Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/102697
A Giant Step Away Alabama ends Notre Dame's perfect season with a dominant 42-14 win in the BCS National Championship T By Dan Murphy he paratrooper flying a Notre Dame flag into Sun Life Stadium Monday night stuck his landing in the middle of the giant BCS National Championship logo at midfield during the pre-game festivities. The good news for the Irish pretty much ended there. Alabama had its way with Notre Dame from start to finish, steamrolling the country's No. 1 scoring defense, 42‑14, on its way to a dynastyforming win. The Crimson Tide claimed their third championship under Nick Saban in four years and became the first team to win back-to-back national titles in the BCS era. The Crimson Tide's running game shrugged off the vaunted Irish defensive front, and junior quarterback AJ McCarron may have shed the "game manager" tag for good with four passing touchdowns. The formula that brought Notre Dame back into the national picture for all the right reasons during a 12-0 regular season got lost on the way to Miami. Call it relevance, call it legitimacy, call it a return to the upper echelon of college football. Whatever you call it, it was real in South Bend this fall. The Irish coaches and players insist that a demoralizing loss in January does nothing to erase the four months before it. But the gap that separates Notre Dame from where it is and where it wants to be — beating the very best — is just as real. "We're close," senior captain Manti Te'o said. "Obviously, we're not there. If we were there, we would be holding the crystal ball." Head coach Brian Kelly tried to put his finger on the difference between Saban's program and his own following Monday night's waxing. Part of the 28-point chasm between the two teams was experience. From paratroopers to platinum record national anthem singers, the 39 ESPN cameras surrounding them and 45 days between games, the grandest stage was foreign to the Irish. By the time they felt at home, the game