Let’s presume Mount Everest was offered simply as a phrase. It is far catchier than Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) and certainly more so than Mount Mitchell (in North Carolina, the highest point east of the Mississippi). Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly did not mean to literally compare the Irish schedule to scaling Mount Everest. That might be ever-so-slightly hyperbolic.
“I told our team, I’m proud of what you accomplished tonight,” Kelly said after now-No. 6 Notre Dame’s 38-17 victory against then-No. 7 Stanford. “But if we don’t embrace how hard this is going to be, we’re climbing Mount Everest with this schedule.