want to win. I mean, everybody is a competitor. The focus just becomes on what I just talked about: each individual getting better, each individual improving from week and week. The focus being really much more smaller in a sense. All we’re looking for is to find a way to win and beat Duke. That’s really the goal that’s in front of us.As I told the team last night, I love our resolve, I love the way that we keep competing. We’re a sloppy team. We’ve got to clean that up. We’ve got to go back to practicing and be cleaner with the fundamentals. Our focus is on trying to find a way to come up with a win one week at a time. Just a smaller focus week-to-week and practice-to-practice.
So now we refocus, to this week, where this Notre Dame football team is a 21 point favorite as they host Duke. It’s the job of Kelly and his team to not look ahead, and focused on the next game. It IS the job of us in the media TO look ahead and focus on the big picture down the road.
Here’s what I’m seeing in the Notre Dame football bowl projections:
ESPN: Schlabach- Sun Bowl vs Arizona State
McMurphy- Gator Bowl vs LSU
SB Nation– Gator vs West Virginia
CBS– Russell Athletic Bowl vs. Oklahoma
College Football News- Russell Athletic vs TCU
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.