Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE F ollowing nearly each of the previ- ous 20 regular seasons at Notre Dame, earning an invite to the Fiesta Bowl would have been cause for great celebration in and around the Irish football program … any season except for this one, that is. Carrying at least slim playoff hopes into its 12th and final game Nov. 28 against Stanford, Notre Dame saw its preseason playoff mission come to a painful end when a former Cardi- nal walk-on kicker drilled a walk-off game-winning field goal that excused a two-loss Irish team from any Final Four consideration. That was the moldy leftover from Thanksgiving weekend that kept the Notre Dame players and coaches from becoming overly giddy when their New Year's Day Fiesta Bowl date with Ohio State was announced a week later. "In maybe our first couple of years when we talked about the bowl game, they were excited. There was cheer- ing," Irish head coach Brian Kelly said of his players. "There was none of that. They're disappointed they're not in the playoffs." But if one sliver of silver lining came out of this devastating defeat, it was that all of the Notre Dame naysayers who insisted an independent Irish team would never make a run at the playoffs were proven wrong. Because, save for two-point road losses against Clemson and Stanford — a couple of the best teams in the country — Notre Dame kept itself very much in con- sideration of being a top-four team all season. The armchair "experts" argued that without an all-in conference member- ship and/or a 13th game that provided an extra chance to build its postsea- son profile, Notre Dame had to go un- defeated to even be considered for a place in the playoffs. College Football Playoff selection Irish Schedule Myths Are Exactly That Notre Dame was the only team in the country to play five different teams ranked in the final College Football Playoff top 25: No. 1 Clemson, No. 6 Stanford, No. 21 Navy, No. 24 Temple and No. 25 USC. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA