Notre Dame Football: 3 takeaways from clutch win over Virginia Tech

1. New Year’s Six berth nearly fell out of reach for Notre Dame

The New Year’s Six isn’t entirely out of reach for the Fighting Irish, but it is quickly becoming more of a pipe dream than a legitimate goal for Brian Kelly’s crew. With each passing week, they look less like a contender than a pretender. Had they lost to the Hokies, it is likely that they would have failed to even make the cut in the selection committee’s first set of College Football Playoff rankings coming out on Tuesday.

The Irish survived, but they will probably still be lower than they have featured in the AP Top 25 or the Coaches Poll. It has been a disappointing campaign in Ann Arbor, as Ian Book is unable to do much without any run balance in the offense and the defense sees its efforts squandered as a result.

Getting to a New Year’s Six berth is going to require winning out through the rest of the regular season and getting to December with a 10-2 record. Anything less is probably going to eliminate the Fighting Irish entirely. But Notre Dame still has a shot thanks to this late survival in the final minute over Virginia Tech.

The quest to stay in the race begins in Week 11 with a visit to North Carolina to take on Duke. Then Navy and Boston College come to South Bend hoping to deal the Fighting Irish their best knockout blow before Notre Dame heads on the road to cap the season in the Bay Area against Stanford. Winning out is doable, but also requisite, lest the Irish end up outside the New Year’s Six umbrella in 2019.