1) Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa committed to Notre Dame on February 1, 2017. Despite their consistent success in the program, it’s always odd when a Hawaiian recruit opts for the climate of South Bend, doubly so when they choose to come after the Fighting Irish went 4-8. Since arriving on campus, MTA has been on the roster for 53 wins, making the playoffs twice (at least) and earning a captaincy and the adoration of both fans and teammates. Isaiah Foskey and Jayson Ademilola have been terrors along the defensive line all year but when they had the opportunity to clear the way for an MTA fumble return touchdown on Saturday they took it to another gear, two blue-chip prospects from opposite sides of the country going all out for the elder statesman. In addition to finding his way to the end zone, the senior also blocked a field goal attempt and earned the game ball — two weeks after his long-time trenchmate Kurt Hinish got one of his own — which was a perfect way to go out.
Saturday was pretty much perfect all the way around as Notre Dame improved to 10-1, their fifth straight season of double-digit victories. The Irish have not played the stiffest of competition this month but they’ve done what you should do when presented with weaker opponents, with the current November tally being Notre Dame Defense 16 (touchdowns by MTA and Jack Kiser on Saturday, plus the safety against Navy) and Opposing Offenses 9, all without the services of Kyle Hamilton. There’s something special about a comfortable Senior Day blowout that gets so many people who’ve done so much work on the practice field and in the locker room involved, and we’ve been blessed with four straight easy ones, the 55-0 preceded by 45-21, 40-7 and 42-13.
For a season that was teetering for much of the first six weeks, we’re now in the position where Notre Dame might just mess around and make the playoff again. Considering everything this team lost to the NFL from last season and everything they lost to injury over the course of this one, the fact that we can now comfortably place the dial on “Reload” versus “Rebuild” is a testament to everybody involved. One more to go.
2) I am not sure what Geoff Collins has been up to during his three seasons in Atlanta because Georgia Tech looked awful, struggling to both block and tackle, two somewhat important factors in the game of football. The Irish offense rushed for 200+ yards (again) and Jack Coan completed 75 percent of his passes (again) and after an opening drive that sputtered out with a couple sacks, Tommy Rees’ crew scored touchdowns on their five remaining first-half possessions.
Whatever you wanted to see, you got it. Continued creativity in the run game, with some fun sweeps. Two touchdowns on the ground, four catches and another long punt return from Kyren Williams. A gorgeous screen to Logan Diggs for a touchdown (during which Josh Lugg killed a guy) to complement his rushing score. Michael Mayer running wild and free up the middle of the seam, and Kevin Austin bringing in a pretty throw down the sideline, both catches good for 50+ yards. On a day where the seniors were celebrated, the two leading rushers were true freshmen, Tyler Buchner (who ripped off a 68-yarder) and Audric Estime (fulfilling and further fueling all the hype as a bowling ball with ballerina feet). Other freshmen also chipped in, with Lorenzo Styles pulling in two balls and Deion Colzie dragging a Georgia Tech defensive back ten yards for a first down. The ability of Notre Dame to win this many games by this many points playing this many freshmen is really, really fun.
3) Defense was just a complete and total suffocation, save for Jordan Yates getting loose once. (Please say a prayer for that young man, who spent Saturday being beat to hell and now must face the Dawgs.) 10 tackles for loss, six sacks and the two touchdowns, both aided by the fact Collins’ offense schemed to block Notre Dame’s leading sack-getting with a tight end or not at all. Georgia Tech's first five drives resulted in a pick six, a trio of three-and-outs and then a five-play, 15-yard march down the field before a punt. The one thing the Irish had to do was not let Jahmyr Gibbs, one of the most productive backs in the nation, defeat them, and that was a check-plus, as Gibbs had a long run of 17 and no contributions to the receiving game.
This is the promise of the Marcus Freeman defense in its final form: Just pure chaos, the opposing backfield never having time to take a breath. While we will absolutely miss the stalwart presences of MTA and Hinish next season, Howard Cross continues to fill out a nice audition reel for the middle of the defense (two sacks against the Bees) while we must again highlight Clarence Lewis, who paired a couple of pass break-ups with another tackle for loss. Players getting better and more comfortable in their roles over the course of a season - it's good, folks.
4) Jonathan Doerer has been fighting through injury for half of the season but came through in his final game, knocking in a pair of field goals, including a 41-yarder to open the scoring when we didn’t realize it was going to be quite this easy so an empty trip would have caused some jittery nerves. Chris Tyree opened things up with a great kick return as he, like Mayer, appears to be getting healthier. There are few things Irish fans love to complain about more than Brian Polian and special teams but this season has provided them little opportunity to do so, which is a great sign.
5) Winning is Hard/Schadenfreude Round-Up: No. 3 Oregon was three wins away from their second playoff appearance, but they were rocked from pillar to post in Salt Lake City, trailing 28-0 at the half to the Utes and never making it competitive. The Ducks will now just hope to salvage a 10-2 regular season against the Beavers. You know it’s a special Saturday when 38-7 was not the most lopsided defeat suffered by a Top 10 team, as No. 7 Michigan State was sent to the moon by the Buckeyes, 56-7, after trailing by seven touchdowns at the half.
Alabama beat Arkansas by only a touchdown at home. Wake Forest got crushed by Clemson and their outside chance at a playoff bid is now nil. Preseason playoff dark horse Iowa State is now 6-5 after losing to Oklahoma, whose offense continues to underwhelm. Texas lost at West Virginia and is staring in the face of 4-8. Florida lost at Missouri and now will play Florida State (victors over Boston College) to see who gets to go bowling or not but Dan Mullen will not be on the sideline for the Gators as he was fired and declined to coach the game. USC gave up 62 to UCLA. Auburn lost at South Carolina. Washington lost to Colorado in a game where they held the Buffalos under 200 yards of offense while gaining more than 400 of their own. Northwestern is now 3-8 after a loss to Purdue. Arizona State barely mustered an effort as a road favorite at Oregon State.
6) My suggestion for dealing with the final two playoff ranking reveals is to divorce your enjoyment of this Irish team and the sport as a whole from what the committee decides. If you want to have fun gaming out scenarios and speculating, go nuts, but don’t let them inspire even a hint of negative emotion. Remember, this is an organization that once harbored a war criminal and chose to fly to meet in person weekly last fall in the teeth of a viral pandemic to come up with rankings that were completely meaningless. If the Irish were to make it at 11-1, I think they’d be a worthy entrant (fourth in Strength of Record, sixth in loss-adjusted SP+ resume, near the top of the FEI Wins Above Average), but I’m not going to get too worked up about getting left out when the second-best win is probably Purdue and our fate is at the mercy of a small group of people who face zero accountability.
7) In 2006, Notre Dame opened the season at Georgia Tech as No. 2 team in the country. The game was on ABC in primetime
and the intro package included Brent Musburger hyping up the Irish and saying, “Welcome to the new good old days.” Those good days did not last long, as that team with all the expectations in the world finished with three ugly losses. Even worse, Weis was unable to build upon the consecutive BCS appearances, winning only 16 games over the following three seasons before his dismissal and the hiring of Kelly. To compare the current success to that years-long failure, the senior class graduating next spring saw a single home loss during their four falls on campus, the same as the class that preceded them.
None of this 2021 success was guaranteed: Notre Dame spent the first half of the season teetering on the precipice, but the coaching staff and roster did enough to avoid the fall and then figured things out as the weather cooled and schedule softened. When Hamilton went down, they kept going, just as they did when they rotated through offensive linemen and quarterbacks and linebackers and receivers. What the Irish are doing right now is still a notch below the elite of the elite of the sport, but it’s still damn impressive and the arrow on the program’s trajectory continues to point up.
One quick trick to immolate all these good vibes and make a committee decision easy would be to lose on Saturday. Considering the stakes (win and you potentially make the playoff for the third time in four years) and the quality of opponent (truly awful), a defeat against Stanford would rank among the worst in Notre Dame history. (I know I also said this going into Syracuse last year, but it was true then as well.) 11-1 is right there and can come at the expense of a program that was a thorn in Kelly’s side for much of his Irish tenure. Go get it.
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