Offensive evolution fuels Notre Dame football's rise in the polls

In Notre Dame football’s 1912 opener, a junior receiver by the name of Knute Rockne helped the Irish to a 116-7 trouncing of St. Viator College on their way to setting the school scoring record of 48.6 points a game that still stands today.

The team that has come closest to challenging that mark in the 112 years since?

The 2024 ND squad that stood 110th in scoring offense (18.5 ppg) following a 16-14 home loss to Northern Illinois on Sept. 7 and that now finds itself fourth nationally (39.8) following a 49-35 closeout of USC in Los Angeles on Saturday in the highest-scoring (both teams combined) in the 95-game rivalry.

More relevant to where the Irish (11-1) go from here, they find themselves at No. 4 in both the AP and coaches rankings on Sunday, with the consequential set coming from the College Football Playoff selection committee on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. EST. (ESPN).

The final set of rankings and the playoff pairings for the first-ever 12-team version of the CFP will be released on Sunday during a four-hour gabfest on ESPN that kicks off at noon EST.

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In between are the nine conference championship games on Friday and Saturday, with six of them having a chance to affect both ND’s final ranking, playoff seeding and/or first-round playoff opponent — the Big Ten (Oregon vs. Penn State), SEC (Georgia vs. Texas), ACC (SMU vs. Clemson), Big 12 (Arizona State vs. Iowa State), Mountain West (Boise State vs. UNLV) and American Athletic (Army vs. Tulane).

Oregon (12-0) is the unanimous No. 1 in the AP poll this week, followed by Texas (11-1), Penn State (11-1) and the Irish. The Nittany Lions are just five poll points ahead of ND (1,378-1,373) — the closest margin between any two teams in the Top 25.

That portends how spirited the debate might be by the CFP committee in considering those two teams, which have Purdue and USC as common opponents.

Meanwhile, Georgia (10-2), an eight-overtime survivor Friday night against Georgia Tech, is fifth in the AP poll, followed by Tennessee (10-2), Ohio State (10-2), SMU (11-1), Indiana (11-1), Boise State (11-1), Alabama (9-3) and Arizona State (10-2) rounding out the top 12.

The four highest-ranked conference champs get seeded 1 through 4 and receive first-round byes. That caps ND’s highest-possible seed position at No. 5. And if the season ended today, the Irish would be seeded sixth and would host 11 seed Miami (10-2) at Notre Dame Stadium on Dec. 20 or 21 in a first round game.

Move up a spot, and that opponent — for now — becomes Arizona State (10-2), with 4 seed Boise State (11-1) waiting in the wings in a quarterfinal matchup in Glendale, Ariz.

Wherever Notre Dame ends up, its elite defense kept the playoff dream alive until the offense could evolve.

And the defense — ranked No. 1 against the pass, No. 1 in takeaways, No. 3 in scoring defense and No. 10 in total defense — has had a hand in the offense surge as well. Not just providing extra possessions and field positions, with its 11 fumble recoveries and 17 interceptions, but scoring itself.

The Irish and Tulane lead the country in defensive TDs scored with six each.

The offensive line has played a huge role in Notre Dame getting to 478 points on the season, 32 away from the school record. Right tackle Aamil Wagner, for instance, put up a Joe Alt-esque film grade from Pro Football Focus against USC (90.1).

The passing game, behind Duke transfer Riley Leonard, has risen from 129th out of 133 FBS teams that the NCAA charts in pass efficiency to 39th. And the run game, behind Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price and Leonard, ranks 10th in rushing yards per game (224.8) and third in yards per carry and on a school-record pace (6.3) and tied for fourth in rushing TDs with 43.

First-year offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock, his his third tour of duty as a Notre Dame assistant coach, presided over the nation's No. 1 scoring offense at LSU last season. He knew the Irish had potential, but it would take patience and some growing pains to get there.

And resilience, too, when it didn't happen right away.

“Leadership,” head coach Marcus Freeman said when asked what fueled the team’s turnaround from the NIU loss. “Great leadership from our captains, our players, our coaches. Belief. Trusted each other.

“In every game you go in and you have a little bit of doubt. That’s life. But you’ve got to trust beyond knowing. That’s what I told those guys. That’s what they’ve done. They put the work in and worked tirelessly.

“Our preparation has been immaculate. That, hopefully, is a reason why that we had the results that we did.”