Notre Dame's Fighting Irish have good prospects for the Bowl

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Notre Dame star Manti T'eo

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Looks like the Irish are a lil bit lucky (with a fair amount a pluck mixed in) after all. The team overcame tremendous obstacles this season to reach college football promised land: a college bowl birth.

Notre Dame’s  success this season  seemed murky as the team found itself in a 1-3 start with little hope of postseason play. The Fighting irish managed to finish the season 7-5 and ended on a high note by rattling off three straight wins.

Brian Kelly looks back on how the Irish started off on the wrong cleat and managed to salvage their season.  Kelly commented" You look back at the 1-3 start. How'd we play after that? We stubbed twice (Navy and Tulsa) where maybe we shouldn't have, but our kids never blinked. They kept playing hard. They kept competing. That's why we are where we are."

Usually considered the Achilles heel of the team, the defense defense really came through and stepped up thanks to the new system invented by first-year defensive coordinator Bob Diaco. The Notre Dame defense showed remarkable improvement over the course of a year. The Fighting Irish total defense leaped from 88th to 55th in the nation from 2009 and 63rd to 33rd in scoring defense. Against Tulsa, Utah, and Army the Fighting Irish did not let up a touchdown in 13 straight quarters.

The defense has a heart and soul by the name of Manti T’eo who played against USC in spite of a broken nose last weekend. T’eo’s 123 tackles rank him 13th in the nation in that category. Also he has more than 40 tackles than any other Notre Dame player.

Injuries plagued the team this season. If you were going to tell me at the beginning of the year that The Fighting Irish would lose their starting QB Dayne Crist, TE Kyle Rudolph, and RB Armando Allen and make a bowl game, I would ask them if their punch were spiked. Sublime receiver Michael Floyd (73 receptions, 916 yards, 10 TDs) helped fill the gaping holes in the newly instistued spread offense along with phenom Freshman quarterback Tommy Rees (905 yards, 63% completion percentage, 10 TDs) and serviceable RB Cierre Wood (522 yards, 4.9 yards per carry, 2 TD).  The Irish have the leg of gold in kicker David Ruffer who has made 34 of 37 extra point attempts and is perfect in field goals going 15 for 15 including his career long of 50.

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