1) If you wanted to build a 12-0 football team, how would you do it? You know what, scratch that. New question: If you wanted to build a 12-0 Notre Dame football team, with all of the advantages and limitations specific to the Fighting Irish, how would you do it?
I think the easiest path to greatness in college football starts at quarterback and defensive line, with offensive line a close third, so let’s start there. For quarterback, it would be really nice to have two good ones even if that’s a bit gluttonous. For the first, maybe a Top 100 recruit who won the New Jersey state title and was originally committed to Penn State but flipped, an electric athlete capable of pressuring defenses with his legs and a few deep balls and also just a really good dude beloved by his teammates. If he had some accuracy issues it would be nice to have a back-up option, but for narrative purposes let’s say he was more of a recruiting afterthought from California and, oh, the 517th rated prospect in the country, originally committed to Mike Leach. He’d end up one of the most accurate passers in the nation and undefeated as a starter, the kind of guy who’d lower his shoulder on an opposing defensive back when he needed the first down in a big game.
To protect those quarterbacks, you’d want a couple All-Americans, but in a tough break those guys are now two of the best rookies in the NFL. In their absence you’d at least want a senior captain at left guard but you might not get that for the majority of the season due to an injury in game five. Instead you would take a bunch of blue-chip recruits and mix and match and cajole and prod until you came together as a damn solid group. They’d be from all over — California, Maryland, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio — and provide validation for a position coach whose hiring was maligned by some Notre Dame fans who had all attended an afternoon seminar and become experts on every offensive line coach in the country.
To run behind this line, you might want a reliable workhorse with breakaway speed but if that guy’s starting for the Eagles you’d need to patch something else together. You’d take a redshirt sophomore who was hyped up prior to the previous season but could never really get healthy only now he’s shown an ability to do some cool stuff in the passing game while grinding out tough yards on the ground. To complement him you’d take a track star from Kansas who committed late and initially played at wide receiver. That guy might acquire a weird infection that cost him a few games in the middle of the season but he’d adapt to the position quite well, showing a nose for the end zone to complement his top-tier Disney villain name.
But to really take that position over the top you’d want a Top 100 senior who’d shown flashes but was never able to put it all together in his first three years. But what if that guy was suspended for the first four games? Well, that guy — with help from
an awesome mom — wouldn’t lose focus, and in his very first carry of the season he’d shred the Stanford defense and never take his foot off the pedal from that point forward, blazing for scores everywhere from Blacksburg and the Bronx to downtown Los Angeles. He’d get over a thousand yards from scrimmage in just eight games, running with an edge and looking so damn annoyed every time he was tackled.
For our quarterbacks’ targets, let’s get a couple of big receivers. One would be a giant from Illinois who was kind of written off before some Citrus Bowl heroics took him to the next level while the other would come from the Great White North, an incredible athlete who excelled at catching, sure, but also at blocking and special teams coverage. To round it out you’d take a converted walk-on who became perhaps the most trusted option on the team, an ace in the slot who also showed dynamism in the punt return game.
Tight end should be easy, because this is Notre Dame and it’s what we do. You’d have the top recruit at that position from both the 2015 and 2017 classes, but there would be some bumps in the road. For the senior, it would be an academic suspension that cost him an entire season, but he wouldn’t give up and leave South Bend, even after a disappointing junior year, instead putting it all together a very solid 2018 campaign. The sophomore would go down with a brutal looking leg injury but return a couple weeks later, showing a proclivity for converting fourth and shorts. To round it out, you’d have two more four-star guys — a sophomore from Texas and a senior from Illinois — creating a quartet of athletic menace.
Building around your defensive line on the other side of the ball, you’d need to be strong in the middle, so take two seniors — an elite Louisiana prospect who could have left early for the pros but didn’t and a Missouri native who wasn’t planning on returning for his fifth year but had a change of heart — and start from there. At defensive end you’d want a mix as eclectic as it was productive, so take a former Alabama commit, a former Southern Cal commit and a guy whose older brother had already worn the blue and gold and unleash them on opposing quarterbacks. Complement them with some solid underclassmen to create a deep rotation we haven’t seen in some time and one hell of a position coach to have a unit that was a joy to watch all year.
You’d want great linebackers behind them to really make that side of the ball sing. Perhaps one would be a two-time captain who didn’t have to come back for his fifth year but did, a former Purdue commit who had fought to recover from two season-ending leg injuries earlier in his career then powered through a bad ankle injury and broken hand to stay on the field making plays throughout his final season. Next to him would be a Floridian who wasn’t counted on going into the 2017 season but by the bowl game that year had transformed himself into perhaps the best player on the field. He’d stick around for his senior year, too, and lead the team in tackles. Complementing them would be an Indianapolis blue-chipper who put in a fine season at rover, never looking out of place compared to the stars next to him.
Then maybe you’d get greedy and make the starting secondary elite. You’d begin with a Chicago kid, a three-star prospect that earned his status as one of the best corners in the history of the program. Next to him you’d take a former Virginia Tech commit and sprinter who molded himself into a perfect complement to your All-American and Thorpe finalist. Safety would go from being a running joke to a strength, as a converted high school quarterback figured things out his junior year, coming through with four interceptions and perhaps the season’s biggest pass break-up in its third game. But his story wouldn’t be the best on the back end. No, that would go to the two-star Hawaiian who only ended up at Notre Dame due to a policy decision at the Pentagon. He’d be screwed by the NCAA and have to sit out a year but that would only make him angrier, a swaggering trash-talker just as comfortable wrecking a giant tight end in coverage as he was crashing into the backfield in run support. Nickel would be a bit of an adventure following a camp injury to the starter, but you’d get by, with two freshmen and a senior doing the heavy lifting.
To round it out, you’d want something memorable for your specialists, like a senior who was the first punter ever to serve as Notre Dame captain and a kicker who set the school’s all-time scoring record. They would come through again and again and again.
That is, hypothetically, how you could put together a 12-0 Notre Dame football team.
2) That twelfth one wasn’t easy, far from the pleasant coronation some expected. I was nervous all week despite well-meaning Irish and despairing Trojan fans assuring me there was nothing to worry about but Southern Cal came to fight. My concerns were based in the practical (USC has a ton of talent and most of their losses this year could be explained by “They did dumb stuff” so in theory that could avoid doing dumb stuff for one game), the historical (this would not have been the first Notre Dame team to cost itself a national title opportunity against an underachieving Trojan squad) and the emotional (the pressures of closing out 12-0, particularly against a team that had nothing to lose, is great). Achieving victory can be difficult in a road rivalry game after a long month of travel, even if you’re the better team.
3) Credit to J.T. Daniels and Clay Helton for making Clark Lea’s bet that the Trojans couldn’t nickel and dime their way down the field look foolish in the early going. We tend to think of Notre Dame as the sole protagonist in the story of college football with other teams simply serving as NPCs for us to interact with but Daniels was a top-tier recruit with the chance to put his name in Trojan lore early with a victory and he responded with a brilliant start. But even with the yardage and completions he racked up, Lea’s plan — with an assist of forced fumbles from Alohi Gilman and Troy Pride — held USC to just ten points for much of the evening. Lea tightened the coverage and peppered Daniels with some drop eight while the defensive line started to get pressure. For the 12th time this season, the Irish defense did its job, as prior to their final touchdown the Trojans had just one second half drive that went over 25 yards.
4) The offense did its job as well, eventually. The first quarter and a half were brutal: Ian Book was struggling with the deep ball and also intent on seemingly trying to target USC’s best corner every play, Chip Long was very committed to the run and the Trojans were content to consistently blitz, mucking everything up. But Long adjusted and Book adapted and Chris Finke had an amazing touchdown catch to get the halftime margin to three. The offense fizzled on the opening possession of the second half but the defense got Dexter Williams the ball back and Dexter did what he’s done so often this season. The Irish were unable to land the killshot until Tony Jones improbably went 51 yards, aided by a Miles Boykin block and the echoes of Robert Hughes. What was better,
Boykin’s leveling for Jones or Dexter turning his traditional “Deuce” salute into an
upside-down Victory V after he scored? Who can even say, but Autry Denson’s crew again came through.
5) It would have been really easy for things to unravel in the first half, and 10-7 felt like mercy at the break. Credit to the team for no one really freaking out even though we fans were not handling the circumstances super well. Tackling was a little shakier than normal, but they found their groove as the game progressed. Book didn’t let his struggles derail and continued to grind, adding to the offense with his legs and making just enough throws. (The pick was very bad, though.) Justin Yoon didn’t let a trash playing surface throw off his place-kicking game, as the field goal to move the margin to seven was huge. End of first-half clock management could have been better, but thankfully the three points the Irish maybe left on the board didn’t cost them. Just extreme competence all over the place, even with emotions and stakes very high. It’s something we’ve seen all twelve games this season and it’s hard to ask for much more. In the playoff Notre Dame’s opponent will likely target the nickel and blitz Book but thankfully the Irish coaching staff has a month to attempt to mitigate those potential weaknesses.
6) Winning Is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: Ohhhhhh, Michigan. A road favorite against Ohio State, a playoff spot and the first Big Ten title since 2004 waiting for them. All they had to do was beat their reeling rival who had almost lost to Maryland last week and then take out Northwestern. Nope! Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Wolverines offense did nothing to start while the defense quickly gave up a touchdown. Then it got worse: 62 points in total, an absolute embarrassment from the only team, per pundits, to get better over the course of the season. If the Buckeyes make the playoff then Michigan will get a back door into the Rose Bowl, where they can lose 17-14 to Utah and Jim Harbaugh can complete his Bo Schembechler tribute. 62 points! You absolute clowns. Cool revenge tour, shame it started a week late and the bus crashed at the end. At least have some decency and shut the program down.
Honestly nothing is going to live up to that but there was some other stuff. Our playoff peers struggled in their first halves, with Alabama leading Auburn by just three and Clemson leading South Carolina by seven at the break before they turned on the jets in the second half. Oklahoma needed two defensive touchdowns to survive Morgantown. Washington State couldn’t close the Apple Cup and division title at home, a potential historic season and Pac-12 title lost in the snow. Texas only beat Kansas by seven. LSU lost to A&M in seven overtimes and
Jimbo Fisher’s fail-nephew punched a guy with Parkinson’s in his pacemaker.
Wake Forest blew out Duke and is now bowl eligible. Vanderbilt blasted Tennessee in a battle for postseason eligibility. Texas Tech lost to Baylor and Kliff Kingsbury got fired. Our old friend Mike Sanford, Jr. is out at Western Kentucky after only two seasons. Wisconsin got whipped pretty good by Minnesota in Madison, so maybe P.J. Fleck is good now? Or is Paul Chryst just bad? Nebraska is going to win that division next year, aren’t they? Larry Fedora got fired at North Carolina a few years after playing for the league title following an overtime loss to NC State, who needed overtime to defeat a Tar Heels team that just fired its coach. Navy finished 3-9. Arkansas finished 2-10. Boston College got blown out at home by Syracuse, who found their groove again a week after being pinstriped. Florida State got rocked by Florida and they will be missing a bowl for the first time in nearly four decades. Arizona blew a massive lead to Herm Edwards in the Territorial Cup and Kevin Sumlin will not be bowling. Sparty was a few yards away from losing to Rutgers at home. USC announced they’re bringing back Helton next year and used Notre Dame’s bounce back from 4-8 as reasoning, causing a complete meltdown from the Trojan faithful. What a stupid, awesome sport.
7) It seems like a long time ago but there was a debate among Irish fans earlier this season about whether it would be better to make the playoff and get murdered by the Crimson Tide or lose a game and win a random New Year’s Six bowl. I always thought the playoff was a no-brainer, both because the loss that hypothetically kept us out would be brutal and it’s an extremely select group to have been in the new final four. Since 2014, there have been 20 playoff slots. Alabama has gone every year, Clemson will have gone four out of five years and then you have multiple appearances from Ohio State and Oklahoma along with solo shots from Florida State, Oregon, Washington, Georgia and Sparty. At the conclusion of this season ten teams will have made the playoff and Notre Dame will be on that list, earning their place among the best in college football.
The other important thing about making the playoff is that you can’t win the championship without being in the final four and I’m still rather interested in the Irish doing that. Will they be able to run this to 13-0 and make the final game? They’ll have to play better than they did Saturday, but I think they will, with 8,000 miles of travel and the pressure of the moment versus a team playing spoiler behind them. Anyone they play in the semifinal will be a damn good team and should the Irish prevail there it’ll be another elite opponent but hey, you can’t win it if you don’t earn the opportunity to try. The Irish did that over three long months.
At many points over the next month you will hear someone say “Notre Dame is just going to get killed by Clemson” or whomever we end up playing. Maybe! We’ll all find out together on December 29th but unless that person is a fan of a select few teams it sucks their rooting interest wasn’t good enough to make the playoff and get the chance to compete, so you should pity them. Looking back at the Irish’s body of work it isn’t amazing but it’s quite strong: Three Top 25 teams, two division winners and at least seven bowl teams with the potential for eight if the Hokies vanquish Marshall. Notre Dame is the only team with ten Power Five wins and the only team with a dozen FBS wins (they’ll get company in both of those areas after championship weekend, but for now, they’re alone). They only trailed in three games all season and won multiple games on both coasts. They lost zero.
8) The first instance of “Winning is hard” came in the 17th edition of this enterprise, the second ever game review after DeShone Kizer and Will Fuller pulled the Irish out of the fire in Charlottesville. It was not intended as a gimmick or catch phrase but as a simple statement of fact, something that can be forgotten if partisan myopia causes you to only focus on your team. To win in college football you need to hire the right coach and have him hire the right assistants then have them recruit the right players and develop them properly and then deploy them wisely with a smart scheme. Once you’re in the game you are then at the mercy of so many things beyond your control in addition to an opponent that is also trying to win: The bounces of a pointy ball. Inept officiating. The weather. Freak injuries. The fact that 21-year-olds playing in high-pressure situations sometimes make mistakes and sometimes those mistakes come off the field and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Notre Dame hired the right coach and he eventually brought in the right assistants and those coaches brought in the right players and those players put the work in to develop and learn a scheme and for 12 games they rolled with the bounces and absorbed the injuries and came out on top. Were some of them ugly? Yes. Were some of those beautiful? Indeed. Were all of them wins? You’re goddamn right.
What an amazing season. I understand that the goal is championships but I’m going to take these next few weeks to just appreciate what we just watched. 1973, 1988, 2012 and 2018 are the only undefeated and untied regular seasons the program has had since the mid-50s and we were lucky enough to achieve it this year with a balanced, talented team that played some fun football. If the semifinal opponent is indeed Clemson they are an impressive squad but the Irish, without question, will be the best team they’ve played all year. The Tigers will have to earn the victory and will have to do so this time without a monsoon or their big ol’ hill.
12-0. 22-3. 13 straight. 8-3 against Michigan and USC since 2012. 3 of the last 4 against the Trojans. Who knows what the next game will bring but the Irish earned the right to be there, in the company of the elite of college football. Savor every single second of this because it’s a glorious time to be a Notre Dame football fan.
