Notre Dame's continued rise this season has drawn more attention to a program that has prided itself on shutting out outside distractions.
Blocking out the "noise" as coach Brian Kelly likes to put it, will become more difficult as Notre Dame convinces more and more people it is for real.
The Irish's 41-3 dismantling of Miami on Saturday night in Chicago's Soldier Field pushed Notre Dame (5-0) to No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 and the USA Today coaches poll.
And now ESPN's "College GameDay" program will come to campus when Notre Dame plays host to No. 17 Stanford (4-1) on Saturday.
Kelly seemed fine with the added attention when he talked to the medie during his Sunday teleconference.
“You want to be in that group of football programs that has ‘College GameDay’ on your campus," Kelly said. "You want to be that program that appeals to the audience that we’re out recruiting.
“So I think you want to be in that in-crowd. You don’t want to be on the other side looking in. All those things are great. We’re excited about the spotlight being here atSouth Bendand on our program. We’ll deal with it this week to keep our guys on task.”
The Irish showed its offense can compliment a superb defense against the Hurricanes as Notre Dame raked up season-highs in total yards (587) and rushing yards (376).
And Notre Dame's defense continues to show it is championship caliber as it continues to move up the national rankings.
The Irish have the nation's No. 2 scoring defense (7.8 points per game) behind only Alabama's 7 points per game allowed. Notre Dame is also in the top 20 in rushing defense (17th), pass efficiency defense (10th), total defense (13th) and sacks (20th).
The noise only gets louder from here as talk of a BCS bowl berth will now also include a shot at reaching the national title game for the Irish.
"It’s a life in the day of the Notre Dame football program, so it’s kind of business as usual," Kelly said. "But having said that, we’ll have to remind 18- to 21-year-olds about how they got here and continue that same message."
