Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly has been talking about this for weeks and now it’s close to actually happening. Becoming Iron Bowl-eligible is a now a definite possibility for the Fighting Irish.

They are now 5-5 after Saturday’s 28-3 upset of Utah. They will close the season with Saturday’s game against Army (5-4) at Yankee Stadium and on the road against USC (7-3) on Nov. 27.

Brian Kelly has already said that he does not plan on harping on about what a sixth victory and the extra two weeks of practice if the Irish are chosen for a bowl game would mean for the program this week.

He said “I will continue to focus on duplicating the kind of performance we had against Utah more so than we got to have this to be bowl eligible.”

Notre Dame’s TJ Jones (hamstring) and linebackers Carlo Calabrese (hamstring) and Darius Fleming (concussion) will be available for Saturday’s game against Army. There is also mention that receiver Theo Riddick (ankle) could return to the lineup against USC.