Notre Dame Has Rare Opportunity That Might Not Ever Happen Again; Irish Would Be Foolish Not To Seize It

December 19, 2020 Leprechaun Express - Steve Welsh Headlines

Perhaps it is fitting that there will be rare events occurring in the night sky leading up to Christmas, where the planets Jupiter and Saturn might come into close enough alignment to form a partial Star of Bethlehem.

Because Notre Dame Football also will have a rare confluence, or set of confluences “dialed up.” Although Notre Dame might not ever see a repeat of their own combination of circumstances again. The Irish had better seize the opportunity while it happens.

It is not just that Notre Dame has not won a major bowl game in a quarter-century, or a consensus national championship in a third of a century, and find themselves poised for a chance to make a decent post-season run. And it certainly is not the sports trivia curiosity that Notre Dame is playing for a conference championship and likely will never join a football conference again (or that, for ethical and institutional-identity reasons, they probably should leave the ACC for the Catholic-laden new Big East in basketball and other sports).

2020 is the year when:

No Academic Demands and An Empty Campus For A Month-Plus – Notre Dame has more than a month of the regular season, or non-bowl portion of the season (however one wants to label the conference title game) with no classes, no academic demands and an empty campus. Notre Dame excuse-making always includes academics, usually from a recruiting perspective, yet for the latter chunk of the season they are like a pro team, with no excuse not to be well-rested physically and mentally, distracted, with time for additional private workouts and private game film review and the like. And the empty campus means freedom from distractions as well as protection from colds and flus, along with greater protection from Covid.
Easier Schedule by Joining ACC Temporarily – Even as Clemson has been a national title-contending juggernaut, and even as former national championship coach Mack Brown appears to be helping North Carolina regain its footing, much of the ACC has weakened considerably in the past few years. One of the reasons some Notre Dame fans were concerned about Notre Dame’s bowl prospects last year was that, in 2019, the ACC struggled to find a team for the ACC-only Orange Bowl slot that was even ranked. Notre Dame’s schedule as a temporary ACC quasi-member has been weaker than what the Irish often have been used to as a national power conference-equivalent independent with a diverse, uniquely challenging coast-to-coast marquee schedule.
Fifth-Year Quarterback, Also In His Fifth Year Under the Same Head Coach – If memory serves, and it probably does, in a quiet moment during an obscure offseason press conference earlier in his tenure, Brian Kelly said something to the effect that it was a coach’s dream to have a quarterback in his fifth year. While Ian Book has not necessarily been in the precise same offensive scheme for five years, he has been under Brian Kelly for five years. Believe it or not, this might be the first time in Brian Kelly’s roughly decade-and-a-half at the Div. I-A/FBS level when that has happened.
Tenth-Year Head Coach – Brian Kelly, in a positive sense, was already “an old warhorse” as a head coach when Notre Dame hired him, one of their obvious motivations for doing so. He now is an old warhorse, in a positive sense, as a Notre Dame head coach, used to the whole scenario. Quietly in the background is the additional fact that Kelly is getting into that timeframe where longer-tenure Notre Dame head coaches start to look at retiring, either temporarily or permanently. That is not to say that Kelly will, any time soon, yet it should provide added impetus to the seize-the-opportunity urgency of the moment for the program. By comparison, back when Kelly got into his third year, this author observed that, thus far, Kelly had not stayed longer than three years at the Div. I-A/FBS level, having gone through two preceding three-year upward-and-onward crescendos before Notre Dame. Sure enough, after taking Notre Dame to the BCS title game, Kelly did talk with an NFL franchise briefly before deciding to stay.
Veteran Offensive Line – While Notre Dame has had ongoing quality reloading on the offensive line, including with the ongoing development of NFL talent, multiple observers have noted how loaded the current offensive line with quality and career starts. It not only is loaded with size, strength, talent and athleticisim, it also is loaded with experienced upperclassmen, including graduate students, they combine for roughly 160 career starts.
Defensive Coordinator Clark Lea – When Barry Alvarez was defensive coordinator under Lou Holtz, Notre Dame went 24-1, winning a consensus national championship, plus an added non-consensus national title, before Alvarez left to become head coach at Wisconsin. With Clark Lea as defensive coordinator, Notre Dame, thus far, has gone 33-3, with a few more games left. His departure to become head coach at his Alma Mater Vanderbilt means his presence on the sideline as a coordinator is yet another unique element in the bundle of opportunities that has to be taken advantage of while it exists. (Time will tell, of course, whether Lea’s departure will “tee him up” as a hypothetical future Notre Dame head coaching candidate years down the line, depending on how he performs as a head coach at Vanderbilt.)
ACC Title Game Offering Another Late-Year Marquee Game – From time to time, it will be pointed out that the conference title games provide full football conference participants with one added marquee game against an elite, or at least a semi-elite, opponent to cap of their “resume” for playoff rankings and post-season bowl considerations. On the other hand, Notre Dame usually has plenty of opportunities to schedule marquee opponents, including late in the year.

Now, Notre Dame, of course, has multiple special elements to this year’s team that are not listed, such as special contributors, and special units, across all parts of the team and coaching staff. And some of the special elements listed above might return again, such as a veteran offensive line reforming. New coaching hires likely will be of high quality and current coaches will continue to develop.

(By comparison, a few years after the Alvarez departure, with Rick Minter as defensive coordinator under Lou Holtz, Notre Dame went 22-2-1, before Minter left to become head coach at Cincinnati (later, Notre Dame would go 19-6 in rebuilding years with Minter as a defensive coordinator presiding over a severely depleted roster under Charlie Weis).)

Yet it seems unique that all of these elements line up at the same time, and some of them, will, indeed, never reoccur.

Some might be quick to argue that, if Notre Dame does get invited to this year’s would-be college football playoff, that would be the third time in nine years, and the second time in three years, that Notre Dame was allowed into either the playoff or the old BCS title game. Yet it also has been a third of a century since Notre Dame won a non-consensus national championship and a quarter-century since Notre Dame even won a major bowl game. And this year’s alignment is not likely to come back.