Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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4 NOV. 7, 2020 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED D efining exactly what a "big game" is for a college football coach or program is open to in- terpretation based on circumstances, opponent, season expectations, etc. The Nov. 7 matchup with top- ranked Clemson (assuming the Ti- gers didn't lose to Boston College last weekend as a 24.5-point favorite) checks almost every "big game" box for 11th-year head coach Brian Kelly, other than perhaps the opposing team's superstar quarterback poten- tially not being available. "Just playing to win games is not good enough anymore, we need to elevate our 'compete' level," ex- plained Kelly, covertly admitting that his team has been peeking ahead all season to its game against Clemson. "It starts with playing at a level that allows you to not all of the sudden play your best when you have to, but have that ready to go because you are playing at a high level, and that hasn't been the case. "It's risky, right? Because you're in some instances where, people would say, 'You're looking ahead.' Well, we are looking ahead a little bit. We need to get this football team to under- stand that they are really good." This will mark the ninth time dur- ing Kelly's tenure at Notre Dame that he pits a top-10 Irish team against a top-10 opponent, and it is the first time he has ever coached against a No. 1 squad (Alabama was ranked No. 2 and Notre Dame No. 1 in the 2012 national championship game). Surprisingly, this is only the second top-10 matchup at Notre Dame Sta- dium and the first game for the Irish against a top-ranked team since 2005 when No. 1 USC beat No. 9 Notre Dame 34-31 in the infamous Bush Push game. With this as a backdrop, Clemson provides Kelly arguably the best chance of his career to exorcise any "big game" demons. Kelly is an uninspiring 20-20 against top-25 teams with the Irish, 3-8 versus top-10 foes and 0-5 against top-five opponents, and the showdown with Clemson comes against a team that hasn't lost a regular-season game in 39 tries and more than two years. For comparison's 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 in those, including a 12-8 mark against top-five foes, brashly dismissing his success secrets with, "it's not rocket science." Kelly is not alone among former Notre Dame coaches who struggled to beat the elite. Shockingly, since 1999 — Bob Da- vie's third season as Irish head coach — the lone win for Notre Dame in 20 tries against a top-five opponent came under Charlie Weis in 2005 at No. 3 Michigan. Equally surprising is that in 135 games as Notre Dame's head coach, Kelly has faced only five top-five teams — No. 4 Stanford in 2011, No. 2 Alabama in 2012, No. 2 Florida State in 2014, No. 2 Clemson in 2018 and No. 3 Georgia in 2019 — and lost all five by an average score of 31-15. "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 Florida State, Notre Dame's best performance against a top-five team in 13 years — though the gritty effort by Kelly's Irish in a 23-17 loss at Georgia last season deserves a mention. Additionally, Kelly is only 2-6 in the eight games he's coached a top-10 Fighting Irish team against a top-10 opponent, losing those six by an av- erage of 19 points. To me, Kelly's best win in a top- 10 matchup came in 2012 when his No. 5 Irish pulled a 30-13 road upset at No. 8 Oklahoma as a 12-point un- derdog on the way to a 12-0 regular season before facing the Alabama juggernaut. Legendary Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden said about three decades ago that, "A big game is never one you win. It's always one you lose. If you won the dang thing, well, it wasn't big enough." Kelly has yet to enter the pres- sure cooker that Bowden and Holtz shared. But this weekend provides the Irish coach, and a really good football team, the perfect opportu- nity to do so. ✦ Can Brian Kelly Win A 'Big One?' 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 During his time at the helm of Notre Dame, Kelly has gone 20-20 against top-25 foes, including a 3-8 mark versus top-10 opponents and a 0-5 showing against top-five teams. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS