Recharged Irish get back to work
This is as fresh as No. 3 Notre Dame will feel for the rest of the regular season.
The Fighting Irish (7-0) are coming off a bye that coincided with a mid-fall break from classes. That allowed players to return home to visit their families and coaches to hit the recruiting trail.
Now, it’s back to work for Notre Dame, which has climbed one more spot in the rankings as it eyes an undefeated season and a possible championship title. They will kick off against Navy (2-5) on Saturday evening in San Diego in what will mark the 92nd annual game between the programs.
Navy has knocked off the Fighting Irish three times in the past decade (2009, 2010, 2016).
“These are battles,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said to reporters this week. “They play extremely well against us. We’ll have to be at our best playing a complete football team that plays hard for four quarters. That’s my piece as it relates to Navy — the respect we have for the Academy, for Ken (Niumatalolo), their football team.”
Kelly cannot deny that the buzz is building around his program. It is not the first time Notre Dame has roared to a fast start, but Kelly is trying to avoid the late-season stumble that has plagued his program in recent years.
The Fighting Irish and No. 1 Alabama are the only two undefeated teams in the nation that have played only FBS competition thus far. Notre Dame does not have any ranked teams left on its regular-season schedule.
Kelly declined to compare his current group with previous teams that could not close out a championship.
“Each year is a different year,” Kelly said. “It’s a different group. I’ve talked to the guys that are in this row, different than last year’s front row, the year before. It’s a different group.
“What the common dominators are have everything to do with how they prepare and then how they execute. Quite frankly, it’s a group that has really done a really good job of preparation. They understand that execution at the end of the day on Saturdays is really about what this is about.
“I just think from my perspective this is a different group than the ones that I’ve had in past years. Doesn’t mean it’s better. Doesn’t mean it’s worse. We just focus on what’s in front of us, and that’s today.”
