After 12 regular-season games, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are 11-1 and on the cusp of making their third trip in four years to the college football playoff — should a few things go their way this weekend. When the playoff rankings were released this week, the Irish were jumped by the Oklahoma State Cowboys less than 24 hours after we found out Brian Kelly was leaving for the LSU Tigers, and it really felt like people were trying to close the book on the 2021 Notre Dame football season.
That all took a drastic change on Wednesday.