Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/897211
6 NOV. 13, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI W hen this year 's initial College Football Playoff rankings were released Halloween night, it was more of a treat than a trick to the Notre Dame football team. Whereas the Fighting Irish were ranked No. 5 in the Associated Press poll and No. 8 in the USA Today coaches poll, the 13-man College Football Playoff committee — the only rankings that matter from here on out — placed Notre Dame No. 3, behind No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ala- bama. The four-team field will of- ficially be selected Dec. 3, after this year's conference title games. It is the highest CFP ranking for Notre Dame in its four-year history, mainly because it was the lone team to defeat three opponents — Michi- gan State (38-18), USC (49-14) and North Carolina State (35-14) — in the top 25, and resoundingly at that. Furthermore, Notre Dame's lone loss was by one point (20-19) to No. 1 Georgia Sept. 9. As he has from day one, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly re- mained consistent on his stance about College Football Playoff fever. "I try to stay in the moment, and we really don't even worry about that," Kelly said during preparations for the Nov. 4 Wake Forest game. "… We just want to dominate this week- end. If we do that, we'd like three more chances. "And then at the end of the year, if they say that we are one of the four best teams, that will be fine." The attitude permeates down to his team, which he said is naturally excited but also has been stellar at tuning out "the noise." "They know what they need to do if they want to continue to have the kind of success that they've had," he said. "Heisman, playoffs, yada, yada, yada. We're really just focused on beating Wake Forest," echoed senior Mike linebacker and team captain Nyles Morgan. "That stuff isn't re- ally relevant right now. That will be relevant at the end of the year. Right now it's about us as a team. "We are just worried about just do- ing our jobs. It's an everyday process — just have to work at it every single day." When asked how he would com- pare this year's unit to his 2012 team that finished the regular season 12-0 before losing 42-14 to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game, Kelly stated the plan has changed internally. "The blueprint is different," the head coach said. "This is different when we were ranked fourth in the country in week 10 in 2015. This is a plan that we wanted to enact so that we could sustain and be there at the end and challenge for a national championship. "It's built on a physicality, control- ling the line of scrimmage, playing UNDER THE DOME PLAYOFF FEVER TEMPERED Concentrating on task at hand remains primary theme Head coach Brian Kelly and his team are looking at dominating their remaining games before engaging in too much playoff conversation. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA