Notre Dame had its campaign speech ready to go. Clemson had not only gotten revenge in the ACC Championship Game, it had pushed the Irish's playoff prospects to the brink.
What other way is there to put it? There is nothing for certain when the College Football Playoff selections are 18 hours away and suddenly the No. 2 team in the country is left begging after losing its first game of the season.
The theme of the campaign strategy quickly took shape after a 34-10 beating.
Survival, in the form of just making it through 11 games.
"Eleven games is a lot," quarterback Ian Book said. "It's hard to explain. You prepare every single game for so long. You put your body on the line every single play. It's a 60-minute battle. It's a war. You're literally going to war."
It can be argued that only one team showed up for that battle. Clemson had the four defensive starters it had missed in the first meeting – a 47-40 double-overtime Notre Dame win on Nov. 7. It ran the ball like it hadn't against a quality opponent since October (219 yards). Mostly it had Trevor Lawrence who accounted for 412 yards in total offense and three touchdowns.
Notre Dame pushed back in its first three drives gaining 157 yards. But in the final 41 ½ minutes gained only 106 more yards. At one point Clemson scored 34 unanswered points. That kind of loss will plant all kinds of doubt in the selection committee's head.
Brian Kelly did his best at mind control.
"We've got two top 15 wins," Notre Dame's coach said. "We've got a win over this Clemson team. I don't know if anybody has a resume with those two wins. And we played 11 games. That matters. Playing 11 games, testing your team week in and week out, in my mind puts us as one of the top four teams in the country."
That might have been a reference to No. 4 Ohio State who was making its case as Big Ten champion playing only six games. Only in this COVID-covered season has just … playing mattered. Both No. 3 Clemson and Notre Dame finished 10-1. They split those two meetings. But Clemson won the league in the first season the Irish ever played in a conference.
Notre Dame still owns the best win of any team this season – 47-40 in double overtime over then No. 1 Clemson six weeks ago. Its only other win over a ranked team was a 31-17 victory over No. 15 North Carolina on Nov. 27.
If you want to start comparing schedules, Ohio State beat two ranked teams (Indiana and Northwestern). No. 5 Texas A&M beat one ranked team (Florida) while also losing to No. 1 Alabama by four touchdowns. No. 9 Cincinnati played three ranked teams (Army, SMU and Tulsa).
"Absolutely Notre Dame deserves to be in because they're dadgum 10-1," Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney said. "They played 11 games. They stepped in the ring with Clemson twice. Won one, lost one. It obviously didn't go their way tonight, that's football … No way would I punish people for playing more. I don't get that."
If Notre Dame is going to proceed to the playoff for the second time in three seasons it will do so at-large. Nothing wrong with that considering in every other season the Irish compete as an independent. But the selection committee tends to favor conference champions, and this was Notre Dame's (one-and-only?) conference season. And after a decisive loss, the margin of error is small. That is, if you consider Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State already in the CFP.
In that case there is one spot left with the competition being Texas A&M (8-1) and No. 9 Cincinnati (9-0). The only other teams that had played 11 games in the CFP rankings were No. 1 Alabama, No. 7 Florida, No. 12 Coastal Carolina, North Carolina and No. 17 BYU.
"You look at a body of work with what we've done all year," Kelly said. "I don't know if you need to look any further than that."
A playoff berth would be Notre Dame's second in the last three seasons. Counting a BCS title game appearance in 2012, that would be three championship appearances in the last nine years. With another win, the Irish will set a program record for most wins in a four-year span.
"I think we belong. It's our first loss. We played 11 football games," Book said. "That's a lot of football games."
There's that theme of survival again.
"Everybody who's played football before understands it was just a bad night … ," Book added. "You have 24 hours to let it suck because it does. It should hurt. Remember this feeling. That's kind of what we've been talking about already."
Perhaps little of that meant much as Irish heads hit pillow Saturday night. There was a long football wait for the nation's flagship Catholic university until the noon ET announcement by the committee.
"May God's will be done," Notre Dame linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah said.
"case" - Google News
December 20, 2020 at 10:47AM
https://ift.tt/3nCGc5g
Notre Dame's Brian Kelly makes case for an Irish spot in College Football Playoff after loss to Clemson - CBS Sports
"case" - Google News
https://ift.tt/37dicO5
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Notre Dame's Brian Kelly makes case for an Irish spot in College Football Playoff after loss to Clemson - CBS Sports"
Post a Comment