It’s only Week 6 of the college football season, and No. 6 Notre Dame is looking like a Playoff contender. With signature wins against Michigan and Stanford already on its resume, the possibility for the Irish to get a bid is there.
Brian Kelly, like almost all of humanity, has no idea who won Duke-Northwestern
Can’t really blame him, even if it impacts Notre Dame’s Playoff argument slightly.
Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
On Oct. 3, ahead of ND’s game against No. 24 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly was asked about his team’s Playoff chances.
“Man, we’ve got a long way to go,’’ he said via TMG Sports. “We’re going to go to Blacksburg, Virginia, and play in a tough environment. And then we have to play Pittsburgh, who is tough to play. Oh, then we’ve got to play Navy, by the way. Northwestern, who just beat Duke. We’ve got a long season ahead of us.”
As it turns out, Northwestern did not in fact beat Duke this season. Duke won that game 21-7. I know this not because I watched or remembered this game, but rather, I had to use Google it to find out who actually won.
To be fair to Kelly here, he, like most of us and almost everyone on the planet, would have no real reason to remember the outcome of this game. To be completely honest, I didn’t even fully realize these two played each other until today. At the end of the day, Kelly is human, just like all of us, paying no mind to an early-season Northwestern-Duke game.
As for Notre Dame’s remaining schedule though, the rest of the road looks pretty feasible moving forward — games left include Navy, Northwestern, Florida State, and Syracuse before the final game against USC. The Irish’s upcoming game against the No. 24 Hokies looks like the biggest remaining test for ND, as Bud Elliott pointed out earlier this week:
If the Irish win, expect them to be be double-digit favorites for a long time after that.
Notre Dame’s next five games after this are Pitt, Navy, at Northwestern, Florida State, and Syracuse.
The final game of the year, at USC, might be tougher than the game at Virginia Tech. But that will depend heavily on how much USC’s true freshman QB J.T. Daniels improves over the final two months.
S&P+ gives Notre Dame a 21 percent chance of finishing undefeated, which is likely what the Irish would need to make the CFP. But if the Irish can pull off the win this weekend, those chances increase to 31 percent, based on current numbers.
Notre Dame is currently a 5-point favorite for Oct. 6’s matchup.
I forgive you, Coach Kelly, for not being aware of a Duke-Northwestern game. It is reasonable.
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