Notre Dame Football: How the Irish can reach elite status in college football

In recent years, Notre Dame football has flirted with being considered among the nation’s elite. How can the Irish take the next step to serious contention?

The way a program is perceived in college football is everything. If a team is perceived to be great entering a season, it has more room for error. On the other hand, if a team is presumed to be weaker entering the season, they can afford no mistakes. Alabama is a good example of a team that gets a mulligan every season simply because of perception. Right now, the Notre Dame football program falls under the category of unable to afford a mistake.

There was a time when Notre Dame fell under that category of given a mulligan because at one time, the Irish were perceived as annually elite. That really hasn’t been since Lou Holtz roamed the Notre Dame sidelines. For many young players, they weren’t alive at that time. This means that the high schoolers that coach Brian Kelly is recruiting don’t think of the Irish as an elite program. They see Notre Dame as a good program, with good fans, high academic standards, and failure in the biggest moments.

On the other hand, other programs like Clemson and Alabama can tell high schoolers that they’ll win a National Championship there, and these recruits believe it, because they remember it. Even a school like Florida has the memory of being elite to sell to recruits, while Notre Dame is left with only echoes. Meanwhile, Notre Dame maintains an academic standard, which is not standard among the college football powers. Look at how North Carolina handled academic for years, through fraud and academic dishonesty to put players on the field.

In short, it’s harder to recruit to Notre Dame than other major programs.

The way to make it easier to recruit at Notre Dame is, in part, how the Irish recruited before. By saying, “Come here, and win. You’ll get an elite degree, and if you work hard, you’ll have a better shot at the NFL than anyone else.”

So far, two-thirds of that statement is still true. Notre Dame is still, obviously, an elite degree. Furthermore, Notre Dame is still as good a path the NFL as any other program. Two Notre Dame offensive linemen went in the top 10 of the NFL draft in 2018, which is unheard of for one offensive line in a single draft.

However, winning when it really matters has eluded Notre Dame. For that simple fact, so has a consistently elite recruiting class. Notre Dame has had very good recruiting classes, but not elite. In the same way Notre Dame has had undefeated regular seasons, with embarrassing bowl losses. That means they had a great season, not an elite one.

In college football, the elite stay elite, the terrible stay terrible, and the very good stay very good. The perception of a program places them in their cycle. For instance, the perception of Illinois. They’re seen as a bottom tier BIG 10 team, and that’s just how they are and will be. That’s despite they get similar amounts of money, and access as a program like Wisconsin gets in the same division of their conference. However, their programs are in very different states.

How does Notre Dame step back into the elite category?

In general, there’s a few ways to change your place in regards to perception. The first is to look at your coach. A coach can tank a program, and it can rebuild a program. Before Jeff Monken was at Army, they were a pushover. Now, they’re a feared academy. In the reverse, look at Scottie Montgomery at ECU, now fired. Under Ruffin McNeill, they Pirates were a solid mid-major. They wanted to break from that perception, and take the role of elite G5 program. It backfired, and now they’re seen as a consistent loser, and it only took one coach to change that perception.

This asks the question of Brian Kelly, is he good enough to make Notre Dame elite? It also begs the question, what happens if the next coach tanks the program?

Truth be told, Brian Kelly is the best person for the job right now. He has a passion for the school, and understands its culture better than trying to convince a new coach to buy into it. It’s simply safer to stick with Kelly, and let him figure out getting over the hump.

Another way to help get better recruits and change perception of a program is to upgrade facilities. Kentucky’s rise this season was largely due to their investment in facilities. It wasn’t because players saw Kentucky as their best chance to win the SEC, but because they had elite facilities.

A great fan base and exciting game day culture, also draws in recruits. Being able to fill an on-campus stadium has helped UCF recruit lately. Their rival, USF, is left to play in an empty, rented stadium and finds it tougher to recruit than it should be for a team in Tampa Bay.

Again, Notre Dame is all set here, as the Irish already have excellent facilities, and an excellent fan base. The atmosphere is widely known, and Notre Dame Stadium is consistently beautiful and full. There’s nothing to fix for Notre Dame.

Truly, the only thing that needs to be fixed for Notre Dame, to be seen as elite, is to win more bowl games and win more major games, in general. The Irish can’t just be a consistent 10-win team. They’ll need to upset a few teams. They’ll need to upset Georgia this season. They’ll need to at least play a team like Clemson tough, going forward. If Notre Dame gets a shot at a Florida or an Ohio State, they need to win.

That’s the only way that Notre Dame will be seen as elite, again, and no longer just a step below the elite programs.

It then does fall on Brian Kelly to take slightly lower recruiting classes, and beating these other programs. He needs to out-coach someone like Lincoln Riley. Otherwise, Notre Dame won’t ever get over the hump, and win another National Championship.