Champs Bowl 2011: Florida State and Notre Dame Both Playing for Ultimate Pride

Florida State and Notre Dame came into the season with so much promise. Whether they live up to expectations will have to be answered at the Champs Bowl Thursday night. 

Notre Dame was ranked No. 16 in the AP preseason poll. Florida State was No. 6. A few months and four losses apiece later, both do not figure into the final BCS assessment. 

For Notre Dame, it is yet another season of promise followed by mediocre results. It's another chapter of futility in an otherwise proud and storied history. The Irish are forever on the way back up to the mountain top. Thursday will go a long way to proving that this is indeed the case under Brian Kelly. 

Florida State has enjoyed an amazing year, only it has come on one side of the ball. The Seminoles have the defense to match up with any team this season. They just have an equally inconsistent effort taking place on offense. 

The Seminoles suffered a setback when they ran into then-No. 1 Oklahoma, only to see their season derailed completely with two additional loses to Clemson and Wake Forrest. 

Both teams are fighting against their own shortcomings as much as they are against the opposition. Notre Dame has had far too many lapses in the form of untimely turnovers. 

The Seminoles can't seem to move the ball with consistency without giving it over. The Champs Bowl will feature two squads playing for pride, and the outcome may just be an ugly one. 

Both cling and scrape to a season that pretty much got away from them. As of this writing, Notre Dame gave away the ball in the red zone, only to get the ball back on a Seminoles fumble a few minutes later. 

Making up for a lost year can be an ugly affair. Both teams will be muddied in what will be a dogfight for honor. Only one will come out clean on the other side. The other will have to swallow what is surely an embarrassment of a season. 

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