Notre Dame crushed USC. The Irish are now a Playoff threat.

Notre Dame was never going to repeat last year’s 4-8 disaster in 2017, but it’s becoming clear now that the Irish aren’t just better. They’re back.

The No. 13 Irish dismantled No. 10 USC on Saturday in South Bend, 49-14. They led 28-0 at halftime. They dominated the line of scrimmage, running for a 8-yard average and holding the Trojans to 2.5. It was a rout in every sense, and it pushed the Irish to 6-1.

Notre Dame will enter the AP Poll top 10 on Saturday. It won’t reach the top four, but there’s still time for that.

They’ll probably get in if they win their last five games.

Consider the qualifications of the 12 teams to make the Playoff in its first three years of existence:

If the Irish win out, their 11 wins will include Michigan State, USC, NC State, Miami, and Stanford. With their lone loss coming to a current top-five team, Georgia, the Irish could finish 4-1 or 5-1 against the committee’s top 25. That’s solid all the way around, better than some Playoff qualifiers have done.

Notre Dame can’t win a conference because it isn’t one. But if the Irish don’t lose another game, they’re going to meet three of those four benchmarks going away.

Playoff Notre Dame is still not a likely outcome. Entering this weekend, Bill Connelly’s S&P+ projections gave the Irish a 6 percent chance of finishing 11-1. That will tick upward after trouncing USC, but it’s still far from probable.

Every one of Notre Dame’s remaining games is winnable, though. This was the projection picture before the USC game:

Every team except for Wake Forest is dangerous. NC State’s year has the early remnants of a dream season. Miami still hasn’t lost. Navy beat Notre Dame last year and has the chaos of a triple-option offense, albeit one the Irish face annually. Stanford has the most prolific running back in the country, Bryce Love, and will have home field.

But the Irish are going to be heavy favorites in three games: NC State, Wake, and Navy. Those Miami and Stanford games look like coin flips, but stranger things have happened than someone winning two coin flips in a row. The dominoes could fall just right, and Notre Dame could finish 11-1 without anything bonkers happening.

The running game is this team’s most obvious strength. Quarterback Brandon Wimbush and running back Josh Adams are a two-headed monster, and they’re good at working together. Some of Wimbush’s best runs come when defenses are keying on Adams, and vice versa. Against USC, they combined for 297 ground yards and five rushing TDs.

Wimbush is not a superb passer, but the Irish run over teams anyway. It helps that they’ve built a brutish offensive line over the years. Notre Dame recruits good players, and four of its starting linemen are seniors. That affords Notre Dame’s QB and running backs a lot more breathing room than most of their peers get.

The pass defense is elite, too. Notre Dame’s front gets good pressure, and the secondary has a lot of athletes in it. Nickel cornerback Drue Tranquill is excellent against both the run and the pass, making him pretty much the perfect player to slot in against spread offenses that rely on run/pass options (as Notre Dame’s does).

The defense has a few anchors at linebacker, too. Senior mike backer Nyles Morgan entered the weekend with 11 run stuffs. He was effectively tied for the team lead in tackles, 30, with two other upperclass linebackers, Te’Von Coney and Greer Martini. It helps to have a bunch of veterans up front, and the Irish have them.

A New Year’s six bowl bid is now likely, at the least.

The Irish have a top-10 roster by talent, and their success this year will help them build toward 2018 and beyond. For the foreseeable future, Notre Dame should be in the playoff discussion more often than not.