Notre Dame Football: 20 biggest wins of the Brian Kelly era

Notre Dame Football: 20 biggest wins of the Brian Kelly era

2. Notre Dame 30, Oklahoma 13 (2012)

Just two weeks after beating Stanford in overtime, Notre Dame walked into Norman, Oklahoma as the underdog against the 8th ranked Sooners. A series of close games and offensive inconsistencies and struggles had a lot of people questioning if Notre Dame was a real threat on the national stage.

After all, it had been years since Notre Dame was in that elite category of teams. Oklahoma, meanwhile, had an absolutely explosive offense. The Sooners had scored over 40 points in four of their last five games, twice putting up more than 60.

They’d also had tons of success in recent years, winning the 2010 Fiesta Bowl and making the 2008-09 BCS National Championship Game.

Oklahoma would get on the board first, with a field goal. Notre Dame responded quickly with a Cierre Wood touchdown run of 62 yards. Then, the two exchanged field goals to take a 10-6 score to the half.

It was Notre Dame’s type of game, a defensive slugfest. Now-Tennessee head coach, then Oklahoma offensive coordinator, Josh Heupel was unable to get his high-speed spread offense out of the mud.

The second half started without any points in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, it would be Notre Dame who scored next, with a Kyle Brindza field goal, but Oklahoma would quickly tie the game at thirteen on a Blake Bell touchdown rush.

They would not score again.

Everett Golson broke the tie with a touchdown run before Theo Riddick put the game on ice with a touchdown run to make it 30-13. This game did a couple of things. First, it announced that the Irish offense wasn’t incompetent. Secondly, it said they could play with the top teams in the country, which helped bump the Irish in the polls and eventually end the season with the number 1 rankings.