Notre Dame Football: Beating Pittsburgh Keeps the Fight in the Irish's BCS Hopes

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish entered the 2011 season with extremely high hopes.

Ranked No. 16 in the nation, and with head coach Brian Kelly in his second season at the helm, the Irish looked to have a squad ready to compete for a spot in a BCS Bowl Game.

Things soured quickly, though, as the Irish lost to then-unranked teams South Florida and Michigan in the season's first two weeks. This led to a virtual must-win game last week against the No. 15 Michigan State Spartans.

They finally lived up to their advanced billing by putting together a complete game and rolling past the Spartans 31-13.

Now, although the Irish have plenty of work left to do, it is easy to look ahead and see plenty of wins on the schedule. Notre Dame's initial two losses certainly put a huge dent in the program's BCS hopes, but if the Irish take it one game at a time, a very special season could be in store.

Notre Dame's road to redemption continues this week with an away game against the Pittsburgh Panthers. The Panthers currently hold a 2-1 record, but their wins have hardly been against powerhouses, in the form of Buffalo and Maine.

Pitt was upended last weekend by an Iowa Hawkeye team that wasn't expected to be particularly good this year.

The Irish played well in virtually every aspect last week, and will have to continue that this week and into the future in order to have success. Notre Dame's running game powered by Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood added another dimension to the Irish offense, while quarterback Tommy Rees avoided the big mistakes that plagued him in previous games.

Still, the Irish turned the ball over three times against Michigan State, and that is something Kelly needs to nip in the bud before it becomes a season-long issue.

Defensively, Notre Dame tightened up nicely after a loosey-goosey effort against Michigan the week before.

As long as the strides made by the Irish last week weren't an aberration, then they should have little issue dispatching of the Panthers this week.

After that, the schedule appears to be fairly soft the rest of the way with games against Purdue, Air Force, Navy, Wake Forest, Maryland and Boston College remaining.

Games against No. 23 USC and No. 5 Stanford won't be easy, but Notre Dame certainly has the tools to take down USC, and who knows how things will have changed by the time they lock horns with Stanford in the season's final week.

Making a BCS Bowl game seems like a lofty expectation for the Irish at this point and it makes every game a virtual must-win, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility.

The Irish need to take it one game at a time and never underestimate an opponent, regardless of how inferior they may appear to be.

A loss to Pitt would end any kind of BCS talk, of course, but I think the win over Michigan State certainly has Notre Dame back on track.

Winning out is probably unlikely, but I wouldn't put it past the Irish if they can carry last week's momentum moving forward.