In its last chance to make an impression on the playoff committee, third-ranked Notre Dame presented its case extremely well. And very impressively.
Whether their entire body of work will be enough for the committee, though, remains to be seen.
Through two quarters of play, Notre Dame was cruising over Navy (2-6) and held a 27-0 halftime lead. While the Midshipmen closed to within 15 at 37-22 early in the fourth quarter, the Fighting Irish pulled away for a 44-22 win. The win was the Irish’s eighth straight to open 2018 and ninth straight dating back to the 2017 season.
Ian Book, who should be tossed into the Heisman Trophy mix any day now, had another stellar performance, passing for 330 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another 50 (yards, not touchdowns). All told the Irish put up 584 yards of total offense and averaged 5.9 yards on their 43 carries.
Navy came into the game third in the nation averaging 309.4 yards rushing per game, and put up 293 (6.1 ypc) in the loss. Malcolm Perry led the Midshipmen with 133 yards on the ground; the Fighting Irish’s Dexter Williams led all ball carriers 142 yards.
With the dust (just about) settled on Week 9, there are four remaining unbeaten teams at the FBS level -- Notre Dame, No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Clemson and No. 10 UCF. It’s a veritable certainty that Alabama will be in the top four of the first College Football Playoff Top 25, set to be released Tuesday night. Just as certain is UCF won’t be in the first four; in fact, they could very well find themselves outside of the initial Top 10.
And Notre Dame? The win over No. 5 Michigan in the season opener certainly helps; outside of that, though, the Fighting Irish’s current résumé is thin -- and that’s being kind. Just two of their other six wins have come against teams that have a winning record (5-3 Stanford, 4-3 Virginia Tech) and another two right at .500 (Pitt and Wake Forest, both 4-4).
The biggest question, though, still won’t be answered for another five weeks: If Notre Dame runs the table -- they have games against 5-3 Northwestern, 4-4 Florida State, 6-2 Syracuse and 4-4 USC remaining -- will they earn one of the four playoff berths? Not having a 13th game in the form of a conference championship will have an effect on their chances; just how much it would affect a 12-0 Fighting Irish is one of the great college football unknowns.