Notre Dame hopes return to glory includes national title

• Notre Dame hasn't won a title since 1988
• Lineback Manti Te'o is a Heisman candidate
• Big test coming Saturday vs. Oklahoma

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Just inside the entrance to Notre Dame's football facility, a statue of the famed Four Horsemen stands guard. Bronze stiff-armed trophies line another wall. Front and center, a crystal football sparkles, commemorating the Irish's last national title, won in 1988, before any current players were born.

"You walk past it every day, but you get so used to it being there, you kind of don't see it anymore," Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o said. "Then on game weekends, you see fans in the building and they're circled around it, and you're like, 'Man, what are they looking at?' Then you realize, 'Oh yeah, there's a crystal ball there.'"

This is what Notre Dame football had become throughout much of the last two decades. A museum. A Touchdown Jesus, light-a-candle in the Grotto, tap the "Play like a champion today" sign, a "Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame" relic. This monument to the past also served as a stinging reminder of just how mediocre Fighting Irish football had become. Until now.

Wake up the echos. Slap that sign and mean it. Notre Dame football is back. (Really.) Ranked No. 5 and off to the best start in a decade at 7-0, fans have reason to believe as the Irish prepare for a monumental game at No. 7 Oklahoma (5-1) on Saturday.

Under third-year coach Brian Kelly, the foundation is rebuilt, athletics director Jack Swarbrick said.

"We're back to the extent that I don't see any troughs in the future," Swarbrick said. "I think we're going to be able to play elite-level football on a consistent basis. ... This is a more sustainable model, and people are much more comfortable with the overall direction and quality of the program."

Of course, that doesn't mean the Irish will win when they arrive in Norman for the first time in 46 years. After a loss to now-No. 4 Kansas State, the Sooners have averaged 52 points in their last three wins. Notre Dame, led by its stout defense, has struggled to score at times, with four of its victories by seven points or fewer. But there is reason for pot-of-gold optimism, thanks to players such as Te'o, a Heisman Trophy contender.

Still, Te'o has his eye on a bigger prize: that crystal ball trophy. "We're trying to get it not just to be a decoration in the lobby," he said. "We're trying to make something happen" while building something that lasts.

Irish fans have heard this before. Win a few games in a row and the rush to proclaim "Notre Dame is back!" picks up steam, only to be deflated by a loss to, say, Boston College. Skepticism is understandable. Since 2000, the Irish have run through five head coaches and had two 10-win seasons.

Legendary program

"I'm not convinced yet," alum Matt Metzger from San Antonio said in an e-mail. "It's great to see Notre Dame back in the national spotlight. However, we've seen false hope under (coaches Bob) Davie, (Tyrone) Willingham and (Charlie) Weis, all to have it blow up in our faces. So I'm being cautiously optimistic."

It wasn't always the case. Notre Dame developed a national following thanks to the legendary exploits of coaches such as Knute Rockne, immortalized on film by Pat O'Brien and the famous "Win one for the Gipper" speech. Heisman Trophy winners like former Green Bay Packers great Paul Horning and underdog players such as Rudy Ruettiger, the title character of the popular 1993 movie starring Sean Astin. And, of course, those four horsemen: Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley and Elmer Layden were members of Rockne's much-storied 1924 backfield.

Notre Dame is known for the loyalty (and enmity) it inspires. So when the Irish are irrelevant, college football seems a bit emptier.

These days, disillusionment comes easy. Walk past the trophies in the team's facility, climb the staircase and the glory fades with every footstep. In the lobby outside the coaches offices, the recent past fills the room. A sign says, "Notre Dame in the Postseason," and a list of bowl games follows. There is no mention of the scores, which include 10 losses in the last 12 bowl games. The trophy from last year's loss in the Champs Sports Bowl is hidden behind a gold chair.

In 2002, the Irish started 8-0; two years later, Willingham was fired. The previous time Notre Dame reached the top 10 was in 2006; three years later, Weis was history. Notre Dame is back? Fool me once …

"It's a well-deserved cynicism," Swarbrick said. "But reading into every sustained period or series of successful games, that's not how you evaluate a program. It has to be a detailed, substantive look."

Swarbrick says deficiencies have been corrected with an improved strength and conditioning and nutrition program (in past years, the Irish struggled to win games in the fourth quarter and late in the season) and improved recruiting.

"I hear that from my peers, my colleagues who say, 'You guys are different now,'" Swarbrick said. At the end of the 2009 season, Swarbrick remembers standing on the field at the Bowl Championship Series title game at the Rose Bowl after Alabama beat Texas. "I said, we don't look anything like these guys. We don't match up at all." Then in New Orleans, after Alabama blew by LSU for the 2011 national title, Swarbrick was feeling a bit better about his program. "I said, 'You know, we do look like these guys.'"

Kelly agreed, to a point. "We're a good football team, but we're a flawed football team. We're not where we need to be yet. … We need another recruiting class to put more dynamic players on the field. But we'll continue to be part of the conversation if we can continue to move in the right direction, which I believe we will."

Title time?

So maybe Notre Dame fans can go ahead and even dream a little.

"There's a confidence — a swagger — in this team I haven't seen at Notre Dame in a long time," alum Diego J. Pena, who lives in Dallas, said in an e-mail. "There's also a hunger. They still have a long way to go, but it appears that Kelly, his staff and this team are becoming contenders. I'm hoping for a 10-2 season and a BCS game; a spot in the championship game is still a wild dream, but it's within reach."

ESPN's Mike Golic and his older brother Bob played at Notre Dame and in the NFL. Mike has two sons on the Irish squad: Mike Jr. and Jake.

"What has changed over the years is the dome used to sell itself," Golic says, noting that lots of other schools were regularly getting national TV exposure and giving players a promising path to the NFL. "Notre Dame, even 10 to 20 years ago, had to get out there and start selling itself again. I always just thought it was just a matter of time (until they'd be good again)."

Notre Dame was well ahead of the pack in cutting its own TV deal. Since 1991, Irish home games have been televised on NBC, which laid the groundwork for such deals as ESPN's Longhorn Network. Notre Dame's current contract with NBC runs through 2015 at $15 million a season.

'A special place'

Through 229 consecutive sellouts at Notre Dame Stadium and 242 consecutive games televised nationally or regionally, the brand, and its national fan base, matters. NBC's Notre Dame home games are averaging 2.8% of U.S. households, up 57% from comparable coverage last year. But the Irish trail top-drawing action. For example, ABC's Saturday night games are averaging 3.3%.

Swarbrick senses excitement around the team is on the uptick also because of the leadership of a linebacker who notably graduated from President Obama's high school and practices Mitt Romney's religion.

"In this celebrity-driven society, we are incredibly fortunate that the face of this year's success is a young man whose values so line up with the institution," Swarbrick said of Te'o. "It's a unique and special intersection of person and place, and that has added to what makes this year special."

When Te'o decided to return for his senior season — turning down an expected first-round selection in the NFL draft — Notre Dame alum Jim Brown, Class of 1985, said the move set the tone for the season. "It showed us something we hadn't seen in a long time. It showed belief and commitment," Brown, who lives in Oklahoma City and says he will be at Saturday's game, said in a e-mail.

From Laie, Hawaii, Te'o chose Notre Dame over Southern California, where the Irish will play their final regular-season game, because of its faith-based principles even though Notre Dame is a Catholic institution and Te'o is a devout Mormon.

When his grandmother died Sept.11 after a long illness and his girlfriend passed away a few hours later after a struggle with leukemia, Te'o was overcome by fans who wore leis in tribute on game day. "It was incredible," he said. "This is a special place."

Outside the football practice field, on an unseasonably warm October afternoon, students shuffle to class wearing shorts and backpacks. Yellow leaves still cling to branches, a sign that there is plenty of football to be played. The team practices in privacy behind gates. Whistles tweet.

As daylight fades in dusk, the marching band gathers in the parking lot outside the stadium, rehearsing songs and routines for the big game ahead. The Victory March can be heard across campus, and there is reason to cheer.

Contributing: Thomas O'Toole and Michael Hiestand