The Notre Dame Fighting Irish Argument
Leave a commentNovember 1, 2012 by ryanoudoak
This is part 4 out of a 5 part submission examining the BCS race this week. Check back throughout the week and click on the links below for past submissions.
Monday’s Submission:
Tuesday’s Submission:
Wednesday’s Submission:
The Kansas St. Wildcat Argument
Thursday’s Submission:
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish Argument
The Fighting Irish started the season ranked #24 according to the Coaches Poll. They are in their third year of a rebuilding job by Coach Brian Kelly. Coach Kelly is on pace just as he was in two previous successful stops at Central Michigan and Cincinnati. In his third year at CMU, he ended an 11-year post-season drought by guiding the Chippewas to a MAC Championship and a win in the Motor City Bowl to finish 9-4. In his second and third years at Cincinnati, he guided the Bearcats to Big East Championships and their only two appearances in BCS Bowl games, finishing his third and final season there 12-1 with a loss in the Sugar Bowl to defending Champion Florida and Tim Tebow. Kelly took over for Charlie Weis and immediately turned them around, taking them to bowl games in his first two seasons. Notre Dame is 6-3 against ranked teams under Kelly, including an impressive 4-0 this season. The brand of football that Kelly has brought to Notre Dame, returning to their defensive roots, has made the Irish competitive with every team they take the field with. Stanford and Southern Cal, guided by Andrew Luck and Matt Barkley respectively, are the only teams that have been able to beat the Irish by double digits in the last 3 years and those were teams with elite quarterbacks. The one other blip on the radar was an 18-point loss to Navy in 2010. Since then, Notre Dame has been one of the steadiest teams in College Football.
Notre Dame plays a different brand of football than Kansas St. and Oregon as they only average a little over 26 points per game. Relying on one of the best defenses in the Nation, led by Heisman Trophy Candidate LB Manti Te’o, they have beaten teams by an average of 16.5 points per game while limiting opponents to less than 10 points per game. Notre Dame is the happy medium between the two previous teams as they are through most of the difficult games on their schedule with a trip to Southern Cal left to finish the season. They also have opponents on their schedule in common with Oregon and Kansas St. They also share an opponent with Alabama. It is difficult to compare results against common opponents, particularly when the styles of play are so strikingly different. However, we should be able to get some sense of how the different teams handle the common opponents.
Friday’s Submission:
Who Will Play Alabama?
Accidental Blogger 