Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit weigh in on Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff chances after 0-2 start

Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit weighed in on the College Football Playoff chances for Notre Dame, despite the 0-2 start. The schedule likely sets up for 10 straight wins, albeit a difficult task, and could get the Fighting Irish into the dance.

Saban said Notre Dame might need some help even with 10 straight wins. Herbstreit said the Irish are definitely getting in with double-digit wins. Losing to Miami and Texas A&M at least gives Notre Dame some quality losses. Nobody wants to lose, but the Irish aren’t out of it yet.

“Notre Dame has played the toughest two teams of anybody in the country so far,” Saban said on College GameDay. “They lost by one point in four points. Saying all that to say this, they only have one ranked opponent left on their schedule. They need some kind of way to pick up some quality wins. If they went out and go 10-2, they don’t have a conference championship game to get a quality win from somebody. It’s going to be interesting to see what the committee does. They may need help from other schools to lose a few games for them to get in there.”

Herbstreit was more direct than the legendary coach and his current ESPN colleague. If Notre Dame wins out, which would include wins over Arkansas and USC, Notre Dame is going back to the CFP.

“So coach danced around that,” Herbstreit responded. “I’m going to say they’re at Arkansas, USC at home, they finish 10-2, Notre Dame will be in the playoffs at 10-2 … Doesn’t matter (what they look like), I just think Notre Dame is in at 10-2.”

That said, as he pointed out during his press conference on Monday, head coach Marcus Freeman reminded everyone that the Irish can’t win 10 in a row if they don’t start by winning one this weekend. That’s the biggest challenge to their program at this point, especially after being in a similar situation last season, as it’s going to take a day-by-day, game-by-game focus for the rest of this fall from now through November.

“What’s the biggest concern is how do we make sure that we’re focused on getting this first one? And that’s the only thing we control. We got one game that’s guaranteed right in front of us, and that’sPurdue,” Freeman said. “But, we got one day that we have and that’s right now. So, how do we maximize this day, this moment, these meetings, this walkthrough? How do we make the most, because that’s going to get us to where we want to go and really where we want to be for Saturday.”