We have our second set of College Football Playoff Rankings and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish remain ranked third for the second week in a row. While a bit of chaos hit the top 10 with Ohio State and Penn State’s losses, Notre Dame did enough in their 48-37 win over Wake Forest to keep hold of their #3 ranking with their showdown with undefeated Miami looking large.
Speaking of Miami, the Hurricanes vaulted up the rankings all the way to #7 after their impressive win over Virginia Tech in Miami last weekend. The Hurricanes jumped over Wisconsin (#8) who won last week setting up a matchup of #3 vs. #7 this weekend in Hard Rock Stadium. It would have been nice if the Hurricanes can moved up ahead of TCU as well into #6, but should the Irish add a win over #7, you have to think that Notre Dame’s resume will be near impossible to beat should they win out.
Notre Dame’s resume was enhanced this week more by their opponents than their own win over Wake Forest. USC’s win over Arizona moved the Trojans up to 11. Michigan State meanwhile jumped to #12 after their upset of Penn State this past weekend. That movement gives Notre Dame two convincing wins over top 12 teams.
Importantly for Notre Dame, NC State stayed in the top 25 at #23 as well maintaining Notre Dame’s three wins over top 25 opponents. The Wolfpack has only Boston College, Wake Forest, and North Carolina ahead of them on their schedule. Should they win out, they would conceivably end the season in the top 20.
Stanford fell out of the top 25 with their loss last weekend, but the Irish still have a chance to add to an already impressive resume this weekend with Miami. At this rate, Notre Dame could conceivably end the season with wins over the Pac 12, ACC, and Big 10 champions.
Georgia, Notre Dame’s lone loss on the season, remained ranked #1 in the rankings this week with Alabama just behind them again this week. In fact, the top 4 remained unchanged this week with Clemson coming in at #4. The top 5 is rounded out with Oklahoma fresh off their video game style win over Oklahoma State. Oklahoma will have a chance of their own this weekend to build their resume with a showdown with #6 TCU this weekend. The best case scenario there for Notre Dame would be another shootout in the Big 12. The CFP Committee seems to place a priority on defense.
Additional chaos could be in store this weekend with #1 Georgia facing off against #10 Auburn. For Notre Dame’s sake, a Georgia win would be much more beneficial. Not only is #4 Clemson’s most impressive win of the season at this point over Auburn, but a two loss Auburn team fresh off a win over Georgia and a 1-loss Georgia team would not be an ideal scenario for Notre Dame to have to deal with moving forward. That is, of course, if the Irish take care of business on Saturday night because if they don’t none of this matters at all for Notre Dame.
GK , your post in a few words says it all. “It’s for the Irish for the taking.” The time is now folks. The best team in years , ranked #3–what an opportunity for this talented 2017 team that lay ahead. This is not a “wait until next year” team—this is the year. Go Irish.
Brain Kelly is a fraud. His high level staff may now very well be quite good…..but he’s a (very wealthy) fraud.
David…Coach Kelly is responsible for letting the program descend into mediocrity by keeping assistants, a coordinator, and some staff around who were not getting their jobs done way too long. He also was personally too disassociated from a lot of the players from what I’ve heard.
But he accepted that criticism and did everything that needed to be done to fix it…and it has been fixed. Now you may say that he’s just protecting his job, he’s a fraud, it’s not genuine, and so on. That’s your judgement, I guess. I personally believe that he cares about ND and his players, not just himself. That’s my judgement of the man.
I’m astounded that this turnaround is now within reach! Though I called it a fool’s mission last spring, I applauded the staffing choices he made and at least hoped it would work. And it has, because this time ND really is back – win or not this Saturday – this program is headed upward solidly for the next several seasons at least. I’m not sure what more we can ask him to do for the program, other than the few of you that would ask him to resign. I think that he, his staff, and the players, have been a credit to the ARA nameplate they have worn on their helmets – and that’s not an easy thing to do.
I don’t know if the IRISH will be in the playoffs this year (nobody knows)…but we obviously will be in a major bowl of some sort and I believe we will win it for the first time since LOU was coaching here. Now that should be real upward progress for the program in any straight thinking mind.
BGC ’77 ’82
Forget it. Dave’s a hater. ND is winning, they are showing you can win CFB and maintain high academic standards and disciplinary standards. His sole goal is for ND to lose the rest of their games so he can thump his chest and say he was right. Doesn’t matter if that means ND tanks and we never win a big game again.
But we’re the fraudulent fans.
David, Thanks for sharing. Now go have some ice cream and find your happy place! Better yet, go leave some comments on Miami’s websites. Maybe you can be more successful at dragging their fanbase down!
It’s for the Irish for the taking. Sure hope we aren’t on any Sports Illustrated covers.