Adjusting expectations: What can Notre Dame fans hope for now?
By Greg Hadley
Now that Notre Dame is all but eliminated from College Football Playoff consideration, what can Irish fans expect from the rest of the 2016 season?
Not to be the voice of doom, but with Notre Dame now standing at 1-2, Irish fans need to come to terms with the fact that their team is not going to make it to the College Football Playoff. It’s just not going to happen.
So please, please, please, stop thinking it’s going to happen. Do not, I repeat, do not, bend yourselves backwards trying to think of absurd ways the Irish might steal their way back into the top four. Do not do mental calculations in your head about how Texas needs to keep winning to make ND’s loss look good. Do not try to claim the national media is biased against the Irish. Just don’t do it.
On the other hand, don’t immediately abandon all hope and assume the Irish are fated to play out the rest of the year in a daze, hoping and praying for the Belk Bowl. Don’t say Brian Kelly is a terrible coach and you knew he should’ve been fired years ago, don’t trash DeShone Kizer or any of his teammates and don’t tune out either.
Because for the first time in a while, the Irish are three games into a season and pretty much anything could happen going forward. That’s terrifying for a fan, yes, but it’s also exciting. A New Years Six bowl is not out of the question if the Irish win out, but ND could also miss a bowl entirely. The Fighting Irish could land in the Pinstripe Bowl, the Belk Bowl, the Music City Bowl, the Orange Bowl or something else entirely. All results are within the realm of possibility.