IRISH RISING: Linebacker Manti Te’o and Notre Dame are out to prove that they are not just a good team, but they are a great team, writes Lenn Robbins. (Getty Images)
CHICAGO — O’Hare International Airport could have served as a site for a Notre Dame booster club meeting yesterday morning. Thousands of Irish fans sporting hats and T-shirts transcended on the hub with the dreamy smile of a hungover college football fan whose team is 4-0 for the first time in a decade.
Unlike fans returning home after a game at almost any other university where a few gates are packed, there were Notre Dame fans catching flights for everywhere from Montreal to Texas. This is America’s college football team, which means we need to put this 4-0 record in perspective and not get caught up in the Notre Dame Hype Machine, brought to you by Notre Dame, NBC and newspapers across the country.
Everything when it comes to Notre Dame football is more exaggerated than Kim Kardashian’s posterior. So we need to ask ourselves as the Irish head into their bye week: Is Notre Dame a great team or is it a good team — clearly the most athletic the Irish have put on the field in years — that is playing with great confidence?
The Case for Greatness:
The Irish are 4-0 and that’s four wins against FBS competition, two on the road. They are one of just 26 undefeated teams in FBS.
They are fifth nationally in turnover margin, a stunning turnaround from last season. When asked if he was a better coach, Brian Kelly joked: “There’s no question. My wife even talks to me when I’m plus-9, which didn’t happen much last year.’’
The defense has been a dominant force, having not allowed a touchdown in eight quarters. Notre Dame is fourth in scoring defense (nine points per game) and 16th in total defense. If you play good defense and protect the ball, that’s a recipe to win in any league.
Three of Notre Dame’s four wins have been grinders. With games remaining against Miami, Stanford, Oklahoma and USC, the knowledge of knowing how to close out is precious.
“I think our players see how the game unfolds and know that it’s gut check time in close games and that they’ve got to rely on each other,’’ said Kelly. “It builds a closeness within your locker room, both on the offensive side and the defensive side. It builds confidence that no matter what the circumstances are that they can find a way to win, so those are all great things that we’ll continue to build on.’’
The Case for Goodness:
The combined record of those four teams is 8-6.
The quarterback position is unsettled. Kelly sounded definitive that sophomore Everett Golson remains the starting quarterback but he can’t have another performance like the one he turned in against Michigan.
“I don’t really believe it’s a matter of confidence as much as he just has to settle down,’’ Kelly said after Golson threw a pick on the Irish’s first play from scrimmage and finished 3-of-8 with two interceptions.
“He was not as comfortable as I would have liked after playing the Michigan State game where he was in an incredible environment. He needs to just settle down a little bit, and he’s going to be fine.’’
The Irish are 96th in total offense and 84th in scoring offense (25 points per game), but that is misleading. Take away the 50 points the Irish scored against Navy and they have posted a meager 17.6 points per game. In this era of college football, a team must score at some point.Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti received his share of grief when he refused to overpay for Florida International coach Mario Cristobal and promoted Kyle Flood. Seems a like a great move after Flood led the Scarlet Knights to a 35-26 come-from-behind win at Arkansas. Rutgers trailed 10-0 in one of the SEC’s toughest environments and showed true grit in rallying. With Rutgers, Louisville and Cincy, the Big East has a nice first-place race on its hands.
The YES Network’s “This Week in Football,’ tomorrow (8 p.m.; YES) will air interesting look at Penn State running back Silas Redd’s decision to transfer to USC. It turns out his decision was based as much on how late coach Joe Paterno was treated as the NCAA sanctions that bars the Nittany Lions from a bowl game for four years.
“I just don’t like the way they treated Coach Paterno through that whole thing,’’ he tells YES. “People have their different opinions about him and as a player and me playing under him for two years, he never did anything wrong to me personally and that’s where I stand on that.”