Notre Dame Football: Do They Deserve to Climb Back into the Top 25?

Now the AP Poll has been unveiled, there is one name missing and that's Notre Dame.

After the Irish defeated Pitt 15-12 to improve to 2-2 on the season, the question arises if Notre Dame should have climbed back into the Top 25.

That's a simple answer, and it's "no."

Not yet at least.

While it's true that the Fighting Irish are a couple plays away from being a 4-0 football team, what they showed Saturday afternoon at Pitt is that they are also a couple of plays away from being a 1-3 football team.

Give credit to Brian Kelly's team though. They rebounded from a pair of season-opening heartbreakers to apparently get things back on track. Yet, had they not been playing the Panthers on Saturday afternoon, they likely don't head back to South Bend with a win.

Pitt isn't a very good football team and that showed, but the Notre Dame defense had a lot to do with that.

The Irish held Pitt running back Ray Graham, who is very good, under 100 yards for the afternoon and didn't allow the big play in Saturday's victory.

They had to play well because it took every bit of their effort to make up for the struggling offense.

Tommy Rees and company moved the ball fine, but once again the turnovers killed them. Especially the red zone turnovers.

There were two more giveaways Saturday inside the Pitt 20-yard line, otherwise the Irish probably win this one going away.

It appears that problem is going to plague this team all season and in the end could turn out to be their downfall.

In the end, though, a win is a win and Notre Dame will take it considering the start to the season that they had.

As for being ranked, not a chance. They simply aren't one of the top 25 teams in college football right now. They have Top 25 talent for sure, but it's not performing at that level on a week-to-week basis.

We will learn more next Saturday night after Notre Dame travels to Purdue. There might be more of an argument to debate after that.