Notre Dame football program takes a hit after upset loss to NIU in home opener

SOUTH BEND − Hold on tight and pray. Hold on tight and breathe. Hold on tight and don’t let go.

The Irish let go.

Nowhere was any of that expected for Notre Dame, who is ranked No. 7 in the LBM Coaches Poll, but that’s what we got Saturday at home against Northern Illinois. Just when you think you know this Irish program, you don’t know.

This one was supposed to be easy. Supposed to be a breeze. Supposed to be a day when a lot of Irish got in the game. No one saw Northern Illinois 16, Notre Dame 14 coming. That’s what we got. That’s what the Irish deserved.

Allowing Northern Illinois’ Kanon Woodill to kick a 35-yard field goal with 31 seconds remaining in this one was a kick right to you-know-where for Notre Dame. Truth be told, the Irish didn’t do enough to deserve this one. Northern Illinois went and took it.

There’s too much money wrapped up in this roster — with the players, with the head coach, with the coordinators, with the supports staff, with everything — to watch what we watched in Saturday’s first half, then at times in the second.  Turns out money indeed can’t buy happiness. Or pave a seemingly clear path to the College Football Playoff. Just when you think Notre Dame is good and right and back where it belongs, Saturday happens.

Want some disappointment with that Saturday dinner?

Notre Dame elite? That was a nice storyline for a week. Maybe again in October. Or November. Step away from the national spotlight and get better, if better is possible.

Northern Illinois Huskies kicker Kanon Woodill kicks the game winning field goal in the fourth quarter against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Someone somewhere had to tell somebody somewhere else to start the halftime promo on the videoboard as soon as possible. Like, NOW! Doing so helped drown out many of the boos that followed the Irish off…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/notre-dame-football-program-takes-232821508.html

Author : USA TODAY Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-07 23:28:21

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