Engel: Notre Dame And An Existence At An Impasse
ARLINGTON, Texas – The way he answered some of inquiries, Brian Kelly must have trudged to a podium somewhere in depths of AT&T Stadium feeling like an anvil rested upon his back.
Notre Dame’s coach understood what was coming, and that he wouldn’t like it.
Notre Dame was publicly denied again in its quest to reach college football’s rarest air, this time a 31-14 loss to Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals. The Crimson Tide were once again a bugaboo. The Irish once again came up short of where they want to be. Fuel for The Narrative. Kelly wasted no time weighing in.
“I guess everybody needs to continue to carry this narrative that Notre Dame is not good enough,” Kelly said. “Look at the scores of the games Alabama has played all year, and I think we need to start to change the narrative a little bit.”
Asked how his program can tighten the score, Kelly shook his head, sighed and let out a momentary laugh of incredulity.
“I really don't want to continue to go down this path,” he continued. "We're going to keep getting here, OK? And we're going to keep banging at it.”
“These questions keep coming up like we have to reinvent ourselves.”
No, Notre Dame doesn’t need a full-scale reboot. And the Irish are not alone in succumbing to Alabama’s or Clemson’s unmatched skill level. But two things – two areas of residence, really – can be true at once.
The first: Notre Dame is in a healthy spot and in position to return to the playoff if it just keeps doing what it’s doing. It is already one of only five teams with multiple playoff appearances. And the second: Despite its 10-win consistency and ability to reach the playoff, the rinse-and-repeat endings leave Irish fans feeling a bit sour, especially with the team’s outward expression of its national title expectations.
Here’s where Notre Dame finds itself. The Irish’s high level of play is discussed and met with a hunger for the final step that has proven elusive to it and many others. Getting to these games steadily fuels the yearning for winning them. In this space, the questions about further ascent are fair no matter how much they irked Kelly, but so is his gesturing toward the skins already on the wall.
It’s like having the very back row seats at an exclusive premiere of the last three Star Wars movies. Still at the movie while everyone else waits. But lacking the resources to outbid a few billionaires for the best views.
Notre Dame has been to the playoff as often as the entire Pac-12, and once more than Georgia and LSU. Oklahoma has twice the number of playoff appearances as Notre Dame, but the same number of wins. The Irish have been a frequent challenger. Not a successful one.
By pointing to Alabama’s entire season of rip-cording through opponents, Kelly isn’t throwing his hands up in permanent defeat. Notre Dame is closer to the Crimson Tide than it was the last time they played, though still not quite in striking distance. Nothing here is a moral victory, but it’s worth noting some evidence of evolution. Notre Dame couldn’t hold up physically when it played Alabama in the BCS Championship Game. In this relocated Rose Bowl, there was no line-of-scrimmage mismatch.
Now, the disparity is at the skill positions, where Alabama’s excess of riches picked apart Notre Dame’s defense in mounting an early 21-7 lead. The Crimson Tide had nine plays of at least 15 yards through three quarters. Notre Dame had four. All told, holding Alabama to 31 points despite that is a relative success. But that’s still a number the Irish offense never threatened to reach in either of the last two games or the last time they made the playoff.
Explosiveness and perimeter talent are Notre Dame’s next areas to address in the chase. In recruiting. In current player development. The Irish have steady veterans and intriguing youngsters. Alabama has game-changers. Field-flippers.
“We think we can get there,” Kelly said. “We have to continue to find more playmakers. And we'll keep working at it. We're committed to doing it and we're not going away.”
Added running back Kyren Williams: “We're going to get to that point where we can have that [firepower on] offense.”
Even with a host of changes on offense next season – new quarterback and offensive line turnover chief among them – there’s still some intrigue among the returners.
Williams is a commodity. Alabama coveted Irish freshman running back Chris Tyree and his speed as a recruit. A healthy Braden Lenzy and sophomore year Jordan Johnson have some appeal. Freshman tight end Michael Mayer has the look of a difference-maker, if he’s not one already. Incoming freshman receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr. should have a chance at playing time. As important an offseason as this one is, weathering turnover has been no obstacle to Notre Dame’s penchant for churning out 10-win seasons.
“We're going to get ourselves back in this position again,” Kelly said. “You don't need to jump off a bridge or a building.”
It’s less the future opportunity in question, but the hopes for a different script.
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