Notre Dame football: Biggest underdog matchups in the Brian Kelly era

The Notre Dame football team has been big underdogs before, and as we inch closer to the Rose Bowl, here is how they fared in those games.

Notre Dame football started as a 19.5 point underdog in the 2021 Rose Bowl, where they will take on No. 1 Alabama. For those that don’t gamble, that means that oddsmakers feel you have to give Notre Dame 19.5 points to beat the Crimson Tide.

Under Brian Kelly, it’s been rare that Notre Dame comes into a game as the underdog, and even rarer that they were this big an underdog. It’s worth going back and looking at how those games turned out to see how the Irish reacted to being doubted, and how well Kelly can get his team to rise to the occasion.

Beating Alabama will be a monumental task, but crazier things have happened. Notre Dame just needs to limit mistakes and make sure that they’re prepared to limit Alabama’s explosiveness. If they can come out swinging, and don’t let Alabama gain momentum early,  they can stop this game from snowballing out of control.

The Crimson Tide have a funny way of overwhelming opponents early, putting them in holes they can’t climb out from all game long.

It will be interesting to see if Notre Dame can pull off the upset, but in the meantime, it’s worth looking to see how Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame teams have done in the past as a major underdog. So, here are a few notable games where the Irish were big underdogs under Kelly.