So, the sky isn’t falling in South Bend after all.
Here the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are at the midway point of their season, and they only have one loss on their ledger. They're a consensus top-15 team in the country. They only have one game remaining against a team that currently has a winning record.
Despite criticism of coaches and players and general concern from the masses about the direction this 2021 Notre Dame team was headed, head coach Brian Kelly's team is in a pretty good spot during its bye week.
"We're getting pretty used to playing in tight games the past few weeks," junior safety Kyle Hamilton said on the “Inside the Garage” podcast. "It's been a growing experience for the whole team because every single game we've been fighting. I feel like this bye week is perfectly timed after the first six games because I feel like these past few have been exhausting mentally and physically."
Notre Dame is 3-0 in games decided by three points or less. The Irish found a way to hold on in overtime against Florida State. They came back to beat Toledo at home in the final minute. They came back to beat Virginia Tech on the road in the final minute this past week.
Maybe the knock on Notre Dame from folks with the highest of expectations is that the Irish should have won all three of those games by more than a field goal. But maybe that's just too much to ask from anyone in the sport this season except No. 1 Georgia — for now.
Alabama just lost to unranked Texas A&M (4-2). Clemson fell out of the Associated Press Poll for the first time since 2014 after suffering two losses in its first four games. The Tigers' two conference wins came by six points each over Georgia Tech (3-3) and Boston College (3-2).
Parity. It's something that's been lacking in college football for a while now but has appeared to reappear for the time being. So for Notre Dame to say it won all of its games in the first half of the season except for one and for that one loss to be against a Cincinnati team that has risen to No. 3 in the AP Poll, things could surely be a whole lot worse.
“It’s hard to win any college football game,” junior wide receiver Conor Ratigan said. “We say, ‘Oh, it’s a close game. A close game,' but you look around college football and not every team is blowing everybody out. Georgia is playing really well, but it's hard to blow out teams.
“I think it’s part of the tradition we’ve made here. We’re used to winning by a larger margin or not winning at the last second, but Virginia Tech is a good team. Every team we play this year is a good team.”
After the bye week, Notre Dame has three-straight home games against teams with a combined record of 7-10. USC and North Carolina have been very inconsistent as their 3-3 records suggest, but on a good day they're capable of going into Notre Dame Stadium and knocking the Irish off — especially this year. Navy (1-4), perhaps not.
The Irish will almost certainly be favored in all three of those games. And if they win them all, suddenly Kelly's team is 8-1 with road games at Virginia and Stanford sandwiched around the final home game of the year against Georgia Tech. Those teams have a combined 10-8 record.
One of these one possession games might go the other way at some point in the second half of the season. That's football. But what if it doesn’t? What if the Irish run the table despite their quarterback controversy and patchwork offensive line? It’ll be the most unlikely of one-loss regular seasons, but it’s definitely within reach as Notre Dame resets during its well-time bye week.
“As a team, we’ve grown up a lot and our future has only gotten brighter,” Hamilton said. “I feel like going forward, this week builds a lot of confidence. And getting that time of rest can relax our minds a little bit. Taking our minds away from football over this next weekend will be really good for us and take us to a good spot going to the rest of the season.”
----
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.
• Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @tbhorka, @GregLadky, and @ToddBurlage.
• Like us on Facebook.
