Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY than later. Notre Dame has pluck. The departing seniors embody it well. Martin, a four-year starter at tackle, refused to let a group of four first-year starters slow down the offensive line late in the season. Senior wide receiver TJ Jones battled through a sprained shoulder in the second half that will leave him out of commission for the next three or four weeks. Quarterback Tommy Rees finished as doughty of a Notre Dame career as any quarterback that has come before him. "The best part of this team is they're a team of fighters," Martin said. "If you watch the tape of even the games we lost we were fighting until the end, which is great." It is great, but eventually a fighter needs to move from being a David to being a Goliath. The Irish have yet to become a football bully. Notre Dame's jump into the heavyweight division was at least put on pause this year in a season Kelly described as good, but not great. Earlier in the week, the coach said he thinks the program needs to be consistently reaching 10 wins to be considered successful. "We're very close to being able to put up double-digit wins every year," he said. "Now we'll be about getting this program to play for a playoff spot each and every year, and that's going to at least mean double-digit wins every year." Getting to nine this season without their dynamic starting quarterback wasn't a definitive step in the wrong direction in the greater scheme. Play- ers like Martin, Jones and Rees helped set the bones of a program that understands how to win. Nine wins won't be a step in the right direction either if Notre Dame can't add some meat to those bones starting in 2014. Kelly said he'd like to get his offense to a speed that allows him to call 90 plays per game. He got to 90 against the Scarlet Knights by picking up the pace and by nearly doubling their time of possession. Notre Dame averaged only 66 play per game during the course of the season. That's a major jump, the kind of leap a team can't make if its most valuable postseason player is a left tackle. That's not to knock Martin's well-deserved accomplishment. It's impossible to overstate how important he has been in holding together the Irish offense this season. But MVP glory only finds its way to consistent, lunchpail linemen like Martin when there are no gaudy stats to distract the eye. Winning 10 close games in a year is difficult. If the Irish plan to be playoff contenders starting next fall, they'll have to start burying 6-6 teams with inferior talent far earlier and with far more authority. Grinding through victories eventually wears the grindstone away as well. In a holding pattern of a season, the Irish showed they can win ugly. To keep moving forward, they need to show they don't have to win ugly. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com