Falling Irish

Okay, Notre Dame has taken a hit in the polls and, as a result, in the BCS rankings. Is that a problem? Not if the Irish win out or, at least, play USC to a thriller loss.

But Saturday’s comeback against UCLA -- can you say thank you Brady Quinn (pictured) and Jeff Samardzija -- didn’t seem to impress the voters. Notre Dame dropped one spot, to No. 11, in the AP poll. It fell two spots in the USA Today coaches’ poll, to No. 10. It dropped to 10^th in the BCS standings, troubling considering only the top 8 are guaranteed a BCS berth (the top 12 get consideration).

The bottom line –- the Irish need impressive victories. They need to blow out teams by 20 or more points, and the schedule is soft enough for that to happen. Navy, North Carolina, Air Force and Army is not exactly a brutal stretch. Notre Dame needs to breeze through that and enter the season-ending USC battle with lots of momentum.

It would help if USC was unbeaten for that game, but the Irish can’t control that. They can control their performance and they need to be at their best the rest of the way, something that hasn’t been true so far.