Enough with the Ohio State angst, time for Notre Dame football to move past that
DURHAM, N.C. — Somewhere on the ascent out of the college football abyss this week, after the agony and angst, after the devastation and disappointment, after the heartache and hurt, the healing started for the No. 11 Notre Dame football team.
Maybe it was Sunday, barely 12 hours after the Irish were inches away from beating No. 4 Ohio State. Maybe it lingered until Monday, when players filtered back over to the Guglielmino Complex for lunch or a lift or to check in with their position coaches and reassure them, reassure themselves, that all was good.
Certainly, it was good by Tuesday, a day that offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said was necessary to rinse the filth of the loss and get back to doing football stuff.
Pod of Gold: Putting the Ohio State debacle to rest and looking ahead to Duke
By Saturday, if all went according to plan the rest of the week back home in Indiana, then on another trip to North Carolina, everything would again be all right in the Irish football world. Because on Saturday, Notre Dame has a chance to play another football game. It has a chance to win a football game.
Right now, at 4-1 with seven weeks of the regular season remaining, that’s all the Irish want. That’s all they need.
Eye on Four: Players to watch when Notre Dame football visits Duke
Once the fog and frustration of failure lifted — yeah, we know, Notre Dame played the final two snaps against Ohio State a defender short — there was something waiting, something maybe the Irish couldn’t or wouldn’t see in the immediate hours as their season went a little sideways.
Opportunity.
Opportunity brings optimism. From the coaches. From the players. From the fan base (maybe). Optimism that a season that tumbled off the tracks seven days earlier can get back on and continue rolling toward a destination still unknown.
Outside linebacker Jack Kiser, who’s seen and solved his share of challenges during his five seasons, sensed that by Monday, Notre Dame was headed back toward being what it wasn’t on Saturday – a good football team. An even-more together football team. Maybe a dominant football team, something we haven’t yet seen this season.
Monday was only one step, but it was a major one.
“No one was going to sulk in their misery,” Kiser said. “Guys were excited to get back in here, get on the field, get in the film room and ready to move on and show that we can play a lot better football and we’re going to be a really good team.”
A good team that still has much good to do. A perfect season is gone and not coming back, at least maybe not until 2024 and whatever that holds. But (checks the 2023 schedule) there are seven guaranteed opportunities left for these Irish. Seven opportunities to play a football game; seven opportunities to win a football game.
Why not rip off seven straight and go 11-1? Why not Notre Dame?
“We talk about how we want to write a special story, make a special journey,” Kiser said. “You can’t really have something special without a little adversity. We’re trying to reach our full potential. We didn’t get there last week, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t be a great team and reach that full potential at some point this season.”
One play, one life. It’s been this group’s motto since spring. It sounded snappy — OK, sappy — during preseason camp and August and for much of September, but it takes on a whole new meaning after last week.
One play, one life? Better live it. Better believe it.
“Now we have to actually do it,” Kiser said of moving forward. “We can’t sulk in the past. We have to move forward.”
Saturday would be a good place to start, a time to see an Irish team that we haven’t seen yet this season. Not against Navy in Ireland. Not at home against Tennessee State or Central Michigan. Not down here in the Triangle three weeks earlier in the rain delay at North Carolina State. Certainly not last weekend.
Notre Dame is overdue to put everything together and leave another team feeling like it’s been flattened by an 18-wheeler. Maybe it’s Audric Estime behind the wheel. Or Sam Hartman, who finally looked human last time out. Or someone on the defense, which was left gashed and gutted by Ohio State’s final drive.
Put it all behind, put all that agony and angst, that devastation and disappointment, that heartache and hurt, and go play a football game. Don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Leave the other team sorry that it got Notre Dame at the wrong place and at the wrong time.
This is more about beating Duke than it is about not beating Ohio State.
“If we let one loss to Ohio State affect the rest of our season, we’re going to look back and say, man, we should’ve done this, we should’ve done that,” said sixth-year safety D.J. Brown. “At the end of the day, everything’s in the driver’s seat for us.”
If anyone in that program had reason to hide from the media’s cameras and questions and recorders this week, it was Brown. He dropped a sure interception that would’ve cemented a legacy in Notre Dame football lore (see, Wooden Shawn, 1993). That Wooden moment then was Brown’s now. He didn’t make the play, but he didn’t shy away from owning that he didn’t make the play.
On Tuesday, Brown answered every question with the class and commitment of somebody twice his age. That’s some serious stand-up stuff from a player in a locker room full of them.
That’s what matters now and next week and the week after and the rest of the way – what Notre Dame COULD be. Not what it COULDN'T do.
“The guys here know what’s really at stake and know that everything we want this season, the ultimate goal is still reachable, still attainable,” said Kiser, a voice of reason if there ever was one. “We just have to focus on what we can, what we can control, and the rest is going to be up to … whatever.”
No, not whatever. The rest is up to the same group that let the last game get away.
It’s up to the Irish.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
No. 11 Notre Dame (4-1) vs. No. 17 Duke (4-0)
When: Saturday, Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m. EDT
Where: Wallace Wade Stadium (40,004), Durham, N.C.
Rankings: Notre Dame is ranked No. 11 in AP poll and No. 13 in the US LBM Coaches Polls. Duke is ranked No. 17/16.
TV: ABC
Radio: WSBT (960 AM), WNSN (101.5 FM)
Line: Notre Dame opens as a 5.5-point favorite
Series: Notre Dame leads all-time series 5-2
Last meeting: No. 10 Notre Dame defeated Duke, 27-13, on Sept. 12, 2020 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame football looks to carry on after Ohio State collapse
