Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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IN THE TRENCHES ANDREW OWENS senior linebacker and team captain Joe Schmidt said. "It's the game next, and that's what we're worried about. It's the last game of the year, and that's what we're focused on. "We know Stanford's a great team, one of the top teams in the nation, and we've got to be careful." Getting a Notre Dame coach or player to admit they have even al- lowed the idea of reaching the College Football Playoff to enter their respec- tive minds is more difficult than trying to survive a South Bend winter with- out a snow shovel. That approach is correct, but it is alarming that Notre Dame's last 120 minutes of action have seemed off the mark. Turnovers and lost concentra- tion on defense plagues the 10-1 Irish at times, and they can afford neither in Palo Alto. "The committee is out of my hands," head coach Brian Kelly said. "It's out of our players' hands. All we want to do is put ourselves in a position to be considered. We feel like we need to win another game to still be con- sidered. We were one of the top four teams after last week. We'll see where we stand this week. We've just got to keep winning games. We've got another game against a nationally ranked team, which will give us an opportunity. "Our guys know what has been in front of them when they lost to Clem- son early in the year. You've got to win all your games. Got one more, got to win it." It's remarkable that Notre Dame is even in this spot considering the inju- ries and early loss against the Tigers. (Add senior cornerback KeiVarae Rus- sell to the list of banged up players after he suffered a stress fracture in his foot versus Boston College.) This could end up representing Kelly's best coaching job, but to rank atop the list the Irish must win at Stanford. Perhaps a pair of underwhelming wins the past two weeks will end up being a positive development — a wake-up call — for Notre Dame against a stout Stanford group. "To get to 10 wins for our club was a very important number for us," Kelly said. "But more importantly, it gets us closer to the goals we've had all year. "What I love about this team is they persevere. It's been injuries all year. Tonight it was turnovers." Notre Dame's playoff outlook brightened somewhat when Ohio State and Oklahoma State lost, and the Irish still figure to have a solid chance of reaching the semifinals with a win against Stanford. Kelly's troops have an opportu- nity to cap off their season against a top-10 team on the road. The eyes of the nation will be on the prime-time matchup and will look for a strong sig- nal from Notre Dame that it belongs, that it should be in. The Irish have been fine without style points through 11 games, but now they could use them more than ever. ✦ Andrew Owens has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since August 2013. He can be reached at aowens@blueandgold.com