The Notre Dame football resume took a huge blow this weekend, and they didn’t even play
Notre Dame football had a week of recuperation and relation following their 31-24 victory over Louisville last weekend. The bye week is about personal growth, and continuing to find the identity for the Irish. That growth and getting healthy were the top priorities for the team. Without a game for the Irish, there was technically […]
Notre Dame football had a week of recuperation and relation following their 31-24 victory over Louisville last weekend. The bye week is about personal growth, and continuing to find the identity for the Irish. That growth and getting healthy were the top priorities for the team.
Without a game for the Irish, there was technically no way that the team could hurt themselves this week. They could in theory only move up in the rankings, which they should. With Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, Michigan and USC all losing, there is bound to be some serious movement this week. That should help Notre Dame.
One thing that didn’t help Notre Dame this weekend was with their strength of schedule. Texas A&M did dismantle Missouri on Saturday, who was ranked as the No. 9 team in the country 41-10 coming in. That victory in the first game of the season has looked better and better as the Aggies continue to win. That is the lone saving grace from this weekend’s action. Otherwise, the weekend didn’t do much to help the Irish.
That included a less than stellar showing from Northern Illinois against UMass, the lone team to beat Notre Dame so far this year. The Huskies ended up winning 34-20 but at one point were trailing the Minutemen 13-7 at halftime. That same UMass team has accumulated a 20-84 record over the last ten seasons. Since beating the Irish a few weeks ago, Northern Illinois has gone just 1-2 and has had losses to NC State and Buffalo along the way.
Louisville had a major setback on Saturday, losing 34-27 to SMU. That isn’t an awful loss, with the Mustangs being one of the main front runners to win the ACC conference so far this season, at least in vacuum. The unsettling part was seeing how many explosive plays that SMU made offensively against the Cardinals defense, something that the Irish struggled with mightily.
It was awesome to see Notre Dame dominate Purdue 66-7 a few weeks ago, but that performance did lose a little bit of its luster yesterday with the Boilermakers losing 52-6 to Wisconsin. A win is a win, but as it turns out, Purdue is a very bad football team. The same could be said about Miami (OH), who stuck with Notre Dame for a while a couple of weeks ago. They lost to Toledo yesterday, and are now sitting at 1-4 overall.
The USC Trojans, who is the most talented remaining opponent for the Irish, lost 24-17 to Minnesota this weekend. Stanford also got pummeled by Virginia Tech 31-7. The remaining schedule is very weak, giving this Notre Dame program no excuse not to run the table down the stretch.
If you want to be positive, both Army and Navy are undefeated so far, playing some of the best football they have in several years. Those games both look like they could be a lot more interesting than they once seemed, but at the end of the day, there’s going to be a stigma around a service academy. It can be a good win and not move the needle. Both things can be very true.
In the short term, Notre Dame will get a boost from teams losing in front of them, especially with those losses coming against unranked opponents. At the end of the day, that will matter most. The Irish still control their destiny. They will have to win out in order to secure a spot in the playoffs for sure. For those who question whether 11-1 will be good enough; it will. Don’t be so pessimistic.
If Notre Dame does suffer another loss, there’s a very small chance they could get into the field, very, very low. If there is a reality where it does come down to a resume evaluation, things could get shaky for the Irish.
Before the season, it appeared the strength of schedule was going to be poor. After this weekend, it appears it might be even worse than originally anticipated. While it might not matter in the end, the resume for Notre Dame absolutely took a major blow this past weekend. Winning will be the only way to make sure it doesn’t end up mattering.
