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Notre Dame

Where Notre Dame football ranks in AP Top 25 after beating Wake Forest

IMG_9992by: Tyler Horka11/19/23tbhorka
freeman (75)
Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman. (Photo by Chad Weaver)

For the second season in a row under second-year head coach Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame is 8-3 entering the final week of the regular season. And just like last year, the Fighting Irish are taking some momentum out west to California from a blowout victory on Senior Day in South Bend.

Ahead of Saturday’s game at Stanford (3-8), Notre Dame moved up to No. 17 in the Week 13 Associated Press Poll. The Irish were down at No. 19 last week after losing to Clemson in Week 11.

A victory over the Cardinal doesn’t do much for eye test purposes, but getting to 9-3 would be one win better than the Irish posted in 2022; they lost to USC in Los Angeles to cap that regular season. If they take care of lowly Stanford — and exact some revenge for last year’s loss to the 3-9 Cardinal at home at the same time — then the Irish will go into bowl season with a chance to reach 10 victories. That is not insignificant.

Notre Dame finished 2023 with a 5-1 record at home. The lone blemish was a 17-14 loss to Ohio State, the No. 2 team in the country. The Buckeyes scored a one-yard rushing touchdown with one second left on the clock. Notre Dame had 10 men on the field on the game-winning score. That’s how close the Irish could be to reaching the 10-win plateau before bowl season.

Of course, there was also an improbable 95-yard touchdown drive in the final minutes of the Duke game that allowed Notre Dame to get out of Durham with a win in a game that was surely looking like a loss. That’s college football for ya.

It was an up-and-down season for Notre Dame, but there is still a path to tangible improvement from the first year of the Freeman era to the second. That entails beating Stanford and winning a bowl game. If the Irish look up at the end of the year and they’re 10-3, there will certainly be an element of “what could have been.” But there will also be at least a sliver of satisfaction knowing 10 is greater than 9.

Week 13 AP Top 25

  1. Georgia (11-0)
  2. Ohio State (11-0)
  3. Michigan (11-0)
  4. Washington (11-0)
  5. Florida State (11-0)
  6. Oregon (10-1)
  7. Texas (10-1)
  8. Alabama (10-1)
  9. Louisville (10-1)
  10. Missouri (9-2)
  11. Penn State (9-2)
  12. Ole Miss (9-2)
  13. Oklahoma (9-2)
  14. LSU (8-3)
  15. Oregon State (8-3)
  16. Arizona (8-3)
  17. Notre Dame (8-3)
  18. Tulane (10-1)
  19. Kansas State (8-3)
  20. Iowa (9-2)
  21. Oklahoma State (8-3)
  22. Liberty (11-0)
  23. Toledo (10-1)
  24. James Madison (10-1)
  25. Tennessee (7-4)