Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS More than 82,000 Seminoles fans re- mained standing at their seats for min- utes after the game, basking in the eu- phoria of consecutive win No. 23 and a 7-0 beginning to their title defense. Senior wide receiver Rashad Greene sauntered off the field with one finger raised. "We needed to make one more play," said Irish coach Brian Kelly, vis- ibly frustrated after the tight loss. Three tries from inside the Florida State 8-yard line (and another from the 18), and Notre Dame could not reach the garnet end zone. At 6-1, the Irish surprised many across the country who expected the program to falter again on the bright- est stage. Despite the loss, Notre Dame proved it belongs among the upper echelon of college football. "We already knew we were a good team," Robinson said. "We're showing everyone what we already believed." No one knows how the 13-person College Football Playoff selection com- mittee would view an 11-1 Irish team if Notre Dame runs the table in No- vember. This is the first year of the new system, and much is to be learned about the committee's process and where its emphasis will be placed. For now, Notre Dame needs to take care of the one aspect it can control — its own play — and also must resort to scoreboard watching to see if it fits in the four-team puzzle. "We played our hearts out and just didn't get the win," junior defensive lineman Sheldon Day said with a sigh. Any coach will say there's no such thing as a good loss, but as far as im- pressive defeats go, Notre Dame's ranks at the top in 2014. It's no conso- lation to the heartbroken Irish or their fans, but a path exists for the program to reach a semifinal game in Pasadena, Calif., or New Orleans. Kelly smartly declined when asked to politick for his team. "We knew that our football team was a good football team, and they were excited about the matchup," he offered. "They were on the national stage, and they showed everybody what kind of football team they are tonight." Too many times the past decade, Notre Dame has been embarrassed by an elite opposition: the 41-14 Sugar Bowl loss to LSU following the 2006 season, a 28-14 defeat at top-five Stan- ford in 2011 and, most damaging to the program's reputation of all, the 42-14 shellacking put on by Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7, 2013. That storyline faded Saturday eve- ning at Doak Campbell Stadium. Notre Dame belongs, and that has rarely been the case since the 31-24 vic- tory over Florida State in the "Game of the Century" in 1993. "They're the defending champs," Schmidt said of Florida State. "They all got rings for a reason. They know how to play." Something else is now clear as well — so do the Irish. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com