Dealing with a long layoff

For Notre Dame, this is unchartered territory. Since the start of September, the longest they've gone between football games is 14 days.

They'll now have to wait over a month to take the field in the season's most important game, and Brian Kelly is already tired of talking about the long layoff.

"I think it's a self-fulfilling prophecy if you keep talking about the long layoff," Kelly said during an appearance today with Alabama head coach Nick Saban in New York. "We don't talk about that, we talk about what's the next step here, in the next stage towards the national championship."

The one big difference in this situation is that the Crimson Tide have been here before under Nick Saban. Twice.

The Saban-led Tide have endured long layoffs following the 2009 and 2011 seasons, before ultimately defeating Texas and LSU for the national championship.

"You almost have to look at any bowl game, or any layoff like you have of this length of time, as the next game is sort of a one-game season," Saban said.

Saban has used the time off to create excellent game plans in his past two national championship appearances. Now, we'll see if Kelly can do the same.

Nick Saban and Brian Kelly will lead their teams into Miami for the national championship Jan. 7.