Tune into a Brian Kelly and Nick Saban Zoom session in the last week, and there’s an obvious theme afoot.
Friday’s relocated Rose Bowl in Arlington, Texas, is a rematch of the teams from the 2013 BCS title game in logos and colors only. A rematch of coaches in name only. A meeting of two blue-blood programs in healthy places then and now — but with little similarity between the identities and structure.
There sits the root of Notre Dame’s insistence that another 42-14 laugher is not staring it in the face, 20-point underdog status be damned.
The thing is, Saban and Alabama subscribe to the same theory. These two traditional powers led by two coaches with enviable résumés have adapted as required, putting stubbornness and proven methods aside when change became mandatory. Both leaders would also point out they have fine-tuned their programs while maintaining the same positive culture that fueled the initial rise.
In a game full of egos and self-assurance, Saban and Kelly have avoided becoming enslaved to one method of achieving success. College football waits for no one. Its trends come and go as the wind blows. No team wants to be knocked down by a stiff gale it didn’t see coming.
“If you're not getting better every year in everything in life, you're getting left behind,” Kelly said.
Shakeups at each program were necessitated by different circumstances. Notre Dame’s 2012 BCS humbling and 4-8 detour in 2016 ushered in reality checks and wake-up calls. Saban, after seeing Clemson’s high-scoring spread offense put 75 combined points on his vaunted defense in the 2016 and 2017 national title games, decided to move to a similar attack.
The results are fascinating contrasts from that January evening eight years ago.
Notre Dame has spent this season mauling opponents on both lines, with the exception of the ACC Championship. Its offense is a methodical, clock-controlling attack that runs more than half its plays out of multi-tight-end sets and has 19 drives of at least five minutes. The 2020 Irish are the antithesis of Kelly’s Cincinnati spread offenses, which broke scoreboards while paying no mind to time of possession.
“Even after going undefeated that year [in 2012], we lost in the national championship game, and we were looked at as not a very good football team,” Kelly said. “We needed to look at the things that could help us grow. And we’ve been doing that each and every year.”
Added fifth-year senior left tackle Liam Eichenberg: “I feel like the offensive line has come a long way since then. Nothing against those guys, they had a lot of great players. I do know that's when [former offensive line coach Harry] Hiestand just got here, and the culture wasn't fully there, I guess you could say. I feel like what we’ve built over the past couple of years will help us during this game specifically.”
It helped in a November meeting with mighty Clemson, when Notre Dame scored 47 points and ran for 217 yards on 5.5 yards per carry, excluding sacks. Even though the most recent showing against the Tigers featured a different plot, that game in South Bend still happened and wasn’t a fluke. Not to anyone inside The Gug. Not to Saban, whose own offensive line is a Joe Moore Award finalist alongside the Irish’s.
“They don't miss their targets very often,” Saban said. “They finish blocks. They play hard. They’re physical. That’s probably the best word to describe them on both sides of the ball up front: they’re very physical.”
Sounds a lot like the Alabama of the early 2010s.
The Crimson Tide were college football royalty then and maintain a seat at the throne, but are donning a different outfit. Not long ago identified by its unmatched physicality and impenetrable defense, Alabama is now the premier display of fast-strike scoring and explosive plays.
The 2012 iteration of Alabama defeated then-No. 1 Notre Dame to win the national title the same way it claimed championships in 2009 and 2011: with a ball-control, pro-style offense and a defense that budged nary an inch. The Crimson Tide’s physical dominance on both lines was overwhelming. That season, they were 11th in time of possession. They’re now 48th while scoring 49.7 points per game, including three straight outings surpassing 50.
“This is not pro-I, let’s run it up inside and play great defense,” Kelly said of Alabama in 2020. “They’re still playing fundamentally sound defense, but with the offenses as they are today, it’s very difficult not to give up some yards.
“You’re still seeing the same [defensive] principles. You’re seeing at times elite play in certain position groups. And then an offense that can rival the very best.”
What’s left to determine is if Notre Dame’s evolution has brought it any closer to Alabama. If the end to 2012 identified necessary schematic and identity tweaks, the 2016 speed bump was a call for Kelly to evaluate himself as a program CEO. He delegated more. Sought to build deeper relationships with players. Rebooted the strength and conditioning program by hiring Matt Balis. Invested more in players’ mental and physical performance.
“Their team reflects the kind of team that anybody would want to coach,” Saban said, “in terms of how they compete, how hard they play, sort of the discipline and all the intangible things you try to develop and build.”
The result is four straight 10-win seasons and the only program outside the big four (Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Oklahoma) to claim multiple CFP berths. Notre Dame’s success feels more sustainable than at any point in Kelly’s tenure. It has passed other programs in the quest to catch the Tigers and Tide.
“We’ve been in this situation now multiple times and there’s a belief within the program that we’re consistently one of the best five teams in the country,” offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said. “We handle ourselves that way.”
But those two bugaboos in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Clemson, S.C., continue to raise the ceiling. In turn, they keep the heat on Notre Dame and the other programs in the Irish’s sphere to win. Or, at least avoid the rude public denials of entry that often come in the form of postseason and marquee-game blowouts. Like it or not. Kelly does not like it; doesn’t feel there’s something to prove in these spots.
“I don’t know why this narrative continues to pop up when we're always in the games,” he said.
Indeed, Notre Dame is as well-positioned as anyone to join the ruling class. It has to be in the games to win the games. As the former becomes more common, though, the more the yearning for the latter grows.
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