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IRISH CAN'T CONTROL THEIR DESTINY N otre Dame started October with flash. The Irish showed up in Chicago with their annual Ed Hardy-inspired uniforms and posted a 38-point win over a surging Miami team, the type of definitive smack- down expected from a modern day title contender. They have since slipped back into a more traditional look in their ward- robe and on the scoreboard. MURPHY'S LAW DAN MURPHY Style points have been hard to come by this season for No. 5 Notre Dame, which is now one of a handful of undefeated teams on the outside looking in at a spot in the last game of the year. That "how" and not "how many" is the main question asked about this team shows how far they've come from start- ing the year as favorites to land in the Pinstripe Bowl. At this point, though, no blowout win on its own is going to help them climb any higher in the polls. Notre Dame can win as ugly as it wants to. Its fate is out of its hands. "I've been down this road before," said head coach Brian Kelly, whose 12-0 Cin- cinnati team never climbed higher than fifth in the BCS rankings during the 2009 regular season. "You've just got to win your games … you have no control over that other than just take care of what you can take care of." The concern among voters is, without a chance to prove otherwise in a head-to- head battle before bowl season, the Irish won't be able to hang with the rest of their top-five brethren who have been winning in much more convincing fashion. Four of Notre Dame's seven wins have come by a touchdown or less. The four teams ranked higher — Ala- bama, Florida, Kansas State and Oregon — have a combined three victories with that slim of a margin. The top-ranked Crimson Tide is winning games by an average of 32.4 points this season, nearly double Notre Dame's 16.4 average. Kelly was happy to announce his team's identity as a gritty group that finds a way to win close games after coming from be- hind to beat BYU 17-14 last week. "I don't look for margin of score," he said. "I just want our guys to compete and prepare well. If they prepare well and compete on Saturdays, we'll win enough games. I really don't care how many we win them by." November is ripe with chances to win some leave-no-doubt games for the Irish. Pittsburgh should struggle to hang around in South Bend to start the month. Bos- ton College and Wake Forest appear to be little more than thick rolls of bubble wrap for offensive stats. But winning all three of those games by 50 points each will do nothing to convince the January matchmakers that Notre Dame is more worthy than an undefeated major confer- ence champion. Barring a New York Mets-sized col- lapse, Notre Dame's chance of playing for a national championship comes down to this week's game in Oklahoma and the season finale in Southern California. Lose one of those games, and the Irish can book their tickets to the Fiesta Bowl. But winning both, even in convincing fashion, may not be "enough" to end up anywhere else. If all four teams in front of the Irish win the rest of their regular- season games, the winner of an Alabama- Florida SEC championship showdown takes one spot in the national title game. Notre Dame's late résumé might be enough to push them past Kansas State, which doesn't play a conference cham- Even if head coach Brian Kelly's team takes care of business in its final five games, it may find itself on the out- side looking in when the BCS title game is played. pionship game. Oregon, though, finishes with games on the road against USC and at home against still undefeated Oregon State. That leaves the Irish in the strange position of cheering for the Trojans to knock off the Ducks in the regular season or what will likely be a conference cham- pionship rematch. All of the hypotheticals and shaken-out ✦ PAGE 21 PHOTO BY MIKE BENNETT/LIGHTHOUSE IMAGINE scenarios are moot if Notre Dame can't es- cape from Norman with a win this week- end. They won't do that by walking into Big 12 territory and trying to outshoot the Sooners. The Irish are at their best when they are winning without style. For now, that's the best they can hope for. ✦ E-mail Dan at dmurphy@blueandgold.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @BGI_DanMurphy.