Notre Dame football has NIU to thank for potential playoff run, analyst says

If things keep going this way for the Notre Dame football team. If the Fighting Irish end up making the playoffs. Analyst J.D. Pickell knows who they should thank.

It's not Riley Leonard. It's not Marcus Freeman. It's certainly not the people that are making the brackets.

So who should Notre Dame football thank if they make the playoffs? Pickell believes they'll owe a big thank you to Northern Illinois.

Notre Dame football owes Northern Illinois a massive thank you

"Every single game after NIU, they understood it' s a playoff game," Pickell said on his show last week. "We got to be locked in. And here' s the thing, man. Like, when do you bring your best to the table more often than not? Or when do you command the most of yourself from a preparation standpoint when there' s high stakes? The final exam, right? The playoff game. The loser leaves town kind of situation."

"Notre Dame has been in fight or flight since week two of the college football season," the analyst added. "Since they lost to NIU, they understood now, hey, if we want to get to where we want to go, we got to win out. And there' s been multiple times where I ve been a little bit concerned about Notre Dame and been like, I don' t know."

"Like, Louisville, it's a good football team. We win... Like, they have responded as well as I think you can respond to that kind of situation or that kind of loss. Because at this point in time now, if Notre Dame was truly not who we thought they were post-A&M, it would have shown itself somewhere else besides NIU, right?"

In order to drive his point home, the analyst brought up another preseason Top 10 team that is on the Irish schedule.

"Think about Florida State. The Georgia Tech game happens and we're like, okay, hey, we'll see; kind of a weird situation. A lot of transfers, and not to throw us straight at Florida State, but, like, we've had very much so seen what they are now throughout the course of this season, and what' s happened there."

Notre Dame football has managed to avoid falling into the trap where it seemed like the season was lost. Now they're staring the playoffs straight in the face.