Notre Dame Football: Fighting Irish Will Continue Streak of Meaningless Wins

Nothing the Notre Dame fighting Irish do from here on out will matter; they’ve already given away their season.

An upset loss to USF to start off the year really set the tone for the Irish’s season, which was expected to be the best one in a long time. Going to Michigan and losing to the Wolverines on a last second touchdown was the icing on the cake and the nail in the coffin in my opinion.

The Irish aren’t as bad as those two losses indicated, but they aren’t as good as we originally thought either.

What I’m trying to say here is that there is no way that Irish fans can look at the start of the 2011 season and be happy.

Sure, they bounced back and put a beating on Michigan State, and squeaked out a win against Pittsburgh. Michigan State looked pretty bad though, and the Irish displayed a fair amount of flaws in their win against Pittsburgh.

Here’s what Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune had to say about the game:

"

If Notre Dame was intending to make a statement to the rest of the college football world Saturday, it not only got lost in translation, it probably ended in a question mark.

What the unranked Irish's 15-12 survival of Pitt did establish, though, was that the foundation of mental toughness second-year coach Brian Kelly has been trying to coerce onto his team is finally a part of its personality.

"It's not going to be an instant classic," Kelly admitted after his Irish (2-2) kept alive hopes of evolving into a top 25 team, perhaps even a BCS team, yet this season if it can exorcise a still hefty laundry list of flaws.

He got just enough wow factor from quarterback Tommy Rees Saturday at sold-out Heinz Field, just enough orneriness from his offensive line and a dominating push from this defensive front with the game in the balance to live to talk about big dreams.

"I like the way we compete," Kelly said. "I would have liked to have won 37-0, but you know what? A win is a win. It's not easy. You go on the road against a BCS team and limit them to 12 points and find a way to win.

"I like that development. We're developing an expectation of our guys that in a close game, we're going to win. Those are good dynamics. So we put this one behind us and, believe it or not, we have expectations that we want to win every game."

"

Development or not, it’s hard to be impressed with the Irish this season.

This was a team that came into the preseason ranked No. 16, but all they’ve done since then is underachieve, look pretty bad, and tumble out of the Top 25.

If there is one thing the Irish can find solace in, it’s the fact that they have a relatively easy schedule from here on out.

That being said, they are going to have a very tough time against USC and Stanford.

Other than that, if the Irish are lucky they may be able to pick up a few more meaningless wins.

Irish fans can only hope to find some silver lining in an otherwise disappointing season.