Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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murphy's Law dan murphy "We were just talking about how we want to finish the season, and we want to finish the season right," Watt said. "Win or lose we want to make sure this team is playing with a lot of pride, the way this football team has in the past." The first chance to restore that pride came the following Monday when Notre Dame returned to the practice field after a week of healing mentally and physically. Head coach Brian Kelly decided to line his first team offense up against the starters on defense and let them have at it — a rare physical workout for so late in the season. The extra hitting provided energy to practice and kept the Irish from packing it in on a season headed in the wrong direction. "I could just sense right there that we were going to play pretty good today," Kelly said. For Notre Dame, the rest of the week amounted to remembering what it does well. It's not a team or a senior class that wins with flash. The few electric plays Saturday in the snow came from younger players: the long runs, the touchdowns, the key defensive stops. This group, and the seniors that provide its identity, has flipped Notre Dame's fortunes by doing the small things right with consistency. They hit singles and sac flies, not home runs. "The coaches were harping on doing the simple things extraordinary," senior captain TJ Jones said. "Don't go out of your comfort zone. Don't try to do too much. Do what you know … and if you do that extraordinary, you'll have success." Kelly and his staff have preached their simple recipe for success since taking over in 2010. The message may have never taken hold if not for the current batch of seniors, Kelly's first recruiting class, trusting its merits. Jones said it took about a semester, that first 8-5 season, for his classmates to buy what Kelly was selling. And now it's their foundation. When things start to spin out of control like they did after losing to Pittsburgh, Notre Dame's players fell back on the pride of doing simple things well. Because of that the Irish won for the 11th time in their last 12 home games. The win over BYU was their 20th in the last 24 games. The senior class will leave school with the best four-year winning percentage in nearly 20 years, and the victory over the Cougars was a picture of that consistency at its best. "This is Notre Dame football," Kelly said. "This is the way we need to play. We're capable of playing a much more physical brand of football, and quite frankly, our team did that." The Irish ran for 235 yards against a stingy defense. The defense held a dangerous, young quarterback in check and dug in its heel when BYU approached the end zone. There was nothing sexy about the 23-13 win, but the ability to crank out ugly wins was a fitting farewell to the class of 2013. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com