The No. 3 Fighting Irish of Notre Dame:

Record: 12-0

Wins over currently ranked opponents:

·         24-17 vs. No. 7 Michigan 

·         31-21 @ No. 22 Northwestern

·         36-3 vs. No. 20 Syracuse (at Yankee Stadium)

Average points per game: 33.6 

·         Most points scored in a single game: 56 @ Wake Forest

·         Fewest points scored in a single game: 19 vs. Pitt

Average points allowed per game: 17.3 (Ninth best in country)

·         Most points allowed in a single game: 27 @ Wake Forest

·         Fewest points allowed in a single game: 3 vs. Syracuse

Key Players:

Ian Book, Junior, QB

The perception of Notre Dame’s season indulged in a big time upswing when Ian Book took over for Brandon Wimbush at quarterback. This team clearly has talent, but Wimbush just couldn’t really be trusted at times. With Book under center, the Irish offense seems to induce much more confidence out of spectators. Book’s numbers aren’t near the top nationally, but that’s partially because he didn’t record any stats in the first two games of the season, and even in the third he only had three passing attempts. Book was also out against Florida State due to injury. Still, he’s thrown for 2,468 yards and 19 touchdowns, with six interceptions on 280 attempts. His completion percentage of 70.4 is the fifth best in the country.

Dexter Williams, Senior, RB

For the first four games of Notre Dame’s season, senior running back Dexter Williams was suspended. But he certainly made his presence known when he suited back up in a 38-17 win over Stanford, when he rushed for 161 yards and a touchdown. In just eight games, Williams has tallied 941 rushing yards and twelve touchdowns on the ground, while averaging 6.6 yards per carry. He’s also dabbled a bit in the passing game, recording 13 receptions for 104 yards and a touchdown. Williams has eclipsed the 100 yard rushing mark in half of the games he’s played: 161 yards on 21 carries against Stanford, 178 yards on 17 carries at Virginia Tech, 142 yards on 23 carries at Navy, and 202 yards on 20 carries against Florida State.

Julian Love, Junior, CB

Julian Love has anchored the Fighting Irish defensive backfield, and is undoubtedly the most outstanding corner to come out of Notre Dame in recent memory. The First Team All American racked up 47 total tackles this year, with three of those being for loss. In Notre Dame’s regular season finale at USC he totaled twelve tackles. He has one interception and three fumble recoveries in the turnover department. In 2018, Love had 15 pass breakups, bringing his career total to 38, which is in a career in Notre Dame football history. 

Jerry Tillery, Senior, DT

Defensive tackle Jerry Tillery, who was originally recruited as an offensive tackle, is physically horrifying as he stands at 6 feet 7 inches, 305 pounds. Things turned out well for Tillery since switching to the defensive side of the ball, as he was named a Second Team All American this season. This regular season, he had 30 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, and eight sacks. He recorded 48 total quarterback pressures. In Notre Dame’s thrashing of Florida State in South Bend, Tillery used his height and long arms to block an extra point, which was then scooped up and ran back for two points by Julian Love.

Te’von Coney, Senior, LB

The Notre Dame defense was led in tackles by senior linebacker Te’von Coney, as he recorded 107 of them. Nine of those were tackles for loss, with 3.5 being sacks. He came down with one interception, one fumble recovery, and four pass breakups on the year. Coney’s performance has been good enough to make him a Third Team All American. He stands at 6 feet 4 inches, 240 pounds, and is a very explosive player. He had double-digit tackle totals in five of ND’s dozen games: 10 vs. Michigan, 14 vs. Ball State, 14 at Navy, 10 at Northwestern, and 12 vs Syracuse.

Other notes:

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• Notre Dame is the first team outside of the Power Five conferences to earn a berth in the College Football Playoff. The value of conference championships regarding playoff spots has been up for debate lately, and the 12-0 Irish are the second team to enter the playoff without a conference championship on the resume (Alabama last year was the first). It shouldn’t really shock anyone that Notre Dame is the inaugural non-P5 playoff team, as they have much higher of a profile than Group of Five teams such as, I don’t know, UCF as a definitely random example, or other Independent teams such as BYU and Army. If there was one team to break the apparent “P5 rule” the majority of people would have bet the house on it being the Irish.

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• Head Coach Brian Kelly seemed to be under some fire after Notre Dame’s 4-8 season in 2016. But what a turnaround it’s been, as the Irish finished last year with a 10-3 record, topped off by a Citrus Bowl victory over LSU. And then this year obviously has been so far, so good. Kelly earned this year’s honor of The Associated Press college football Coach of the Year, as well as the 2018 Home Depot College Football Coach of the Year award. He’s clearly done an excellent job, leading his squad to the playoff with zero regular season losses. I do think Kelly is at a slight disadvantage when it comes to recruiting for a school like Notre Dame. Sure, there’s a wildly rich history of football in South Bend, Indiana. But it’s still South Bend, Indiana. They don’t have the recruiting tools that some of these massive public universities have, whether it be pool parties, generally nice weather, wild nightlife scenes, etc. And you may think the Irish are at an advantage by being able to pitch a great education to recruits. But guess what? Any recruit that is planning a road to the NFL will not really be too concerned with the quality of their potential degree. So for Brian Kelly to get his guys a spot in the final four is impressive to say the least.

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•  It’s probably a bit stale to bring up, but it’s absolutely noteworthy that the last time the Fighting Irish were on a stage this big, after an undefeated regular season, things did not go well. Alabama absolutely wiped the floor with the Irish in a 42-14 thrashing. I’ve written before how the focus on that game really should be more about how good ‘Bama was, rather than about how poorly ND performed. It’s also completely erroneous to say that ND didn’t belong in that national title game. Ohio State was undefeated that season, but was on a postseason ban. Oregon looked to be a national title contender all year until losing to Stanford, preventing them from playing in the conference championship. So it came down to a one-loss Oregon team without a conference championship, or an undefeated Notre Dame team. They deserved to be there, but Alabama was just so clearly superior to anyone that could’ve showed up on that field. Luckily for the Irish, their return to the national spotlight does not include Alabama for now. But if they plan on shining in the spotlight and beating Clemson, Alabama will most certainly be the next challenge. But for now, all focus is on the No. 2 Clemson Tigers.

via GIPHY