Can we consider the 2019 Notre Dame football season a success?
The 2019 Notre Dame football season was a roller-coaster. Can we call it a succuss?
What we already knew is now official. Notre Dame is headed to Orlando, where the Irish will play in the Camping World Bowl. The opponent, a 5-loss Iowa State team. The most interesting storyline might even be that Matt Campbell, the Iowa State coach, is who some fans want to replace Brian Kelly with.
They want to move on from Kelly because they’re sick of ‘disappointing’ seasons. They want some big game success. They want National Championships.
Still, 10 wins has always been a barometer for what college football teams judge successful seasons by. So, should we look at 2019 as a successful season?
Everyone looked at Notre Dame has having three difficult games on the schedule. They were road games against Georgia, Michigan, and Stanford. Stanford turned out to be awful, so replace that with Orange Bowl participant Virginia as a third very difficult game.
With an over under of 9.5 wins for the season, winning one of those three difficult games and not tripping up elsewhere would mean the Irish met outside expectations. That’s just what Notre Dame did, going 10-2 with losses to Georgia and Michigan.
Maybe they didn’t exceed expectations in the regular season, but from a purely win/loss standpoint, they did exactly what they should have this season. They also didn’t trip up in tricky games against teams like Louisville, Navy, or Virginia Tech.
If it wasn’t for extreme parity in college football, the Irish would be headed to a New Year’s Six Game. The last time Notre Dame won 10 games and didn’t play in a major bowl game was in 2002, under Tyrone Willingham.
2019 was just a freak year, which kept Notre Dame down in the Camping World Bowl.
The other big disappointment was the Michigan game. Notre Dame may not have been favored to win this game in August, but they were heading into the game. The Irish had a bye week leading into Michigan, and the Wolverines came in off another big game loss. With a chance to put Michigan’s season out of its misery, Notre Dame didn’t just lose, they were humiliated.
That humiliation has left a sour taste in everyone’s mouths that just won’t go away. However, that shouldn’t mean this season is a failure. Add in a Camping World Bowl loss to a 5 loss Iowa State team, and then the season is a disappointment.
If Notre Dame wins the Camping World Bowl, the season would not necessarily become a successful one either. There’s no way around the fact that a middle tier bowl game is disappointing. There’s no way to get the Michigan loss out from behind our eyelids.
No, 2019 will be remembered as a season where Notre Dame hit expectations, and got an unlucky bowl game bid. It may seem weird to say, but 11-2 won’t have been successful, but instead a standard season. That said, 10-3 would be a failure.