Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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FIGHTING WORDS WES MORGAN ular season with a 9-7 record before beating a much sexier New England Patriots squad in the Super Bowl. It was the worst record for a Super Bowl champion in the history of the NFL. Simply winning is far too simple a concept for college football, however. That's what the Fighting Irish con- tinue to do, but it might not be good enough. The three-week stretch from Nov. 3-17 was supposed to be where Notre Dame could make up some ground with the machine gun offense of the Oregon Ducks and perhaps get style separation from Kansas State. The Irish had a 4-4 Pitt team and a 2-7 Boston College squad to pummel and get voters' attention. Instead, it took three overtimes to put the Pan- thers away and about 30 minutes lon- ger than it should have to get by the Eagles. On a day the Crimson Tide was washed out to sea and K-State looked average, Notre Dame could have made a significant statement in Boston. In- stead, Irish head coach Brian Kelly found himself in a 15-point ball game early in the fourth quarter with the Eagles driving toward the red zone. "We're going to work on winning against Wake Forest and take care of what we can take care of, and then when it's all said and done, we'll see where we are," Kelly said when asked about how the performance might im- pact Notre Dame's place in the BCS standings. "We really can't waste any of our energy. "You see how hard it is to win in college football. We can't worry about those things. We have to focus on what we can do, and that is win on the field. If people don't like us winning, I don't know what else to tell you." It's the right attitude to have for a head coach who has worked a minor miracle in South Bend this season, tak- ing a program that hasn't won more than eight games since 2006, and hasn't been a championship contender for far, far longer. The Fighting Irish are great again. But are they great enough? Unfortunately, the term "sexy" has been applied to a number of things, including sports, in recent years. As silly as that is (which is a rant best saved for another time), it actually fits in college football. With all that Notre Dame already has going for it — tradi- tion, cache, high graduation rates, a national fan base and a brand that is worth the gross domestic product of many small nations — even a perfect record this year might not push the Irish to the top. Oregon's offense is apparently what a lot of voters find sexy. K-State's aver- age margin of victory (24.5 points) is looking sexy. Barely escaping against Pitt and turning in a ho-hum perfor- mance at Boston College? Cellulite. It's not fair, but that's how it works. Style points might be out of Kelly's control because his team isn't capable of running up the score at will. Not yet. And Miami is for the beautiful people. ✦ Assitant Editor Wes Morgan has been with Blue & Gold Illustrated since February 2011. He can be reached at wmorgan@blueandgold.com