Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.
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THE STORYLINE
It’s early October, so any discussion of the College Football Playoff might seem ridiculous but Notre Dame is good this season, very good, and could throw a wrench into the party.
After a slow but successful start with three single-digit wins over Michigan, Ball State and Vanderbilt, the Irish blew out Wake Forest on the road, 56-27, and dominated Stanford, 38-17, this past weekend.
The schedule remains challenging, but certainly winnable. A tough night game at Virginia Tech awaits this weekend. Pitt, at Navy, at Northwestern, home for Florida State and Syracuse and then at USC to close out the regular season is definitely doable.
Quarterback Ian Book, who replaced Brandon Wimbush as the starter after three games, has been dynamic both passing and running. He adds a completely different element to the Irish offense. The defense has been mean and dominant all season, only giving up more than 17 points once in five games and that was in a 29-point win against the Demon Deacons.
Notre Dame is currently ranked sixth in the country and there will be teams in front of them (Alabama and LSU for sure, almost certainly Georgia in the SEC title game) that play each other.
If Notre Dame goes undefeated, are the Irish certain to be in the Playoff?
TAKE ONE: LOU SOMOGYI, BLUEANDGOLD.COM
“With Book, there is now a symbiosis on offense, defense and special teams that has the team functioning as a complete unit and feeding off each other. The defense was going to be the linchpin of this team, special teams are improving and the offense is now operating the way Chip Long and Brian Kelly envisioned.
“If Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma and Ohio State all go unbeaten, I have a tough time seeing ND getting in because a foremost priority is a conference title, and I don’t know if ND’s strength of schedule this season could trump that. With that said, the odds of all four going 13-0 are extremely remote, and I don’t think it’s ever been done in college football history with four different major conference winners. If just one loses and ND runs the table, then ND would be in.”
TAKE TWO: MIKE FARRELL, RIVALS.COM
“If Notre Dame runs the table, they’re in with that schedule. I don’t think a one-loss Notre Dame gets in over a conference champion but if they go undefeated, they’re in. That is not good news for the ACC and the Big 12. We all know the SEC is going to be well-represented, we all know the Big Ten is going to be represented, the Pac-12 is already in huge trouble, so if Notre Dame goes in there, one of those two conferences - ACC or Big 12 - will be left out. It could be an undefeated team from those conferences.
“For Notre Dame to run the table,, that’s difficult with that schedule. If the Irish do that, they deserve to get in and somebody like Clemson or even Oklahoma, without a great schedule, should be left out.”
