Notre Dame Football: Game Against Tar Heels More Than an FSU Dress Rehearsal

You can't blame Notre Dame fans for looking past North Carolina.

With a trip to Tallahassee, Florida, just eight days away, the college football world will focus on the showdown between the Irish and Florida State as soon as Saturday night is over in a renewal of a rivalry that literally started the traveling madness known as ESPN's College GameDay.

So while Irish fans might be checking hotel prices and looking at flights—it's ugly, Domers—Brian Kelly's squad welcomes Larry Fedora and his Tar Heels to town.

It's a game that counts just as much as the rest of them, Kelly reminds us. A week after being taken to the limit against Stanford, the Irish could leave Notre Dame Stadium 5-1 if they think they're in for a dress rehearsal before the Seminoles.

During Kelly's Tuesday press conference, the Irish head coach paid North Carolina's team the ultimate compliment, comparing the Tar Heel roster to his.

"In a lot of ways, [they're a] very similar team," Kelly said. "Young, athletic, a lot of very good athletes."

Some may take that as lip service. Since the Tar Heels gave up 70 points to East Carolina and enter Saturday as the worst power-five defense in college football, you couldn't blame them.

But the Tar Heels are the perfect foil for a Notre Dame team that's played down to its level of competition these past few seasons.

While Brian Kelly has won 26 of his last 31 games, the Irish have spent a great deal of that time living on the edge. As BlueandGold's Lou Somogyi points out, Notre Dame has one of the unlikelier seven-game winning streaks you could ever imagine after eking out a three-point victory over Stanford:

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The 17-14 victory versus Stanford this past weekend marked the seventh consecutive time Notre Dame won a game that was decided by four or fewer points, with the game on the line right through the final possession. Just how hard is that to do? Well, consider that it tied a Notre Dame record for such victories.

In 2012, Notre Dame won all three contests decided by four points or less: Purdue (20-17), BYU (17-14) and Pitt (29-26 in triple overtime).

The Irish also won all three in 2013: Michigan State (17-13), Arizona State (37-34) and USC (14-10). The three-point conquest of Stanford this year continues the trend where Notre Dame has found a knack to win such games. It also should be noted that all but the Arizona State game were at home, and even ASU was at a neutral site for the Shamrock Series.

The first time a seven-game winning streak in these outcomes occurred was from 1937-39 under head coach Elmer Layden. That was snapped with a 7-6 loss at Iowa.

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Those wins against Purdue, BYU and Pitt all should serve as notice that any underdog can come into Notre Dame Stadium and challenge the Irish. So if Notre Dame fans want to see the type of big game they're hoping for next Saturday, the football team will need to take care of business this weekend.

That means ignoring the distractions that continue with five suspended teammates still awaiting their fate, according to ESPN.com's Matt Fortuna.

It also means getting an offense back on track after struggling to run the ball and battling turnovers in the past two weeks.

As Notre Dame continues to ascend the polls and earn its place in the water-cooler discussion surrounding the College Football Playoff, it's natural that distractions will continue to occur. However, Kelly feels confident that his team will continue to stay focused, as it's a young group that's found a way to eliminate distractions that started before preseason camp even opened.

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

"There are too many guys in here that just want to play," Kelly said this week. "Look, they know that they are ranked. But they are more interested in playing the game than anything else. The veterans that we have here have been down this road before.  They have been undefeated, and they know what it takes and what you have to put in, to beat an opponent when you're at Notre Dame."

Surrounded by Saturdays featuring ranked opponents, the North Carolina game has been circled as a potential trap since we started talking about this schedule months ago.

If the Tar Heels matchup is a trap game, it's one we've been staring at for an awful long time.

But with a trip to Tallahassee and a potential Game of the Year candidate on the horizon, Irish fans are already hitting the fast-forward button.

Let's just hope Brian Kelly's team isn't doing the same thing.

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes obtained firsthand.