Brian Kelly did not know No. 2 Notre Dame’s regular season would end this week much before anyone else did. The Irish head coach learned the ACC had canceled a make-up date at Wake Forest on Dec. 12 only as he left practice Tuesday, and up until that point, Kelly had anticipated both Notre Dame (9-0, 8-0 ACC) would make that trip and No. 3 Clemson would take a flight to Florida State for its own make-up game.
As long as both those games occurred, Kelly was looking forward to facing the Demon Deacons next week.