(PHOENIX) – Notre Dame’s players and coaches have finished traveling to Arizona and are ready to resume the work of preparing for Ohio State in the Battlefrog Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. The Irish enter the game with a 10-2 mark. They are as healthy as they have been in a while with defensive tackle Jarron Jones and tight end Durham Smythe both cleared to play. No one was lost to academics through final exams. So everything would seem to be going Notre Dame’s way. However, Saturday night Irish head coach Brian Kelly reminded the media just how good the Buckeyes are. “We think we are playing the best team in the country,” lauded Kelly. “No disrespect to any of the teams that are in the Final Four, they have all earned their way there by what they have done, but we’re playing the defending National Champs. There’s not many holes in this football team. So, offense, defense, special teams, Ezekiel Elliot, Barnette, offensive line, skilled on the perimeter…I think that this is a football team that is really peaking at the wrong time for us. This is a really good football team and again, I think we are playing the best team in the country.” Notre Dame has not beaten the Buckeyes since 1936. However, the two teams have only played three times in that 80-year span, the most recent being at the 2006 Fiesta Bowl.
Continue Reading: Notre Dame enters Fiesta Bowl 10-2, faces Ohio State
