After yesterday's victory The Fighting Irish now have a break from the toughest part of their schedule and can look forward to a victory over Western Michigan next week.

The Irish could go 9-3 for the year by running the table in their remaining games.

Two tough ones stand out. Utah have an unbeaten season so far and also beat Pittsburgh while USC will be USC no matter what their record shows.

A 9-3 season would be a dramatic improvement for a team that started off so poorly and even an 8-4 would be very satisfactory.

Brian Kelly would probably have taken 9-3 when he arrived at the Golden Dome before the season started but there must be a lot of 'what if's' too.

The last second defeats against Michigan State and Michigan prevented what would have been a sensational start to his career at Notre Dame and the Irish would now be sitting at 5-1.

However, it is probably best they are not. The expectations after Charlie Weis's fast start went through the roof and we all know where that ended up.

Notre Dame fans are dreamers and see a national title in every new season. It is hard to blame them given the great historical record but let's face it that was then and this is now.

It looks like Coach Kelly has a solid, decent start to his career at Notre Dame.

We could really not have asked for anything more.