Rece Davis explains why it might be too early to dismiss Notre Dame's CFP chances
Rece Davis isn’t counting the Notre Dame Fighting Irish out as a team with the potential to make the College Football Playoff, even after the disappointment of their 16-14 loss to the Northern Illinois Huskies in Week 2.
There are problems abound for the team to fix with several woes on offense, but Davis doesn’t seem to see that as enough of a deterrent from making the postseason. The college football analyst recently weighed in on Notre Dame’s chances and put things in perspective.
“We are so far away from the end, you don’t know exactly how it’s gonna play out,” Davis said. “What if Notre Dame only loses one more, doesn’t lose again? Florida State gets things fixed. USC is in the mix in the Big Ten, maybe even makes the Big Ten championship game or they are a playoff contender themselves. Notre Dame beats them, and then the most important factor of it, what if Northern Illinois winds up being the MAC champion, and they are in the mix for the highest-ranked Group of 5 champion?”
Think @NDFootball is done? As a wise man says not so fast my friend. @CollegeGameDay pod with @PeteThamel here: https://t.co/GsqA6MLz1a @ESPNMcGee joins us. pic.twitter.com/9uqUDhm6QZ
— Rece Davis (@ReceDavis) September 11, 2024
At that point, Notre Dame’s loss to NIU may be viewed in a completely different light, making it look like not such a bad loss for the Fighting Irish in retrospect.
“Whether they get it or not is immaterial, not to them, but in terms of Notre Dame’s case. Maybe they’ll turn out to be pretty good,” Davis said. “And if they are, then all of a sudden, it’s still an upset, it’s still a bad loss at home after you win the big road game, but it’s not an inexplicable one.”
It’s easy to make snap judgements this early on in the football season, and Davis has a point. If Notre Dame can get back on track, the team may still have a chance of making it into the postseason.
Yes, week 2 is too early to draw any conclusions (such as, NC State is a good team). Even if NIU ends up being the MAC champion, I still don’t think that does much to mitigate the loss for ND. If NIU beats a few more top 10 teams, then maybe.