Paul Finebaum: Notre Dame proved they belong in 'defining' win in Sugar Bowl

Notre Dame got its biggest victory in recent history yesterday with the 23-10 outcome over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

With that, Paul Finebaum says the Fighting Irish proved themselves with that win over the ‘Dawgs in New Orleans. That’s certainly so with it putting them into the semifinals of the College Football Playoff.

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“They absolutely did (prove that they belong),” Finebaum stated on ‘Get Up’ on Friday. “Notre Dame hasn’t won a big game in forever, in a New Year’s Six game. What they did last night was defining of a program that hasn’t won a national championship since Lou Holtz in ’88.”

It wasn’t just significant for Notre Dame overall, though, as it was also so for Marcus Freeman. Freeman, in his third year as head coach there and at all at the age of 38, did something that their previous head coach felt he couldn’t do in South Bend.

“What’s so ironic is guess who left Notre Dame a couple years ago to try to go to the big-time and maybe win a national championship? That’s Brian Kelly,” said Finebaum. “I mean, and Brian Kelly did good things. I mean, he made the national championship game in the 2012 season, lost by 28. He made the playoffs a couple of times but always lost badly. Notre Dame fans were nervous when Marcus Freeman was elevated but they’re not nervous anymore. They’re glad to see Brian Kelly at LSU still trying to get somewhere good. Their guy has done just about everything that they could ever dream of”

Ryan Clark, an expert on both LSU as well as Notre Dame at this point, echoed much of the same.

“When you speak of Notre Dame specifically? Like, this team is built like an SEC team,” said Clark. “This team goes out and they don’t get into the portal to find all of these players to play everywhere. They find specific guys to do specific things that they need…It ain’t like our grandmother’s Catholics anymore at Notre Dame.”

“I’ll say this as well,” Clark closed. “When Brian Kelly left for LSU, we all said it’s because you couldn’t win games like this at Notre Dame. And all I gotta say to that is the devil is a lie.”

With their 13-point win over UGA, the Fighting Irish moved to 13-1 overall. Reaching 13 wins is now their most wins in a single season in school history. Notre Dame has won a dozen games in a row to get to that record with one game left between it and playing for a national title for the first time since 2012 and, with a pair of victories, could win its first championship since 1988.

There have been few chances like this for the Fighting Irish over the last three and a half decades. Now, with what this team is and has done, certainly now in the playoff, Finebaum thinks this opportunity could be different for them within the semis of the CFP.