The question had yet to be directly posed, but Brian Kelly answered it anyway.
It was only a matter of time before it would be. If anyone played a game of word association with the college football masses, a common first answer when mentioning Alabama and Notre Dame would surely be 2012 — the year of that BCS National Championship Game waxing. The natural follow-up is to wonder what’s different eight years later, when they’re finally meeting again, this time in the College Football Playoff on Jan. 1.
So Kelly got in front of it.
“We’re much better prepared than we were in 2012 in terms of the physicality on both lines,” Kelly said on ESPN, minutes after the matchup was announced. “And we have the ability to move the football.”
He has the receipts to support his claim. A defensive line rotation that goes 11 deep. A mauling offensive line that has five potential NFL Draft picks when healthy. A Butkus Award winner at linebacker who’s on his way to being a first-round pick. More one-through-85 depth than at any point of his tenure.
There is one problem, though.
Alabama, already an 18-wheeler driving through a herd of Priuses when it dispatched the Irish that night in Miami, has somehow gotten … better. Or at least more well rounded. The identity is different, but still dominant. The 2012 team was the standard of physicality, size and defense. These last three iterations are college football’s premier scoring and explosiveness display.
All told, the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide (and No. 2 Clemson) keeps raising the ceiling, making Notre Dame’s own climb seem like it has gained no ground on the elite of the elite. With four straight 10-win seasons, the Irish may be in a healthier, steadier spot than 2012. But eight years later, they’re still seen as one of many programs staring up at Alabama. They opened as 17.5-point underdogs, and the line later rose to 19.5.
“We understand if we don’t play to our standard, we can be beaten pretty bad,” Kelly said.
