The first few weeks of the bowl season is chock-full of unfamiliar schools in even odder locales, playing for a trophy that won’t exactly thrill the student body and draw recruits to the respective programs.
Saturday afternoon, however, is a respite from the meaningless bowls and the inane matchups.
When Notre Dame and Rutgers face each another at Yankee Stadium in the Pinstripe Bowl, the game will have plenty of name recognition in these parts, featuring last year’s national runner-up against the future Big Ten school from New Jersey.
“We love the venue, we love the bowl, we love what’s happened to our kids this week,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. “But we’re competitors. The old phrase, a game worth playing is a game worth winning.”
Furthermore, both teams have a lot to play for — primarily to get the bad taste from a disappointing season out of their mouths.
“You certainly want to finish with a win because it helps in the offseason in terms of your evaluations,” Kelly said. “And finally, we’ve seen eight wins in our program. We’ve seen 12. Nine is one that looks better for us [than eight].”
At this time last year, Notre Dame was preparing for its first national championship game in 20 years, riding several fortunate finishes to an undefeated regular season.
A dose of reality was delivered this season to Kelly and his players: The Irish have a way to go to be part of the nation’s elite year-in and year-out. Notre Dame (8-4) was the only team to beat fourth-ranked Michigan State, and beat USC for the third time in four years. The Irish came close to a few other marquee victories, losing by a touchdown at No. 5 Stanford and playing No. 11 Oklahoma and rival Michigan close.
Senior quarterback Tommy Rees enjoyed a solid final season, throwing for 27 touchdowns, 2,938 yards and completing 53.7 percent of his passes. Rees often went to senior wideout TJ Jones, who hauled in 65 passes and nine TDs. The duo will look to continue their breakout year against a porous Rutgers’ secondary, which has allowed 400-yard passing games four times this season.
It has been a trying year for Rutgers and second-year head coach Kyle Flood. Beginning the fall with high expectations, the Scarlet Knights (6-6) finished sixth in the AAC — their only year in the new conference before moving to the Big Ten — losing to also-rans Houston and UConn.
Rutgers did qualify for a bowl game with a decisive 31-6 victory over South Florida, highlighted by their best defensive effort of the season and a two-touchdown, 113-yard rushing effort from Paul James, a junior tailback who has been effective when healthy this year.
“Ultimately, you look at the season in its entirety: There’s a big difference between 7-6 and 6-7. Winning record and a losing record, and that’s fairly obvious,” Flood said. “To our senior class, winning this game is very important.”
The season hasn’t gone according to plan for either program. But one will go out on a high note Saturday afternoon in The Bronx.