Tag: Notre Dame Irish Football

Kirk Herbstreit releases updated top six college football rankings

Kirk Herbstreit puts the Georgia Bulldogs, Notre Dame, Alabama, Clemson, and more in his top six college football rankings.

ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit released his latest top six rankings following week nine action.

Herbstreit puts Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, and Georgia among his top four. These teams would make his hypothetical College Football Playoff with BYU and Notre Dame on the outside looking in.

Last week, Alabama dominated Mississippi State in a shut out victory. Ohio State comfortably won over Big Ten contender Penn State, Clemson needed a comeback victory to prevail over Boston College, and Georgia won in a 14-3 snoozefest over Kentucky.

Herbstreit announced his rankings via his Twitter account:

Oklahoma State also fell to Texas in an overtime loss, which puts the Cowboys’ College Football Playoff hopes on life support. The Big 12 likely won’t have a participant in the playoff.

Next week’s college football games feature a few contests among top rated teams. Firstly, in the ACC, Notre Dame faces Clemson for the top position in the conference. The duo could have a rematch in the ACC Championship as well.

In another must-watch game, the Georgia Bulldogs face the Florida Gators in Jacksonville, Florida in a game that will probably decide the SEC East. Will either one of these teams be able to beat Alabama in a potential SEC Championship Game?

Mac Jones and Alabama are looking like the National Championship favorite at the moment.

Jan 1, 2020; Orlando, Florida, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Mac Jones (10) throws the ball during the first quarter of the 2020 VRBO Citrus Bowl against the Michigan Wolverines at Camping World Stadium. Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports

[lawrence-auto-related count=1]

AP Writer Names Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly Top 3 Coach in Country

AP writer Ralph Russ ranked the Top 25 collegiate football coaches and was very high on Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly.

Although the NCAA has canceled all of their sports through the end of the academic year, there still will be conjecture as to who is the best coach in the NCAA. AP College Football writer Ralph Russo recently ranked his Top 25 coaches in the country.

The caveat here is that Russo does not rank first or second year coaches, otherwise the list would be somewhat different. Either way, to see Brian Kelly’s name along after Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney should make Notre Dame fan’s very happy about how high Russo is on the Irish’s leader.

Kelly in his tenure at Notre Dame is 71-37, and his total career record after previous stops at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan and Cincinnati is 242-93-2. There are 21 wins that don’t show up on Kelly’s career record that were vacated as well and if you add in those wins, his time in South Bend looks even better at 92-37, the losses in those seasons are added into his overall record.

When you look at the 92-37 record, Kelly sports a .718 winning percentage, which might not be exactly what Irish fans are looking for, but after a disastrous 2016, Kelly make drastic changes to his coaching staff. Those changes have resulted in three straight 10 win plus seasons, an appearance in the College Football Playoff and Top 15 finishes in each year. Those are the kind of results most Notre Dame fans expect, and if Kelly can continue his recent trend of winning at a high level, Irish fans will be extremely pleased.