Can Notre Dame Contend for BCS National Title?

With Notre Dame’s 13-6 victory over Michigan the Fighting Irish have now moved to 4-0 on the season and are off to their best start in a decade. Traditionally it is the Irish’s offense that has had them playing well and gaining national notoriety but surprisingly this season Notre Dame is winning with a dominating defense that isn’t allowing many points or yards and causing plenty of turnovers in the process.

With Notre Dame returning back to the college football limelight there is now talk that if they continue to win can they contend with the SEC and the other BCS conference’s for a shot at reaching the BCS Championship Game and possibly winning their first National Championship in over two decades. This is without question head coach Brian Kelley’s best shot at returning the Irish to their once dominant status during his tenure as the top guy within the program and he will undoubtedly attempt to continue using the defense as the main ingredient in attempting to cook up a BCS title winning recipe.

So far in Notre Dame’s four games this season they are only allowing 291.3 total offensive yards and just nine points per game while forcing their opponents into an average of 3.3 turnovers per game all while scoring 25.8 points per contest of their own. Two of their four victories have come against top 25 ranked competition (Michigan and Michigan State ranked 18^th and 11^th respectively at game time). Against Michigan and their star quarterback Denard Robinson (who had torched the Irish in two previous meetings) the Notre Dame defense gave up just 299 yards of total offense and forced six turnovers while allowing them to score just six points.

The only game that Notre Dame was truly in jeopardy of losing was the second contest of the season in which they pulled out a nail-biter versus a surprisingly good Purdue team by a score of 20-17. Other than that contest they have been victorious by at least a touchdown or more and in the case of their victory over Navy (50-10) much more.

Senior middle linebacker Manti Te’o is without question the heart and soul of this defensive unit and possibly the team and the Irish will go as far as he leads them. Te’o without question will be the top linebacker selected in the upcoming 2013 NFL Draft but if he can really strap this team on his back and take them as far as their talent level says they can go, look for him to possibly be one of the first few overall players selected.

The sky is the limit for this year’s Notre Dame team and with their defense looking like the top ranked unit in the country there is truly no telling how far this once proud program can go. It is very possible they could earn their first crystal football in school history, only time will tell and I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if they were able to pull it off.