Daily briefing: On Notre Dame and Miami being on upset alert and Terry Brennan

Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:

Notre Dame in dangerous territory?

Toledo visits No. 8 Notre Dame on Saturday, and if you were a college football fan in 2010, this game should make you think of Virginia Tech. That season, the Hokies opened on Monday night on the road, got back to Blacksburg in the wee hours Tuesday, and the short week caught up to them. Virginia Tech lost that Saturday to FCS James Madison 21-16. And now the Irish — the good news is they got home in the wee hours Monday, not Tuesday, after beating Florida State in Tallahassee. The bad news is Notre Dame must play Toledo, one of the best teams in the MAC. The Rockets have 21 starters returning from last season’s 4-2 team. If the Irish aren’t focused, watch out.

Staying focused

While we’re on the subject of focusing, Appalachian State, which has averaged 10 wins a year since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2014, plays at No. 22 Miami on Saturday night. The Hurricanes went into their game in Atlanta against No. 1 Alabama with visions of an upset but lost 41-13 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Will Miami suffer an emotional hangover? Will they suffer a physical one? Last season, teams went 1-7-1 against the spread the week after playing Alabama; Miami is a nine-point favorite over the Mountaineers. The U needs to leave the loss to the Tide where it belongs — last week, not this week.

Remembering Terry Brennan

I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Terry Brennan, who died Tuesday at age 93, was the last surviving coach from the 1950s. Notre Dame made Brennan a head coach at such a young age that when the university fired him in 1958 after five seasons, he was still just 30 years old. In his first three seasons, Brennan’s Irish fell from 9-1 to 2-8. President Theodore Hesburgh, who promoted Brennan from freshman coach to varsity coach to replace the legendary Frank Leahy, refused to fire him, saying the university would honor Brennan’s five-year contract (imagine that). After two good-not-great seasons, Brennan was done. He had a 32-18 record with the Irish. He never coached college football again.