Alabama trounced Notre Dame on Friday night in the Rose Bowl, winning 31-14. It was even more lopsided before the Irish scored a late touchdown.

So, understandably, Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was asked a lot about the talent gap between the Tide and the Irish.

But, he also had some praise for the Tide, saying they made a lot more plays than the Irish did on Friday evening:

“Congratulations to Alabama. They’re a fine football team. They made the plays today,” Kelly said, via ASAPSports.com. “Today was about making plays. They made them on the perimeter. Their skill players showed up today as they have all year. Made it difficult for us. We battled. I thought we did some of the things that we wanted to today. But we simply didn’t make enough plays. We’re going to continue to battle, continue to recruit, and continue to put ourselves in this position to win a National Championship. So, again, proud of my guys. Proud of the way they battled today against a very good football team. And just wish we made a couple more plays when we had the opportunity.”

Notre Dame is a talented program. However, it’s clear Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson have more talent up and down the roster.

Can the Irish get back to the Playoff next year? We’ll see what happens moving forward.