Tag: College Football

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After previously riding a 5-1 bubble against an unexpectedly padded early-season schedule, Notre Dame now has cracked the top-10 in both the AP and Coaches Polls, following their first win over an opponent nationally ranked at game-time. The now-6-1 Irish are 1-1 against opponents ranked at game-time, 2-1 against opponents currently ranked.

The first College Football Playoff Rankings of the season do not come out until Tuesday, Oct. 31.

Notre Dame, highlighted in green below, is #9 in the AP and #10 in the Coaches Poll. Opponents are highlighted in either blue or red (with red denoting a Notre Dame loss).

Six of Notre Dame’s opponents are currently ranked — Georgia, Miami (Fla.), N.C. State, Michigan State, Stanford and Southern Cal — with a seventh, Navy, also receiving votes in the Coaches Poll.

All five of Notre Dame’s remaining opponents have winning records, including Wake Forest; three of the five remaining opponents are ranked — N.C. State, Miami (Fla.) and Stanford; and four of the five are receiving votes in the Coaches Poll (with Navy added in).

With four spots available in the College Football Playoff, there are six undefeated teams currently ranked ahead of Notre Dame, all from Power Conferences. However, Notre Dame plays one of them in a several weeks, Miami (Fla.). Alabama and Georgia are both from the SEC and would have to play each other if they continue winning. Undefeated Penn State and Wisconsin are both from the B1G/Big Ten and would have to play each other if they continue winning. TCU from the Big 12 also is undefeated. Ohio State has a single loss and is part of the B1G/Big Ten mix. One-loss Clemson is in the ACC with Miami (Fla.)

So, if Notre Dame somehow upsets Miami (Fla.), the best-case scenario for the highly ranked Power Conference teams would be one undefeated SEC team, one undefeated B1G/Big Ten team, and one undefeated Big 12 team if TCU can survive the rest of their schedule, including Oklahoma. An added wrinkle, however, is that one-loss Oklahoma (who are hanging around at #11 after a scare from Kansas State) handed Ohio State the Buckeyes’ only loss. If Oklahoma does beat an undefeated top-5 TCU, to add to their win over top-10 Ohio State, Oklahoma has a case for leap-frogging back into the mix. Although, in the process, TCU would be dropping down.

One possible scenario is that one SEC team, one B1G/Big Ten team and one Big-12 team are in the mix for the top-4, with the Notre Dame-Miami (Fla.) game looming large over whether the ACC gets in the mix. That Notre Dame’s loss, thus far, was a 1-point loss to Georgia is a threshold issue for Notre Dame, if — and if it’s a very big if — the Irish can somehow keep winning, wading through a second half of the season far tougher than the first half. In any event, if Alabama beats Georgia, and otherwise wins out, then Alabama likely grabs an SEC spot in the top-4, leaving Georgia scrambling to try to make it into a non-playoff major bowl, and Notre Dame a little further on the outside of things.

There also are some undefeated teams ranked below Notre Dame, named South Florida and Central Florida of the American Athletic Conference.  They actually are from the same conference subdivision, so that, as with some of the undefeated Power Conference teams, they have to play each other later in the year, and only one could remain undefeated.

One overriding theme for all teams involved is that they all have challenging games ahead, in a college football marked by parity and wildly unexpected upsets to go along with the more predictable actual or de facto elimination games.

For Notre Dame, there is a broader view that goes beyond the “pie-in-the-sky” imaginings about the College Football Playoff.  It is difficult to argue that Notre Dame ever has truly returned to elite status, given that they have not won a major bowl game in a quarter-century. So getting into, and winning, a major bowl would be a huge step forward for the program.

To be fair, Notre Dame did carry an undefeated record and #1 record into their would-be “national championship” BCS blowout loss to Alabama several years back. And Charlie Weis earned one of his BCS bowl bids with an automatic bid, triggered from being high enough in the BCS standings for a BCS bid to become automatic. Both instances, arguably, were the equivalent of winning a conference title in a Power Conference. But for Notre Dame to ever really be “back” would require a major bowl win.

That fact is a bit ironic considering that Notre Dame banned bowl bids for much of its history, even while cranking out a number of consensus national championships, including amidst one of the greatest dynasties in sports history under Frank Leahy.

Both Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian won national championships with, and without, bowl trips.  At one time, Rockne, the winningest coach in football history, and winner of multiple national titles, led the Four Horsemen and the Seven Mules to a Rose Bowl win and a national title with it.  Unfortunately, Rockne used warm weather acclimatization as an excuse for an overly long, somewhat circuitous rail journey to Pasadena that, reportedly, turned into a national coming out party featuring open practices that may, or may not, have been like intrasquad exhibition games to stoke public interest. The institution’s response to the extravaganza of the trip was to ban bowl games.  (Ironically, Rockne would soon add regular cross-country trips to the regular season by starting up the series with Southern Cal, with train trips that were accomplished much more quickly, taking a few days each way.)  In any event, Rockne would add additional national championships without even going to bowl games, which arguably had the status of post-season exhibition games, with at least some polls issuing their final rankings before the bowls occurred.

Parseghian would win a consensus national title without going to bowls, in 1966, then convinced the institution to start going to bowls again, promptly placing Notre Dame squarely into a bowl-focused national title scenario under both Parseghian and Dan Devine.  Notre Dame and Texas alone, in the Cotton Bowl, would decide or impact at least four national titles in less than a decade, with Notre Dame and Alabama deciding a fifth national title in the Sugar Bowl within the same stretch.  At least one commentator credits Notre Dame’s decision to start going to bowls again with making bowl games relevant.

Brian Kelly, for his part, has never won a major bowl game. That fact comes despite multiple small college championships that, along with multiple wins in non-major bowls, have demonstrated his potential prowess in post-season play.

Kelly is now getting a bit “long-in-the-tooth” in Div. I-A/FBS, in his fourteenth season at that level. At 0-4 in major bowls, losing in a blowout three times and still being somewhat embarrassed in the other, Kelly is a bit overdue when it comes to proving his mettle with a major bowl win. (On a fifth occasion, a team he got into a major bowl was likewise blown out in his absence, after he jumped ship to get a head start on his next gig.)

For Kelly, five major bowls in 14 seasons is a solid track record for regular season play, but he’s going to have to bring home a major bowl trophy to be considered elite in the big time.

Perhaps more to the point, questions should arise as to why Brian Kelly is even still on campus, by Notre Dame standards. Brian Kelly is the only coach besides Elmer Layden to stay seven seasons without winning a consensus national championship, and Layden had a better overall Notre Dame winning percentage than Lou Holtz or Dan Devine.

Notre Dame has had two Hall of Fame coaches stay less time than Kelly. Hall of Fame Coach Dan Devine won a consensus national championship and had multiple major bowl wins, yet only stayed six years.  Hall of Fame Coach Jesse Harper introduced passing offense to the game of football; probably would have deserved at least one national title by modern standards; and had the second-highest winning percentage for Notre Dame tenures (for coaches staying at least three years), behind Rockne and ahead of Leahy; yet Jesse Harper only stayed five years.

In his eight year at Notre Dame, and fourteenth year in Div. I-A/FBS, Kelly needs a major bowl win to be elite, but without a national championship he does not meet the yardstick for a Notre Dame coach staying as long as he has.

To be fair, of course, like Elmer Layden, Kelly has won a non-consensus national title. In 2012 there was one official BCS computer that still had Notre Dame #1 after the bowl game.

With Elmer Layden, Notre Dame reportedly found a polite way to escort former Four Horseman, current Hall of Fame player Layden to the exit. They reportedly only offered him a one year contract extension. Layden responded by leaving to become Commissioner of the National Football League. That cleared the way for Notre Dame to hire Frank Leahy away from Boston College, with former Knute Rockne player Leahy becoming the second winningest coach in college football history (third winningest at Notre Dame for Notre Dame tenure, after Rockne’s coach, Jesse Harper, for head coaches staying at least three years). Meanwhile, Elmer Layden would be credited for helping the NFL weather World War II, paving the way for future glory for the NFL.

(The author lost track of what Brian Kelly’s winning percentage at Notre Dame is, with all those vacated wins hanging in limbo after NCAA sanctions, and last year’s collapse.  One interesting added question with the vacated wins is whether Kelly still meets minimum qualifications for the Hall of Fame, other than age.  Kelly traditionally had met the minimum requirements for the Hall of Fame, other than age or retirement status, and Kelly’s coaching performance at the small college level, by itself, certainly already presented him as a good candidate for the Hall of Fame, bolstered by some of the better moments of his time in the big leagues.)

(Back to the polls … As an interesting aside, as part of his personal makeover following last year’s 4-8 debacle, Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly resigned from the Coaches Poll before this year. Presumably that was to leave no stone unturned when looking for ways to save time and aggravation, to devote more energy and focus to his coaching duties; if memory serves, he also noted that those voting often do so based upon only limited information, given the demands on their time as coaches of their own respective programs.)

(As an added aside, bizarrely enough, the number of points Notre Dame’s next opponent has in the AP Poll is 666; although, in this context, of course, it’s just another number ….)

(total polling points follow record, first-place votes in parentheses)