Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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I A Trial Run With The ACC MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY t's been a while since the last round of apocalyptic reports and earthquake analogies about major conference realignments stirred the college football world into a state of frenzy. Every few weeks this season, a school revealed its plans to pledge a new allegiance moving forward, and rumors would being to fly about an overhaul of the NCAA landscape as fans and pundits tried to sort out where all the pieces would fall. Notre Dame's stubborn clinging to finan- cial success and tradition was always a hot topic in these discussions, but the conversation has been stagnant during the month of November. It's probably time to stir the pot again. If the Irish do eventually take what many believe to be the inevitable plunge into a football conference, many signs point to them bucking the logic of geography and landing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. After a dozen decades of independence, it's hard to imagine the look and feel of playing in a conference, but Notre Dame had a short peek into a hypo- thetical crystal ball during the last four weeks of the season. The Irish played three ACC schools in a row followed by their traditional end-of-the-year trip to the West Coast. They will likely add one more dish to the ACC sampler during bowl season in the next month. What they saw was good enough to whet head coach Brian Kelly's appetite. "You take a collection of the teams that we played — Wake Forest, I thought their skill was a high level. You look at Maryland, and you prob- ably feel the same way," the politi- cian's son said. "Then you get to BC, and they are just tough and physical. I thought they played very well and were a physical team. There's a com- bination of skill and toughness in the ACC. And there are other teams in that league that probably bring even more to the table." Let's hope so. If those first three games of November are any indica- tion of what awaits the Irish at some point in the future, we are all in for a long snoozefest. Yes, the Irish came away with three wins at the end of the season when no one can be taken 6 DECEMBER 2011 Notre Dame received a stiff challenge in its 24-17 victory at Wake Forest on Nov. 5, but its stretch of games against ACC foes didn't elicit much national excitement. PHOTO BY AARON SUIZZI for granted, but all three were painful to watch in their own right. Wake Forest was the most bearable, but that might have had something to do with the sweet tea and Carolina barbecue. The Demon Deacons and The Irish raced out to a 10-10 tie in the early minutes, but then both of- fenses slammed on the breaks. Boston College barely got a chance to touch the gas. The game against the Eagles became interesting when they pulled within two in the final minutes, but lost its spark 30 seconds later when Notre Dame uneventfully recovered an onside kick. The rest of that game made tryptophan seem like a stimulant by comparison. In between there were at least some flashes of offensive firepower, but Maryland was easily the worst team the Irish have played this season. The Terps looked like a shell of the team they once were, and first-year head coach Randy Edsall has a long, ardu- ous task ahead of him. The three-week trial run basically amounted to an exercise in Notre Dame not beating itself, something it narrowly avoided at home against Bos- ton College. It led to a much-needed winning streak, but not the type of vic- tories that are easy to get excited about. There are better teams in the ACC — Clemson, Florida State and Vir- ginia Tech would be fun to watch against Notre Dame — but by and large the conference lineup can't compare to the Irish schedule on a weekly basis. Duke and North Caro- lina State aren't frightening teams. Miami and North Carolina are both in for a rough stretch due to their recent indiscretions. A shot at a con- ference title each season would be nice for Notre Dame, but at what expense? The Irish have struggled against their typically tough schedule in the last 10 years, but few fans have turned their back on the Irish. Maybe for some it's a form of masochism, but most keep showing up because they can normally count on Notre Dame to make things exciting. The monotony of early November was as boring a stretch this team has played in years. If Notre Dame does join a conference in the future, let's hope that stretch wasn't a sign of things to come. ✦ Dan Murphy has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2011. He can be reached at dmurphy@blueandgold.com BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED