Notre Dame is chasing the rankings after week eight

Little by little

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish gave up a garbage touchdown to Georgia Tech that prevented them from covering double the spread of the game — but they still went home as 18 point winners. As the Irish continue on this journey to finish the regular season with an 11-1 record and ranked inside the top 8, they will need more game like that. They’re doing fine.

So how did the Irish opponents do this week?

#14 Texas A&M Aggies — WON vs Mississippi State Bulldogs (6-1) —
Northern Illinois — LOST vs Toledo Rockets (4-3) —
Purdue Boilermakers — LOST vs #1 Oregon Ducks (1-6) —
Miami Redhawks — WON vs Ohio Bobcats (3-4) —
Louisville Cardinals — LOST vs #6 Miami Hurricanes (4-3) —
Stanford Cardinal — LOST vs #22 SMU Mustangs (2-5) —
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets — LOST vs #12 Notre Dame (5-3) —
#24 Navy Midshipmen — WON vs Charlotte (6-0) —
Florida State Seminoles — LOST vs Duke Blue Devils (1-6) —
Virginia Cavaliers — LOST vs #9 Clemson Tigers (4-3) —
#23 Army Black Knights — WON vs East Carolina Pirates (7-0) —
USC Trojans — LOST vs Maryland Terrapins (3-4) —

There are still more undefeated and one loss teams than you’d like to see at this point in the season. Notre Dame has crushed its last two opponents by a combined score of 80-20 (ACC giants), and they still find themselves one spot lower than where they were before the two games at #12. The playoff rankings come out in a couple weeks — right after the cheeseburger bye week for the Irish. Maybe they’ll be some decent movement by then.