Big game for Irish
Notre Dame and Florida State meet Saturday in a top- 5 battle with College Football Playoff implications.
Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly saw the signs.
So did Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher.
Their teams meet Saturday in a top- five battle with College Football Playoff implications.
Both coaches reflected on the last time the teams played — the 2011 Champs Sports Bowl— when they saw two programs on the rise.
‘‘ I thought we had a chance to be a very good team in the future, and they played us extremely well, so we thought they would be a very good team,’’ Fisher said Monday. ‘‘ That was a heck of a football game. We knew they had good players and guys that went in the draft. You expect them to be where they are at.’’
Both are 6- 0, with Florida State ranked No. 2 and Notre Dame No. 5 in the latest Associated Press poll.
Only Florida State was ranked, at No. 25, before the Dec. 29, 2011, bowl game. Both entered 8- 4.
Florida State won 18- 14 and has gone 32- 2 since, winning 22 straight, including last season’s BCS championship game.
Notre Dame has gone 27- 5 since the last meeting, including a trip to the BCS title game after the 2012 season.
‘‘ When we both played, you could tell that both teams were definitely ascending, and then better things were definitely in front of us,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘ It was definitely going to be what’s next for these programs moving forward in a positive way.
‘‘ That’s kind of how I saw it after that game. I remember meeting with [ former Irish linebacker Manti] Te’o and talking to him about the next step, and of course we played for the national championship a year later, and Florida State won one.’’
Saturday marks the first true road game of the season for the Irish. Their only trip outside the state was Sept. 27 against Syracuse at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N. J.
Kelly believes there is enough veteran presence around from a couple of years ago— starting with quarterback Everett Golson — to help prepare for that kind of setting.
‘‘ If you look at a number of the offensive players, they’ve been in that kind of environment before,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘ There are some young players certainly out there that have not experienced that, but I wouldn’t say that this team is so inexperienced that they haven’t had that kind of on- the- road hostile environment.
‘‘ We’ll prepare them for it. Obviously we’ll talk about it. But that’s one of the things at Notre Dame — they get an opportunity to play in a lot of different environments, and they usually acclimatize themselves pretty good to it.’’