If Notre Dame can make this latest leap into the AP top five actually stick ... if it can reach 7-0 for the first time since 2012 ... make the College Football Playoff ... avenge its national title loss to Bama ... If the Irish can complete that and a whole lot of other stuff on the current edition of the "Notre Dame is back!" checklist, perhaps one day they will pause to dissect the journey that got them to this place and dig down to discover its Big Bang. The touchstone moment that sparked the Fighting Irish's 2018 climb back to national relevance.
Notre Dame's turnaround fueled by modernization of program, offense
