Notre Dame football has a long, proud history. The Fighting Irish are a national brand, attracting fans from all corners of both the United States and the globe. They regularly sell out Notre Dame Stadium, and often contend for major bowls and national championships. What’s also impressive about all this is that Notre Dame is the only significant football program to do this without joining a conference of other collegiate teams.
This time last year, during my senior year at Notre Dame, I typed away on this same keyboard following Notre Dame’s 11-2 season. I made the argument that Notre Dame fans needed to recognize the elite position the program was in and that the team could win a national championship in the next two seasons.
Kyren Williams’ journey to being named the ACC Rookie of the Year didn’t come easily. Redshirted as a freshman and facing a pandemic as a sophomore made his position within the running back room an uncertainty at the start of the season.
For Notre Dame football, the 2020 season promised to be unlike any other in the team’s 133-year history — and not just because it was set to be played during a pandemic.
Given the circumstances: a new offensive coordinator, brand new offensive skill position starters across the board, and limited offseason practices, it was unrealistic to expect the Irish offense to come out firing on all cylinders in their first game. With that being said, as No. 7 Notre Dame prepared for another home contest against the University of South Florida, there were still plenty of questions to be answered.
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For the first time in over 27 years, Notre Dame football defeated the No. 1 ranked team in the nation with a thrilling double-overtime victory over the Clemson Tigers.
On Dec. 19, the undefeated Fighting Irish arrived at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., marking the beginning of the playoff season for the team. The ACC Championship set the stage for the highly anticipated Notre Dame-Clemson rematch, after the No. 4 Irish defeated the then-No. 1 Tigers during their regular season matchup in South Bend.
It was a matchup that was supposed to happen on Sept. 26 at Wake Forest, but because of COVID-19, the game was rescheduled to Dec. 12. Unfortunately, seven Notre Dame football players tested positive for the virus several days before the originally scheduled game, which resulted in the isolation of 13 players. Furthermore, the Notre Dame football program wanted to ensure the safety of the rest of its players, so it paused all football-related activities for several days. Head coach Brian Kelly stated that “with student-athlete health and safety our primary focus, we will continue to follow our prevention protocols and ongoing testing procedures.” In the meantime, it was time for the team to redirect its attention to the upcoming game against Florida State.
A week before their final regular season game against a struggling Syracuse Orange team, the Irish had been notified that they would be competing in the ACC Championship regardless of the result. Nevertheless, there was plenty to play for.
After a well-deserved bye week, the No. 2 Irish (8-0) traveled down to Chapel Hill for a Friday afternoon game against the No. 19 North Carolina Tar Heels (6-2). Notre Dame came into the game off of two of their best wins of the year but also had given up 71 points in those two games, which was more than they had allowed in the first six games. This could’ve been a major problem, as the Tar Heels touted a strong offense led by their two star running backs: Javonte Williams and Michael Carter.
There were many factors to consider before Notre Dame’s game against Boston College: it was only Notre Dame’s third away game of the season, it was quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s opportunity for revenge against his former school, and it took place a week after Notre Dame’s thrilling double-overtime win against No. 1 Clemson. The setting felt eerily similar to the 1993 Boston College upset against the Fighting Irish only a week after Notre Dame’s win in the “Game of the Century” against No. 1 Florida State. Despite Notre Dame being projected as a 13-point favorite, these factors combined to make many Irish fans feel nervous before kickoff.
Notre Dame’s 42-14 loss to Alabama in the 2013 national championship game marked the nascence of murmurs that, maybe, the Irish weren’t cut out for the big games. Those murmurs began to crescendo over the years as Notre Dame lost top-10 matchups against Florida State (2014), Ohio State (2015), Miami (2017) and Clemson (2018). Add in two close losses to Georgia (2017, 2019), two last second losses to Stanford (2015) and Clemson (2015) along the way and by the time No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 1 Clemson met inside Notre Dame Stadium in 2020 the roars were loud and clear: “Notre Dame can’t win a big game,” “Notre Dame doesn’t belong with college football’s elite.”
Facing a mediocre 2-5 team with the Clemson matchup on the horizon, No. 4 Notre Dame’s game against Georgia Tech had the markings of a trap game. But in order to stay on track for a playoff berth, the Fighting Irish needed to handle business in Atlanta on Halloween.
A month and a half after their first game, with a season-threatening COVID-19 outbreak in between, the undefeated No. 3 Fighting Irish were finally forced to leave the friendly confines of Notre Dame Stadium and go on the road to face the Pittsburgh Panthers.
After cruising through the first three games, No. 4 Notre Dame hit its first major roadblock of the season versus Louisville. Against the backdrop of future foe Clemson’s 73-7 rout of Georgia Tech, the Irish (4-0, 3-0) survived against the Cardinals (1-4, 0-4) 12-7. The team extended the FBS-longest active winning streak to 10 games, but with a matchup against No. 1 Clemson looming on the horizon, the win was anything but far-reaching.
By the time No. 5 Notre Dame received the opening kickoff against Florida State under the lights inside Notre Dame Stadium, it had been three full weeks since the Irish last played.