An uncomfortable Sunday morning in South Bend turned into a hope-filled, determined afternoon.
Notre Dame returned from Charlotte with a little uneasiness, wounds from a 34-10 loss to Clemson still sore and a lot more curious about their future than they would’ve liked to be. Shortly after noon, nerves turned into renewed energy. The College Football Playoff selection committee saw what Notre Dame hoped it would: an 11-game body of work that featured two top-13 wins and a loss to a team it previously defeated.
It was enough to snatch the No. 4 seed over 8-1 Texas A&M and avoid a swift slide out of the playoff into the Orange Bowl. The recency factor of the Irish’s blowout defeat compared to the Aggies’ (a 28-pointer against Alabama on Oct. 3) was not the fatal booby trap.
“The committee looked to the fact that Notre Dame had two wins over ranked teams, that one of those wins was against Clemson, and that Texas A&M had one win over a ranked team,” chairman Gary Barta said. “So there was no single factor.
“We do talk about recency and what has changed in between, but we also evaluated that both teams had losses to the No. 1 and No. 2 team in the country, and it was one piece of information that we considered. It certainly wasn't the do-all and end-all.”
By giving the Irish the final spot, though, the committee also indirectly gave them a task. They’re matched up with No. 1 Alabama (11-0) in the vagabond Jan. 1 Rose Bowl that settled in Arlington, Texas for this season. The assignment? Go prove their worth. Demonstrate a Nov. 7 defeat of Clemson is the norm and not the anomaly.
Notre Dame will take the chance and cherish it, 19.5-point underdog status aside. Getting here is an accomplishment. Only 10 of the 28 available spots since the playoff’s 2014 inception have gone to someone other than Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and Alabama. Notre Dame can claim two of them, a sign of its rise and consistency under Brian Kelly that has it positioned firmly in sight of the sport’s two titans of the 2010s.
Thing is, though, the Tigers’ and Tide’s maintenance of a stratosphere unreachable to everyone else allows them to keep a safe distance. Notre Dame may get a win, as it did in November, but the ACC Championship put to rest – for now – the idea the gap between those two and the Irish is narrowing fast. Anything similar will put Notre Dame back in the same place of public postseason denial it has landed in when trying to punch through a perceived ceiling.
“We understand that if we don’t play to our standard, we can be beaten pretty bad,” Kelly said.
Much like it was the last time Notre Dame and Alabama met. But a lot is different about Notre Dame from that January evening in South Florida. It has a powerful offensive line, one with five potential draft picks when fully healthy. The defensive line is 11 men deep. It embraces physicality, the obvious separator in that BCS title game beatdown.
“It’s a deeper roster,” Kelly said. “There were certainly some talented players on the 2012 roster, some who are still in the league, but the depth of the roster, ability to make plays on both sides of the ball, and the size and physicality on the offensive and defensive line is probably the biggest departure since 2012.”
With that evolution as the propeller, Notre Dame returned to undefeated regular season heights twice in three years. Alabama has remained at its soul-crushing level with its own tweaks and fine-tuning too. The 2012 team that bulldozed Notre Dame to the tune of a 233 rushing yard differential is just as rich in explosiveness as it is in brute strength. The Crimson Tide have shifted from having an immovable defense and ball-control offense to owning arguably the nation’s best scoring machine.
“We’ve probably changed as the game has changed,” Nick Saban said. “We play a little different style on offense. We were more run the ball, play-action pass, NFL type of offense in the 2012 days. We’re right now more sort of NFL style, but incorporated a lot of spread, RPOs and those types of things.”
To his point, Alabama might have the O’Brien Award winner at quarterback in Mac Jones, the Doak Walker winner at running back in Najee Harris and the Biletnikoff Award recipient in receiver DeVonta Smith. All are seniors. Each might finish in the top five of Heisman voting. Smith is the current betting favorite to win the Heisman.
“It’s the proliferation of talent on offense, certainly at the receiver position,” Kelly said. “Running back, they’re probably where they are (from 2012) and continue to evolve at offensive line. I’d point to great quarterback play – not good quarterback play – and the skill players, particularly the wide receivers, who elevated the explosiveness of these Alabama offenses.”
All told, these are two programs in different philosophical spots than their last high-profile postseason meeting. Healthier versions of previously stalwart teams. Notre Dame will find out how much its moves can alter the end result.
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