No. 10 Notre Dame Not Focused on College Football Playoff Rankings

The first College Football Playoff rankings have been released and Notre Dame checks in at No. 10 despite being one of five programs (Alabama, Boise State, Oregon and SMU) that have three wins against bowl-eligible opponents. 

If the playoffs started today, the Fighting Irish would play at the No. 7 Penn State. 

Notre Dame has been here before and there isn’t a concern or focus on the first batch of rankings. 

How much of a non-priority are the rankings to the Notre Dame program? Offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and defensive coordinator Al Golden were unaware the rankings came out on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Denbrock stated. “We’re going to be fine. We have to take care of what’s in front of us - the six inches in front of our face and if we do that, then it will work out the way it’s supposed to.” 

For Golden, the rankings weren’t on his radar as he’s more focused on stopping Mike Norvell’s challenging offense. 

“No,” Golden stated when asked if he cared about where Notre Dame was in the rankings. “All we’re trying to do is get better today. None of that is going to matter. I don’t think about it. I don’t even know when it is. It doesn’t matter. 

“Today was our early down day, and what mattered was he practiced well. We practiced hard. We’ll go back and evaluate the tape and we’ll get ready for the meeting tomorrow. We’ll move on to third down and the challenges they provide to us. In terms of the outside noise, none of that is going to help us on Saturday night.” 

Notre Dame captain Xavier Watts has been through this before, so it’s not new. The Nebraska native is all too familiar with how the last month of the season can go and his focus is on keeping the defense locked into improving each day despite the noise. 

“Just kind of reinforce there’s a lot of football left to be played,” explained Watts. “There’s still four or five weeks left. Just focusing on us and trying not to pay attention to it. You’re obviously going to see stuff like that, but you can’t pay attention to it too much. Just focus on winning out the rest of the season, and the rest will play out on its own.” 

For graduate student Kris Mitchell, it’s his first time being in the playoff conversation. There’s likely an excitement level to be in the mix, but the savvy veteran also knows if Notre Dame loses focus, then the rankings don’t matter. 

“I feel like we just live in the moment,” said Mitchell. “We’re not really thinking about the playoffs right now. We’re thinking about Florida State and having a great practice. I feel like making sure they aren’t getting too ahead of the moment. We could lose it all just like that.” 

Mitchell is also grateful to be part of the Notre Dame program despite not having the sexy stats he put up a year ago at Florida International. 

Why? 

Winning. 

“Just continuously winning,” said Mitchell. “Winning brings a lot of joy to myself. I haven’t been part of a winning team since high school, so it feels great.” 

College Football Playoff Seedings | Week One
(12) Boise State at (5) Ohio State
(9) Indiana at (8) Tennessee 
(11) Alabama at (6) Texas
(10) Notre Dame at (7) Penn State 

First Round Bye
(1) Oregon
(2) Georgia
(3) Miami
(4) BYU 

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