Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 SEPT. 23, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED W ith one memorable quip from decades ago, former Florida State head coach and part- time philosopher Bobby Bowden probably summed up best the trials and trib- ulations big-time college football coaches face every season. "A big game is never one you win," Bowden said. "It's always one you lose. If you won the dang thing, well, it wasn't big enough." Given the insatiable ex- pectations of football fans and how challenging de- fining exactly what a "big win" actually is, quantify- ing epic or signatures victo- ries is left to interpretation. Yet, by anyone's stan- dard, the top-10 matchup between Notre Dame and Georgia Sept. 21 couldn't get much bigger for an early season game. In fact, according to TicketIQ, Notre Dame versus Georgia is the hottest seat in all of college football so far this season, with an average ticket selling for $1,220 on the sec- ondary market. Ticket resale price is one subjec- tive way of measuring the "bigness" of a game. A more credible method is to look at a program's results against ranked teams and especially elite opponents. In either case, Brian Kelly's Irish haven't held up very well during his nine full seasons as Notre Dame head coach, going just 18-18 against top-25 teams, 3-7 versus top-10 squads and 0-4 against top-five opponents. For comparison sake — perhaps unfairly — former Irish head coach Lou Holtz remarkably played 53 ranked opponents in his 11 seasons at Notre Dame (1986-96) and finished 31-20-2, notably a 12-8 mark against top-five foes. Regarding his success, Holtz succinctly explained that "it's not rocket science." Kelly is not alone in the Notre Dame coaching fraternity with hav- ing struggled to beat the elite. Shockingly, since 1998 — Bob Da- vie's second season as head coach — the lone win for Notre Dame in 17 tries against a top-five opponent came under Charlie Weis in 2005 ver- sus No. 3 Michigan. Equally surprising is that until this weekend, Kelly has coached only four games against top-five teams — No. 4 Stanford in 2011, No. 2 Ala- bama in 2012, No. 2 Florida State in 2014 and No. 2 Clemson in 2018 — and lost all four by an average score of 33-14. "That's how you're measured as a program, when you're talking about top-five teams," Kelly said in 2014, just prior to the heartbreaking 31-27 loss to the Seminoles. That defeat in Tallahassee, Fla., proved to be Notre Dame's best per- formance against a top-five team since 2005. Wide receiver Corey Rob- inson actually hauled in the go-ahead touchdown in the final seconds, but it was wiped out by a debatable of- fensive pass interference penalty. An examination of Kelly's record against ranked and elite teams raises the obvious question of how many big wins has he enjoyed at Notre Dame? And frankly, this list may be shorter and less distinguished than expected. Most of his candidates come from 2012 when Notre Dame went 12-0 in the regular season before losing to Ala- bama 42-14 in the BCS Na- tional Championship Game. • As a 12-point under- dog and with hopes for a national championship on the line in 2012, a 30-13 win at Oklahoma — a team that had won 79 of its previous 83 home games — firmly put Notre Dame into the title picture and likely tops the list of biggest Irish wins under Kelly. • Two weeks before the memorable upset of Okla- homa, Kelly secured an- other big win in 2012 in terms of confidence and im- portance when a goal-line stand lifted his No. 7 Irish to a 20-13 overtime win over No. 17 Stanford, a Cardi- nal team that went 10-2 that season, finished No. 7 in the final Associ- ated Press poll and had beaten Notre Dame three straight years. • Another contender for one of Kelly's signature wins comes in a 17-13 home victory over unranked Michigan State in 2013. That loss ended up the lone defeat of the sea- son for the Spartans, who finished No. 3 in the AP poll. • It could also be argued that No. 3 Notre Dame's 36-3 win over No. 12 Syracuse last season in Yankee Sta- dium belongs on the list. The victory moved the Irish to 11-0 and set up a season finale at floundering USC with a College Football Playoff spot at stake. Looking at the growing talent level and recruiting momentum within his program, Kelly should face many more chances to secure signature wins, starting at Georgia. And when Kelly finally gets the big one, well, as Bowden warned, "it wasn't big enough." Especially at a place like Notre Dame. ✦ Another Chance For A Signature Win UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com The closest Notre Dame has come to knocking off a top-five opponent under head coach Brian Kelly occurred at Florida State in October 2014, when Corey Robinson's go-ahead touchdown grab in the final seconds was negated by a debatable offensive pass interference penalty. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA