If the 2012 championship game against Alabama was a yardstick applied with gusto to the backside of Coach Brian Kelly's Irish, the 2014 Music City Bowl victory over 23rd-ranked LSU was yet another sort of measure in Notre Dame's journey from relevance to validation. Trading gaudy, gash-y runs and kick returns for shattering, clock-consuming drives, the unranked and injury-riddled Irish bested a ranked-SEC squad for the first time since 1992, unless you count back-to-back wins over A&M in ...
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