Notre Dame keeps winning, but the doubters remain.

You’d think 13 consecutive wins and a run to the national championship game in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff might have stymied skepticism as to Notre Dame’s authenticity, but the opposite seems to be true. The deeper into January that Notre Dame plays, the louder the chorus of naysayers.

Twitter isn’t real life, but the keyboard warriors slinging stinging rebukes of Notre Dame’s run to the national championship game reads like a late night segment where a celebrity reads mean tweets. Here’s a sampling of some real social media takes, in Playoff run order.

“You think beating an overrated Indiana team that shouldn’t have made the field is proof of anything other than an easy draw?”

(The same Indiana that manhandled Michigan. Not planting a flag with this take or anything, but didn’t Michigan win in Columbus?)

“If Indiana played in the SEC, they would have 4 or 5 losses. That’s who Notre Dame beat in the Playoff.”

(The same Indiana that manhandled a full-strength Michigan. Did anyone watch the shorthanded Wolverines in the ReliaQuest Bowl? Asking for a conference).

“Must be nice to get Georgia with their backup quarterback. Only Notre Dame is this blessed.”

(Never mind that Texas faced Georgia with a backup QB, too, and the Horns got Gunner Stockton after being spotted the lead while Carson Beck played, and then managed to lose to Stockton anyway in the SEC Championship Game).

“Notre Dame did nothing offensively against Georgia. Lucked out playing Stockton in his first start.”

(It’s almost as if special teams and defense still impact winning?)

“Could you imagine a softer semifinal opponent than Penn State? Let’s not compare this semifinal opponent to the Clemson and Bama teams that crushed Notre Dame in past semifinals.”

(Yes, but we obviously should compare this Notre Dame team, which is deeper, faster, and bigger than either of Brian Kelly’s semifinalists, to the same teams Clemson and Alabama crushed, right?)

“Beating Little Game James Franklin in a semifinal is like beating your grade school nephew in one on one. You don’t talk about it in public.”

(Wasn’t Penn State in the B1G Championship Game? Surely it lost to Ohio State in that game, right?)

Or my favorite:

“Notre Dame hasn’t accomplished anything until they win the national championship. We’ve seen them reach this game before.”

(Because we all know a game in 2012, one of a number of lopsided BCS National Championship games that helped drive the push to a Playoff, is a fair point of reference and comparison to a team playing college football in 2024. And, of course, Kelly won a College Football Playoff semifinal too, right?)

Perhaps the trauma and history of a program whose moniker this century has been “failing to win the big game” is too baked in to the college football fan’s collective psyche for a fair accounting of a Notre Dame team that enters Monday night’s game against 8 seed Ohio State in Atlanta as the higher seed but an 8.5-point underdog, per DraftKings Sportsbook.

Perhaps the only thing Notre Dame can do to quell the doubt is win the game.

The Fighting Irish wouldn’t have it any other way.

After a statement win over Texas A&M on opening night at boisterous Kyle Field, the Fighting Irish stumbled a week later in their home opener, losing a stunner to Northern Illinois. The “same old Notre Dame” refrains have regurgitated across the media landscape since.

“We had no one to blame but ourselves for that media narrative,” Marcus Freeman told SDS via video before the Indiana game. “Fear is a motivator. It is what it is. A lot of people are motivated by fear or greed, and there’s times I had to remind myself — hey, what’s the result of not preparing the right way?” Freeman added. “We reminded the players of it, too. We said, ‘Remember that game against NIU? Hold on to it. What lessons do we have to learn?’ And I’ve been preaching that to the guys and relayed it again this week. We have also been in fight mode, in a Playoff situation, really since Week 3. So our guys understand that, and it’s helped us.”

Playing in that “Playoff situation” since Week 3, the Fighting Irish have won 13 consecutive games. Notre Dame has won 11 of those games by double digits, including blowout wins over Southern California and ranked Army and Navy teams in the regular season and the win over Indiana and SEC champion Georgia in the Playoff. After trailing just under 4 of the 120 minutes in their first 2 Playoff games, the Fighting Irish then showed their grit, winning the Orange Bowl in dramatic comeback fashion, too, rallying for 2 scores in the final 8 minutes to steal a 27-24 win over Penn State in the final minute.

Notre Dame is one of the nation’s deepest teams, with a Playoff field leading 57 4-star players and 58 blue-chip (4 or 5-star recruits). While Ohio State is more talented, the Fighting Irish tamed Georgia, ranked ahead of the Buckeyes in the 247 Talent Composite. For the first time in decades, Notre Dame’s depth is an asset instead of a liability.

That depth has helped Notre Dame overcome a rash of impactful injuries that would have sunk past Irish teams.

No team in the Playoff entered the first round missing as many Game 1 starters as Notre Dame (5), and that number has only increased as the Fighting Irish have advanced. Notre Dame will play Monday night’s title game without All-Americans Benjamin Morrison and Rylie Mills. Consensus All-American Xavier Watts missed much of the second half of the Sugar Bowl win over Georgia with a shoulder injury. Running back Jeremiyah Love has battled the flu and a knee injury for 3 weeks. Left tackle Anthonie Knapp was injured early in the Penn State game and will miss the championship.

No matter. The resilient Irish keep finding a way.

“No one is going to feel sorry for you,” Notre Dame linebacker and captain Jack Kiser told SDS after the Orange Bowl. “We know the doubters are out there. The thing is, there is not any doubt in our locker room that we will go out and compete.”

Compete. That’s what these Fighting Irish have done all year.

That’s what they’ll do Monday night, in a game where they are heavy underdogs despite entering Atlanta with the better scoring offense, the No. 1 pass efficiency defense in the sport, and a powerful running attack that they can lean on to shorten the game, just as they did against Indiana, statistically the nation’s best run defense.

The cynics can sleep on Notre Dame all they want.

How has that worked out for the haters so far?

Win 1 more game, and the only thing anyone will be able to call this Notre Dame team is: national champion.