A good Notre Dame football stat that you should appreciate more

A lot has been made this week about the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and their road record against the top 20. It’s a big deal and a big reason why the Irish have been stuck in “not quite ready to be a great team” mode (to put it kindly).

Earlier today, a friend sent me a tweet that had a fairly impressive stat, and asked me if it was true. After a quick search — OF COURSE IT’S TRUE.

Notre Dame’s last loss to an unranked team was in 2016, and just so happened to be against this week’s opponent, the Virginia Tech Hokies. Over the past 2 ¹⁄₂ seasons, the Irish have 6 losses — all against ranked opponents.

It’s the second longest streak in the country, and YEARS behind number one, the Alabama Crimson Tide. Bama last lost to an unranked team in 2007, which was Nick Saban’s first year in Tuscaloosa.

After a few days of throwing our hands up in the air over Notre Dame’s inability to “win a big game,” this stat about beating unranked opponents probably won’t move the needle too much with a lot of you — and that’s completely understandable. It does, however, show that Notre Dame is still sitting on a good foundation this season and beyond.

This doesn’t change anything from last week, and maybe it doesn’t mean much for this week — but it’s a stat that doesn’t suck. Eat it up.

UPDATE

Another really good stat that’s going to blow your mind and cause you to throw things.