Brian Kelly and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are flying under the radar, at least to some extent. Of course, the Irish are never truly anonymous given their massive national profile but, after a close-fought loss to the Georgia Bulldogs (on a night when there were several games at the same time), Notre Dame really is not in the center of the college football conversation.
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However, Pat Forde of Yahoo is not so quick to bury the Irish and, in fact, he wants to keep an eye on them for the College Football Playoff.
"Fighting Irish have a single loss by a single point to a good team, and five dominant victories. Running game is powerful, defense is improved. Some big opportunities in the second half of the season: USC Oct. 21, N.C. State Oct. 28, Miami Nov. 11, Navy Nov. 18, Stanford Nov. 25. Get through that gauntlet without a loss and the Irish are in the playoff."
With the way Georgia has looked in the early going, Notre Dame does have a "good" loss and they have every opportunity to rack up quality wins with the aforementioned schedule in the future. It has to be noted that it is a big leap to make to assume that the Irish will run the table but, if they do, this idea isn't at all crazy.
Notre Dame wouldn't have the benefit of a conference title but, if the team knocks off USC, Miami, Stanford and others on the way to 11-1, buckle up.
