The opinion that Notre Dame can’t return to the elite of college football, or that the Fighting Irish must lower academic standards to rise up, has always struck me as the mind-set of losers.
Which is why the student body’s reaction to Saturday’s 28-3 upset of Utah is alarming. They stormed the field, hoisted one another on shoulders and hugged their conquering heroes.
This wasn’t Catholics over Convicts, the epic 1988 game in which the fourth-ranked Irish upset No.1 Miami.
This was Notre Dame over 15th-ranked Utah, which had its hopes of winning the Mountain West Conference shattered last week by TCU.
The players certainly had reason to celebrate. For the seniors it was their last home game, and few senior classes have experienced the emotional roller coaster that this one has.
They came in under the brash Charlie Weis, were jarred by a coaching change after last season to Brian Kelly and just weeks ago endured what no college player should — the death of junior Declan Sullivan, a videographer who died when the lift he was filming from collapsed.
The win snapped a streak of 11 straight losses to ranked teams. And Notre Dame did it with backup quarterback Tommy Rees, a freshman making his first start.
The win did not make the Irish (5-5) bowl eligible. The win was not over a Top 10 team. The win would not have been celebrated by a program accustomed to winning.
“We’re not a finished product by any means, but we’re starting to develop the mental and physical toughness, the way that you need to go and approach this game on a day-to-day basis,” said Kelly.
If the Irish are, in fact, developing the toughness that Kelly has made his No.1 priority in his first season, that steel is worth celebrating.
We’ll know more next Saturday when the Irish play Army in Yankee Stadium. Army (6-4) became bowl eligible for the first time since 1996 with a 45-28 win over Kent State.
BCS ROTTEN EGG
Boise State moved ahead of TCU in the AP poll and narrowed the gap on the Horned Frogs in the BCS standings. If they both win out, they almost certainly will finish third and fourth — with the order still up in the air — behind Oregon and Auburn.
That means one of those teams could go undefeated and get shut out of a BCS bowl game. If Pittsburgh holds on to win the Big East, it will get the league’s automatic BCS bowl bid with a 7-4 record.
What a system.