The question came and went, Brian Kelly doing away with it as quickly as humanly possible, lest anyone within his program get caught looking ahead. “We need to win three more games,” Kelly said when asked what Notre Dame has to do to solidify its playoff position. “That’s all we can do.”
Of course, it is never that simple, especially with Notre Dame. There are rankings and resumes, letdowns and lessons, dozens of other variables that come into play during this season’s final month. Not all one-loss seasons are the same, though if the selection committee’s initial rankings are any indication, these Fighting Irish, fresh off an impressive 42-30 win Saturday at Pitt, may very well be a top-four team come Tuesday.
That could ultimately mean very little, however, which is why these next two weeks are about eliminating distractions, blocking out the noise and taking care of business before seeing what this team is really made of come Nov. 28 at Stanford.
Because really, that’s the biggest on-field mystery that remains for this Notre Dame outfit the rest of the month.
So Kelly conceded that his answer regarded the big-picture view, and he elaborated a bit on his message for his 8-1, fifth-ranked team.
“Here’s what I told the guys: You put yourself in a position to be a contender, you just have to play one play at a time, and I know it sounds like coachspeak, but all we can do is take care of what’s in front of us, and that is Wake Forest,” Kelly said. “The rest is out of our hands. We can’t control anything else but how we play against Wake Forest, and they get that, and they truly do. So we’ll really focus this week on our preparation against Wake Forest. They’ve had a week off, they’re self-scouting us and we’ll have to do a good job against them this week.”
They get Wake Forest and Boston College, and if the staff really wants to put a scare into its players, it will do anything but show them tape from the Demon Deacons’ 3-0 win over the Eagles earlier this season.
Sure, these are good defenses awaiting the Irish, and yes, you can bet a BC team that has had everything go against it this fall will enter Fenway Park in two weeks extra perturbed at the indignity of being deemed “visitors” in their own backyard. Steve Addazio got these guys to beat USC last year, after all.
But really, this is a Notre Dame team that is looking at a worst-case scenario of 10-2, which is plenty to be excited about for a group that lost seven key players to season-ending injuries. Especially considering that the Irish have had a grand total of three double-digit win seasons in the previous 22 years.
The challenge now is continuing DeShone Kizer’s rapid development. It’s building on the rushing depth Josh Adams provided against the Panthers, and using this C.J. Prosise injury scare to get the taxed back some much-needed rest. It’s seeing if this defense can once and for all live up to its billing, and not look like less than the sum of its parts. (Parts that will be very, very rich come May.)
It’s about the leaders imploring the youngsters to not get ahead of themselves with these weekly rankings, peripheral opponents that could lure the Irish into a false sense of security.
“We’re really focusing week to week,” captain and linebacker Joe Schmidt said. “Right now we have Wake Forest and that’s all we can think about. For us, it’s we’re going home right now, we’re gonna rehab our bodies, rehab our minds, come back strong on Monday and really get after our final home game. We’re so excited for it.”
There’s Senior Day and there’s the aura of playing in front of the Green Monster. But neither compare to the heights of a potential elimination game against a fellow one-loss team two days after Thanksgiving.
That’s the hand these Irish have been dealt the rest of the way: All roads leading to Stanford, to another rivalry showdown with stakes at an all-time high.