Rece Davis considers Notre Dame a Top-5 team based on 'eye test' after first College Football Playoff rankings

In Thursday’s first College Football Playoff rankings reveal, Notre Dame came in as the No. 10 team. However, ESPN’s Rece Davis thinks the Fighting Irish could be even higher.

Davis argued, based on what he’s seen, Notre Dame should be a top-five team in the country. The Fighting Irish would be the last team in the 12-team bracket – Virginia and Memphis got bids as projected conference champions – as of Tuesday night.

But Davis said he’s all-in on Marcus Freeman’s group. He thinks the “eye test” says enough for him to consider Notre Dame a top-5 team.

“You go eye test? I’m still saying they’re top five,” Davis said on ESPN toward the end of Tuesday’s rankings reveal show. “I believe in the Irish. I’m just gonna die on the hill.”

Since back-to-back losses to Miami and Texas A&M to start the year, Notre Dame has won every game by multiple scores. That includes this past week’s game against Boston College, during which the Fighting Irish struggled before coming away with the 25-10 win. Running back Jeremiyah Love provided the spark once again with a late 94-yard touchdown run to help seal it.

During the six-game win streak, though, Notre Dame has only played one ranked opponent: USC, which came in at No. 19 in Tuesday’s first College Football Playoff rankings reveal. CFP selection committee chair Mack Rhoades said while they used the metrics at their disposal, per the selection process, the conversations around the Fighting Irish centered around how much better things have gotten recently.

“We had a lot of conversation, obviously, about Notre Dame,” Rhoades told reporters on a teleconference following Tuesday’s reveal show. “I think it starts with two losses, total of four points, against two very, very good teams. Obviously one of them ranked third in the country and one ranked 18th. We talked about I think early on defensively, maybe they weren’t as good as what we thought they would be, but certainly most recent, it seems like they’ve been much, much better defensively. Six straight wins.

“You look at their backfield – Jadarian Price, Jeremiyah Love, probably the best backfield in the country when you think about one-two punch. Going into the Southern Cal game, they lost their starting center for the year, and they were able to overcome that and run for a bunch of yards, again, against Southern Cal. We think Notre Dame is a really – when we look at the tape, we think Notre Dame is a really solid football team, both sides of the ball.”