Irish rising

You could see the hype beginning to gather, there in the last ruined minutes for USC. Sam Darnold, eons ago a Heisman Trophy candidate, was long gone, helmet off, prowling the visitors' sideline. So, for Notre Dame, was Josh Adams (maybe now a Heisman candidate), butt-dancing on the Irish bench after hitting the Trojans in the mouth for 191 and three scores.

And here came the hype, a ghost in the October night, as the clock ran down on Notre Dame 49, USC 14.

Statement game for the Irish ...

Puts them right in the mix for the playoff ...

Looked like one of those old slobber-knocker Lou Holtz teams ...

JOSH ADAMS FOR THE HEISMAN!

And so on, and so on.

And all the Blob will say about that is, slow your roll, Domers. While understanding that when you ball-peen an alleged top-ten USC team by 35, at home or not, the roll is going to roll no matter how many words of caution get parceled out.

That's because this is Notre Dame and you are not, and the lore will be served. The place is a National College Football Museum like no other, with those statues and those Heismans and that endless celebration of a storied past. That there's nowhere quite like Notre Dame is both gospel and delusion at once; it really is like nowhere else, in that it's the last great independent (although these days only kinda-sorta), and it's just like everywhere else in that football is as corporate there as anywhere.

And so, yes, the hype will circle now. How much of it's reality and how much of it is the customary We Won A Big Game So Look Out World over-inflation remains to be seen.

Here's what the Blob thinks: Notre Dame is a legitimate top ten team.

Also, Josh Adams is going to enter the Heisman conversation now because A) he's a really good running back; B) he's a really good running back who plays for Notre Dame; and C) he's a really good running back who plays for Notre Dame and who's encroaching on the lore, seeing how his yards-per-carry could wind up knocking George Gipp out of the record books.

You get your name in the same sentence with George Gipp at Notre Dame, it's pretty much required that you also get your name in the same sentence with the Heisman. So there's that.

As to whether Notre Dame really is an emerging team of Holtzian dimensions ...

Well. Couple things about that.

One, Notre Dame is now 6-1 and has lost only to Georgia, a legit playoff contender, by one point at home. So it was probably underrated before last night.

Two, the much-hyped (that word again) Murderer's Row is probably not a Murderer's Row. A Mugger's Row, maybe, but not a Murderer's Row.

True, the end-game stretch includes six teams with a combined 32-9 record, and one of them (Miami) is undefeated at 6-0. And the Irish have to play the Hurricanes in their house.

But the notion that this is an exceedingly brutal stretch has, frankly, been as overblown as a lot of things inevitably tend to get in South Bend. USC was always a suspect 6-1, and no one should be surprised that the Irish handled them. North Carolina State is also 6-1, but the Irish get the Wolfpack at home next week. And, yes, Navy is 5-2 and always gives the Irish fits, but the Irish get the Middies at home, too -- and in any case, Navy always seems to jump up and bite Notre Dame only when no one expects it to.

Half of America expects it to this time. So it won't.

Then there's Wake Forest, a 4-3 ACC team. And finally there's Stanford, who always seem to give Notre Dame fits, too, but who lost to USC by 18 and lost to San Diego State. Not quite the same  Stanford team, it would seem.

And so, going forward?

Well, the obvious loss in this stretch would seem to be Miami. And I, for one, could see the Irish getting knocked off by NC State, because it happens right after the huge win last night. Beyond that ...

Beats me. The Blob's prodigious gut tells it Notre Dame winds up 10-2 and either in the playoff or just out of it. At which time, of course, arguments will ensue as to whether (in the first case) they got in just because they're Notre Dame, or (in the second case) they got hosed just because they're Notre Dame.

That, after all, is also part of the Notre Dame experience. Just like the hype, beginning to circle now in the chill October air.