The Irish are Back! Notre Dame is a Legitimate Title Contender.

It’s been arguably the craziest Saturday in college football history. With four-leaf clovers seemingly in the pockets of half of the college football teams this week, the Luck of the Irish had to be real.

And of course, that bodes well for Notre Dame. Touchdown Jesus is looking on.

Take note college football world. The Fighting Irish are undefeated now with Everett Golson back in the lineup. In fact, they have won 17 straight regular season games with Golson in the lineup dating back to the beginning of the 2012 season. The only loss with him, of course, is that national championship game thumping the Irish were given two years ago.

But Brian Kelly’s group is different this year. He said they needed a measuring stick at the time, and they got one. Well, two Top 15  recruiting classes later, this is a much deeper and far more talented Irish team than that one. And they certainly have some Irish magic on their side.

Golson didn’t play well today. He completed fewer than 50 percent of his passes against a tough Stanford defense and only 241 yards passing and 34 yards rushing. But remember, this Stanford defense had entered the game as the only FBS team allowing fewer than 200 yards a game.

Golson put up 275 yards. And despite his inaccuracy, his frustration at times, and what seemed like just a bad day working against him, Golson once again came through in crunch time.

He connected with Ben Koyack for a 23-yard touchdown pass on 4th and 13 with a minute to play to give the Irish the victory. Luck of the Irish? Probably. Clutch play by Golson? Certainly.

And that’s where we have to take skill into play. A great method to live by is that good fortune is often with the person who doesn’t include it in his plans.

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Since he has arrived at Notre Dame, Brian Kelly has changed the culture to make sure the Irish adopt that mentality. And after the frustrating 15 years of futility before he got there with only a couple of good years sprinkled in, even the Fighting Irish had to give up searching for help from the Football Gods.

And once they gave up, the Irish football program got back on the rise.

Now, with an incredibly young team, Notre Dame has a case for being in the Top 5 after Saturday. And they’re in the thick of the college football playoff. We can’t call that Oct. 18 showdown with Florida State a sure Seminoles victory anymore.

Notre Dame is legitimate. And by the way, they could have everybody back next year. Pay attention to what Kelly has been building here.