2021 ND Football – Page 9 – Syndication Server

Notre Dame in top five of final USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll

“Rebuilding year”

Notre Dame didn’t make the College Football Playoff as we all expected after Georgia was unable to beat Alabama last night, but all things considered it was a rather successful regular season in South Bend.

Pretty much an entire offensive line was reworked, a new quarterback transferred in while a true freshman saw a bunch of time, and injuries were far from kind to the Fighting Irish. Yet they finished the year 11-1 and ranked fifth in the final College Football Playoff rankings as well as the USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll that was released on Sunday.

The entire USA TODAY AFCA Coaches Poll:

Alabama
Michigan
Georgia
Cincinnati
Notre Dame
Baylor
Ohio State
Mississippi
Oklahoma State
Michigan State
Utah
Pitt
Oklahoma
BYU
Oregon
Iowa
Louisiana
NC State
Wake Forest
Kentucky
Houston
Clemson
Texas A&M
Arkansas
UTSA

Others receiving votes: Wisconsin 105; Utah State 85; San Diego State 62; Minnesota 17; Air Force 15; Penn State 5; Fresno State 5; UCLA 3; Mississippi State 2; Coastal Carolina 2; Appalachian State 2; Purdue 1.

As of posting we’re still awaiting word on where Notre Dame will be headed for bowl season.

Notre Dame’s all-time bowl history

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College Football Playoff matchups made official

Notre Dame finishes as the maid of honor at No. 5

There wasn’t a lot of drama heading into Sunday as anyone who has followed college football to any extent whatsoever this year knew the four teams that we’re going to the College Football Playoff. It was the order of those four teams that was leaving us to wonder.

Notre Dame knew they’d be a hair short of an appearance after they didn’t get enough help on Saturday to get in. We’ll know in short order if it ends up being the Fiesta Bowl or the Peach Bowl for the Irish.

Here are the official College Football Playoff qualifiers for the 2021 season:

1. Alabama (12-1)

2. Michigan (12-1)

3. Georgia (12-1)

4. Cincinnati (13-0)

Matchups – December 31, 2021:
Cotton Bowl: No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 4 Cincinnati

Orange Bowl: No. 2 Michigan vs. No. 3 Georgia

Notre Dame finished ranked fifth while Ohio State was sixth.

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What bowl game will Notre Dame end up in?

Do you prefer the Peach Bowl or Fiesta Bowl for the Irish?

Notre Dame needed help to make the College Football Playoff entering Saturday and received some but not enough. As a result the four teams that will make the CFP appear to be obvious which leaves Notre Dame on the outside looking in.

So where will Notre Dame instead be headed?

As has been projected by many it will be one of two places: the Peach Bowl in Atlanta or the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.

If it is the Peach Bowl they’ll play old rival Pitt who beat Wake Forest 45-21 in the ACC Championship. If it’s the Fiesta Bowl it’ll likely be against Oklahoma State who fell to Baylor in the Big 12 title game.

It’s not what Notre Dame fans were hoping for entering Saturday but all things considered, 11-1 and headed to a very winnable New Years Six bowl game isn’t bad. Especially when you factor in the overhaul that occurred ahead of the 2021 season and as well as the week since the Irish finished their regular season at Stanford.

Related:

Notre Dame’s all-time bowl history

College Football Playoff Projection

Who gets in and who is out?

With college football’s conference championship games taking place this Saturday why wait until Sunday morning to project the College Football Playoff?

We can do it now as the games continue to play out.

Let’s start with the teams who aren’t in but remain alive and then seed the likely playoff teams based off what it appears their results are Saturday:

Thank you, Baylor – now enjoy the Fiesta Bowl

Thanks Baylor! Enjoy your trip to the Fiesta Bowl now!

Notre Dame fans are delighted this afternoon as the Baylor Bears knocked off Oklahoma State in the Big 12 championship and the Cowboys out of College Football Playoff contention. The win helps Notre Dame in that the Irish are now seemingly the fifth-rated team with No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Alabama set to play this afternoon and No. 2 Michigan and No. Cincinnati both also in action later today.

ESPN has started pushing this narrative on the broadcast and Five Thirty Eight, who we’ve followed the work of a lot this season, still aren’t buying into Notre Dame’s chances.

Five Thirty Eight has updated their College Football Playoff odds after the Big 12 championship game’s conclusion and now give Baylor a 58% chance to make the tournament while only giving Notre Dame a 23% shot.

Uhh, what?

Baylor has a great win over Oklahoma State. They also lost to Oklahoma State earlier in the year. Does that simply get erased because they beat them when given a second chance?

More importantly, their 30-28 loss at TCU (who finished 5-7) still occurred.

Here’s also a kind reminder that Baylor’s win over BYU was nice but in scheduling Texas Southern and Texas State out of conference they removed themselves from being able to claim their “13th data point” of the Big 12 championship carrying significant weight versus a Notre Dame team that played 12 games.

And who didn’t play Texas Southern.

I know they have more top-25 wins than Notre Dame as the Irish have none but are you seriously going to say that the TCU loss just gets erased? Notre Dame had some ugly wins along the way but do you realize what they did in all of those cases?

They won aside from a loss to Cincinnati, who very possibly will be a CFP team.

If wins and losses don’t matter then what are we really doing here?

If you’re a Notre Dame fan one of the two biggest dominoes that needed to fall Saturday has fallen. Now get rooting for Georgia to knock out Alabama and the Irish should be in business.

Assuming the cards weren’t already determined to be stacked against Notre Dame, anyway.

Baylor upset does Notre Dame huge favor!

Nobody in the nation was bigger Baylor fans today than Notre Dame and the Irish are happy with the result!

Baylor won the Big 12 championship with a thrilling 21-16 win over Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon. The Bears walk out of AT&T Stadium with the conference championship trophy but the biggest winner from the result is none other than Notre Dame.

The Irish, who entered championship weekend without a game to play and a lot of watching and rooting to do now have a more clear path to the College Football Playoff.

The loss eliminates Oklahoma State from playoff contention and theoretically moves Notre Dame up to fifth. Now Notre Dame shifts their focus to the SEC Championship where they’ll be huge Georgia fans this afternoon, hoping for the Dawgs to hand Alabama a second loss and bump the Tide from the top-four.

Stay tuned!

Is Brian Kelly finally about to hire a former assistant from Notre Dame?

Did Kelly finally get one Notre Dame staffer to come south?

Brian Kelly’s first few days on the LSU job probably haven’t gone as he would have expected as his staff of assistants at Notre Dame have largely come out and stated they’re staying in South Bend.

There is a very good chance that run is over for Notre Dame however with news that came out late Friday night as Kelly has fired longtime LSU strength coach Tommy Moffitt. Moffitt took over the position in 2000 and held it for LSU’s national championships in 2003, 2007, and 2019.

As Pete Sampson of The Athletic points out, this opens the door for Jacob Flint, who has been at Notre Dame since Kelly was hired in 2010. Flint is the director of strength and conditioning for Notre Dame. He walked on as a player at Central Michigan for Kelly before following him to Cincinnati and eventually Notre Dame in 2010.

Where there is smoke there would appear to be fire here. Kelly might be many things but he’s not going to fire a local legend like Moffitt if he doesn’t already have a replacement agreed upon.

Obviously you’d like to keep the perfect mark if you’re Notre Dame and not lose a single assistant in any category to Kelly and LSU but if you’re going to lose one, you’d imagine this one stings among the least as Matt Balis remains as the director of football performance.

We’ll keep you posted as to any developments that may come, as will our colleagues at LSU Tigers Wire.

Notre Dame rooting guide for conference championship weekend

5 reasons to love the Marcus Freeman hire

See It – Brian Kelly arrives in Baton Rouge

Watch: ‘Nick Saban’ congratulates ‘Brian Kelly’ on LSU job

Incredibly done…

Brian Kelly’s sudden southern accent that sounded more like something out of “The Waterboy” than any actual person from the south took over the college football social media world Thursday. Kelly had spoke at LSU’s basketball game the night before and the video started to really make it’s rounds.

By Friday morning Kelly was the butt of almost every joke related to college football and Joey Mulinaro of Barstool Sports took him to the woodshed in his new video of ‘Nick Saban’ congratulating ‘Brian Kelly.

Take a watch below as it’ll be two the best minutes you’ll spend today:

I don’t know if I should start with a slow clap or just go straight to a standing ovation. Simply incredible.

5 reasons Marcus Freeman is right choice for Notre Dame

College football world reacts to Freeman hiring becoming official

Twitter world roasts Brian Kelly for his sudden southern accent

Details emerge of Brian Kelly’s final Notre Dame recruiting trip

Details about Brian Kelly’s final recruiting visit as Notre Dame’s head coach emerge…

Tobias Merriweather will be the answer to a trivia question years from now.

“Who was the recruit that Brian Kelly was visiting right when news of him leaving for LSU came out?” will be the question.

Meg Wochnick of The Colombian has details on what wound up being Kelly’s final recruiting trip with Notre Dame and perhaps his most memorable.

Some highlights of her report include:

The Vancouver visit to Merriweather featured Kelly as well as Tommy Rees, Brian Polian, and wide receivers coach Del Alexander
The conversation included Kelly discussing his 2009 exit from Cincinnati but not once did him ever potentially leaving Notre Dame come up
Kelly left in the middle of the visit to take a phone call that lasted roughly 15 minutes
Kelly had three servings of the home-cooked burnt ends

Be sure to check out the full story by Wochnick for one of the crazier recruiting moments you’ll ever hear about.

Merriweather, a four-star wide receiver remains verbally committed to Notre Dame but says Michigan, UCLA, and a host of other programs have contacted him since Kelly’s departure.

I can’t wait for the documentary that comes out in a decade where Tommy Rees spills the beans as to what was said in the SUV when reports of Kelly’s exit surfaced.

There was no word in the report on if Kelly spoke on that 15-minute phone call with a southern accent or not.

5 reasons to love the Marcus Freeman hire

See It – Brian Kelly arrives in Baton Rouge

Notre Dame rooting guide for championship weekend

Which upset that Notre Dame needs to happen this weekend is most likely to occur?

You can go ahead and get excited about the future of Notre Dame football under new head coach Marcus Freeman but as Freeman himself said to the team when he spoke to them the first time as their head coach, “this is about right now!”.

And right now, entering college football’s championship weekend, Notre Dame has a chance at a College Football Playoff berth if things go as needed.

Friday night features a couple of games as Conference USA sees Western Kentucky battle UTSA for the league crown and Mario Cristobal may be coaching his final game at Oregon as the Ducks take on Utah in the Pac 12 championship.

There are then nine games on Saturday’s slate with four of them having a major impact on Notre Dame’s postseason destination. Here is a rooting guide for Notre Dame fans for those four games: