Bowl Springboards & Notre Dame
After not qualifying for a bowl game last season with its losing record, Notre Dame will return to the postseason scene this year, with the invitation coming this Sunday. The Fighting Irish also will be aiming for their first bowl conquest since 2014, when they defeated No. 22 LSU in the Music City Bowl for an 8-5 finish.
The current seniors were freshmen then, and in that game against the Tigers freshman defensive end Andrew Trumbetti made his first career start, joining classmate/linebacker Nyles Morgan in that role, while sophomore Mike McGlinchey also made his first career start at offensive tackle
This year they will be after their second career bowl win, while any member of the junior, sophomore and freshman classes will be striving for his first.
The win over LSU was highly cherished because the Irish came into that contest limping with a four-game losing streak. That victory changed the entire disposition of the operation entering the winter workouts, and helped provide a morale boost to a 10-1 start the following season with so many starters returning.
On the heels of sputtering to the finish line again this year while losing 41-8 at Miami and 38-20 at Stanford, with a hard fought 24-17 win versus Navy in between, the 2017 Irish could use a similar energy jolt.
’Tis the season when everyone in bowls will speak of the “momentum” that can be carried into the ensuing season with a victory, and how it can will be a “springboard” or “the first game of next year.”
Seldom has that been the case at Notre Dame, the 2015 season notwithstanding.
You are what you are that particular season. It has nothing to do with what you are next year. Reality is, for better or worse, bowl games generally don’t define how the next season plays out at Notre Dame. Head coach Brian Kelly’s first two seasons with the Fighting Irish served as prime examples.
The 33-17 win over Miami in the 2010 Sun Bowl was the cherry on top of a four-game winning streak and national championship aspirations in 2011 — only to be foiled by a 0-2 start, including a 23-20 defeat at home to South Florida. The Irish would finish with the same 8-5 ledger again.
The next season, squandering a 14-point second-half lead in the 2011 Champs Sports Bowl to Florida State for another 8-5 finish, it was further evidence to many that “Kelly doesn’t haven’t it.” Yet the following season produced a 12-0 regular season outcome and No. 1 placement. Furthermore, it occurred without “irreplaceable” game-changers such as receiver Michael Floyd or defensive lineman Aaron Lynch, who had graduated or transferred.
The 2013 matchup with Rutgers in the Pinstripe Bowl was the least appealing bowl in school history and was going to have no bearing on the ensuing campaign.
We’ve seen Notre Dame get crushed in the 1973 Orange Bowl (40-6 to Nebraska) and 1988 Cotton Bowl (35-10) to Texas A&M — and then proceed to win the national title 12 months later.
Sometimes a bowl debacle can help you refocus better on the task at hand. Sometimes you need to lay and bleed for a while before rising up again, similar to the 8-1 start this season after last year’s 4-8 fiasco.
Not that I’m advocating the Irish getting crushed this year in a bowl. If by chance the Irish do get invited to a Big Six outing, ending a 23-year drought of not having won such a contest would in itself constitute a successful season.
Notre Dame ended the 1970 and 1974 campaigns with epic upsets of No. 1-ranked Texas and Alabama, respectively — and a year later were so disillusioned with their results that the players voted not to accept a bowl invitation despite 8-2 and 8-3 records. Times were different back then.
When the 6-5 Irish upset 9-2 Boston College, quarterbacked by Doug Flutie, in the 1983 Liberty Bowl, Irish head coach Gerry Faust vowed “this is the start of something great.” Notre Dame opened the next season with a 23-21 loss to Purdue — which it crushed 52-6 a year earlier — en route to a 3-4 start.
Head coach Charlie Weis' 2008 Irish team ended with an impressive 49-21 win at Hawaii to end Notre Dame's ignominious 15 years without a bowl win. That didn’t do Weis much good the ensuing season with a 6-6 finish that resulted in his ouster.
Personalities, chemistry and attitudes shift with each new year. The bowl result is merely a final page of a previous book. A new, blank manuscript begins thereafter.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne's Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook