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Does Notre Dame have to prove itself after high-profile flops?
Notre Dame was routed in the last two postseason games entering the Rose Bowl semifinal against Alabama.
Frankly, the 42-14 final score made the 2013 BCS title game seem closer than it felt. Notre Dame was never competitive that night in Miami Gardens when Alabama steamrolled the blue blood for a third national championship in four years.
Six years later, the Irish were back on the grand stage only to see Clemson silence the echoes in the 2018 Cotton Bowl semifinal. Notre Dame managed just 248 yards in a 30-3 loss that cued the chorus of doubts the historic superpower had a place among modern-day elite.
Was Notre Dame still Notre Dame?
Limping into the 2020 playoff after another blowout loss to Clemson didn’t quiet those questions even after staking its claim with a regular-season win over the top-ranked Tigers. Entering the Rose Bowl semifinal a 20-point underdog to Alabama begged the question that clearly annoyed Irish coach Brian Kelly.
Does Notre Dame have something to prove at 3 p.m. CT Friday after a series of high-stakes flops?
“No. No, I mean, we’re knocking on the door every year playing really good teams and great opponents,” Kelly said Monday. “And there’s elite football teams. I don’t know why this narrative continues to pop up when we’re always in the games.”
It’s not a matter of making the games that’s been the issue. It’s how the 11-time national champion has responded in the 32 years since the Irish last ruled college football.
Notre Dame is 2-4 against top-10 opponents in the past five years.
Against Alabama eight years ago, it managed just 132 yards outside of two second-half touchdown drives after the Tide built a 35-0 lead. Notre Dame tied the 2018 Cotton Bowl semifinal 3-3 in the first quarter before Clemson scored the final 27 points.
“No, we haven’t won a national championship, that’s correct,” said Kelly, now in his 11th year at Notre Dame. “I’m not changing the record. But we are there every single year and we’re grinding it out just like everybody else. And only one team gets to celebrate at the end of the year.”
Later in his Monday news conference, Kelly noted Alabama lost to Clemson by more in the national title game that followed its Cotton Bowl loss.
“If you look at it, our game against Clemson was a closer game than they had against Alabama,” Kelly said. “So, I mean, if you do that kind of a comparison, it shows very little in terms of what the disparity is.”
Alabama lost by 28 in that title game (44-16) after Notre Dame’s margin of defeat was 27 points. Irish offensive lineman Liam Eichenberg was also versed in that fact.
“In past years I’m pretty sure Alabama got blown out by Clemson,” he said. “I’m pretty sure other teams have been blown out as well in the playoffs. I’m not specifically concerned about that. This is a different year. This is a different team.”
The graduate student lineman said he doesn’t even remember the 42-14 loss Alabama handed Notre Dame in his childhood. He said he couldn’t remember how old he was that January night in 2013 when he was a few weeks shy of his 15th birthday. The Cleveland product said the offensive line “has come a long way” since that 2012 team.
“Nothing against those guys. They had a lot of great players. I do know that’s when, I think, Coach Hiestand just got here, and the culture wasn’t fully there, I guess you could say,” Eichenberg said, referencing offensive line coach Harry Hiestand who was with the Irish from 2012-17. “I feel like what we’ve built over the past couple of years will help us during this game specifically.”
The 2013 game was remembered for the way Alabama bullied Notre Dame at the line of scrimmage. The Tide ran for 265 yards on 45 attempts (5.9 average) while the Irish netted just 32 playing from behind with 19 attempts and a 1.7-yard average.
Eichenberg was the starting left tackle in the 2018 loss to Clemson while Tommy Kraemer was the right guard. The fifth-year senior wasn’t discouraged by what happened that night in Arlington, quite the opposite.
“I think the biggest takeaway is that we can win these games,” Kraemer said. “And I think just hard work and everything we do together is what puts us in these situations. I think we’re all really excited for this opportunity and ready to take it to ‘em.”
The Irish ran for 88 yards on 35 carries (2.5-yard average) in that loss that saw Clemson run for 5.7 yards a carry for a 211-yard total.
The two games with Clemson this fall showed the importance of the running game. Notre Dame had a 208-34 edge in rushing yards in the November win and a 219-44 deficit in the loss.
Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has a unique perspective on the high-profile losses of the past decade. Before his time as the quarterbacks coach in South Bend started in 2017, he was a backup quarterback on the 2012 team that lost to Alabama.
“It wasn’t a fun night, obviously,” he said.
Rees credits Kelly’s leadership for a run that’s included six 10-win seasons since his arrival in 2010.
“And then I think just we’ve been in this situation now multiple times,” Rees said, “and there’s a belief within the program that we’re consistently one of the best five teams in the country, and we handle ourselves that way and we have that belief.”
This is a completely different Notre Dame program since January 2013, Kelly said. They’ve changed the way they recruit and built stronger lines in the effort to modernize the old-school blueblood for a modern game.
“And we’re going to keep banging it,” Kelly said, “and we’re going to keep getting back here. And that’s our job. And that’s our challenge each and every year is to compete for a national championship, and we’ll continue to do that.”
