The stress of a potentially canceled season rolled right into a canceled season which then became a hurriedly revived season.
If you noticed these Leftovers & Links have come out about only every other week this summer, if you noticed Monday was simply a vacancy in the content calendar, if you noticed more May and June ambivalence than usual, that is why.
That may not arrive until 2026, and certainly no sooner than 2023, but such a reality is firmly headed this way.
Maybe Notre Dame would still lose that game two weeks after the 41-8 faceplant at Miami, maybe the comical fourth-quarter collapse at The Farm would have cost the Irish a Playoff berth rather than just a New Year’s Six chance, but maybe not, and either way, more intrigue would have been afoot, and intrigue is what makes any fall Saturday so worthwhile.
While Notre Dame will not be able to enjoy a first-round bye — reserved for the top-four conference champions — would it slot in at No.
Either Notre Dame would need to beat Clemson in a neutral-field conference championship game, enjoy a month off, and then beat No.
Strong opponents, to be sure, but less so than the fourth game in the gauntlet being an ACC division champion.
Maybe not every year, but at least every few years, Notre Dame will host a Playoff game.
That Playoff game looks to be likely the weekend after students finish finals, in the snow, with a crowd staying on campus and coming in from Chicago already in the holiday spirit.
SPEAKING OF A GOOD TIME Some schedule updates, beginning with the kickoff time for the game against Wisconsin at Soldier Field on Sept.
I will try to be a man of my word and host the tailgate, but we are now pushing a decade since I first made that vow.
In another pandemic makeup game, Arkansas will visit South Bend in 2028.
WHAT IS THE PLURAL OF HINISH? HINISHES? HINISHS? HINII? During these days focused more on sleep than on the size of the Irish class of 2022, more on friends and weddings than on football and wagers, Notre Dame pulled in a commitment from defensive tackle Donovan Hinish, younger brother of current Irish fifth-year defensive tackle Kurt Hinish.
Kurt is grinding it out now so that he can set himself up for the rest of his life,” Donovan said to Blue & Gold Illustrated.
Kurt’s greatest assets are all present in Donovan, too, the traits that made Kurt a day-one contributor and will make him the all-time leader in games played in an Irish uniform.
“All the coaches out there are always joking around with me and talking about stuff that he’s better at than I am,” Kurt said in mid-April.
“The one thing my younger brother does a lot better than I do, just naturally he’s a lot more athletic than I am, laterally.
44 Alex Peitsch and No.