SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- - Third-ranked Notre Dame hasn't been dominating at home this season. The Fighting Irish have been unbeatable, though, and that's not something they have been able to say since 1998.

The Irish have needed overtime to win two of those games and have won their other three games at Notre Dame Stadium by a combined 13 points. Yet they are a victory Saturday over Wake Forest away from going undefeated at home for the first time in 14 years.

"One of our goals, a tangible goal for us, was to protect our home field. We felt, I felt, I think everybody in the program felt, that if you want to take that next step in terms of success, you got to win at home," coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday.

Since going 6-0 under Bob Davie in 1998, the Irish had a 52-31 record at home in 13 seasons heading into this year, averaging a mediocre four wins a season and 2.4 losses. There were some embarrassing defeats during that stretch, including two of the three most lopsided losses in the history of Notre Dame Stadium: a 38-0 loss to No. 13 Southern California under Charlie Weis in 2007 and a 37-0 loss to No. 5 Florida State under Tyrone Willingham in 2003.

They also lost 45-14 to USC in 2003, 33-3 to unranked Georgia Tech in 2007 and 24-23 in 2008 to a Syracuse team that had won just two games previously and had told coach Greg Robinson he was fired effective at the end of the season. Kelly had a few bad home losses of his own, losing 28-27 to Tulsa in 2010 and 23-20 to South Florida in last year's season opener.

But the Irish (10-0) haven't been beaten at home since a 31-17 loss to USC on Oct. 22, 2011. They've won seven straight games, their longest home winning streak since winning 10 straight from 1997-99. The last six have been by a touchdown or less, a concern Kelly is still trying to find an answer for.

Still, Kelly dreams of the day the Irish can put up the kind of home record Oklahoma has. The Sooners are 80-5 in 14 seasons under Bob Stoops.

"We want to have that kind of legacy. We want to build that kind of dominance at home. The first step is winning all your games at home, which hasn't happened in a long time," Kelly said. "So we actually talked about that yesterday, how important it is for us to finish the season undefeated at home. Our guys know that as a real goal."

The bigger goal is for Notre Dame to get to the BCS title game. Even after Alabama's loss to Texas A&M, it looks as though the Irish will need more help in addition to beating Wake Forest (5-5) and finishing the regular season with a victory at USC on Nov. 24, with Kansas State and Oregon firmly ahead in the BCS rankings.

Kelly began lobbying for his team following last Saturday's 21-6 win at Boston College, which featured two touchdown passes by Everett Golson and 104 rushing yards from Theo Riddick. Notre Dame held an opponent without an offensive touchdown for the fifth time this year.

"Each team has their own distinctions. The distinction of this football team is it's the No. 1 scoring defense in the country," Kelly said.

"It's proven that against very, very good teams all year. ... If you look at national championship-caliber football, you've got to look at a defense, and so that's why we feel strongly that our football team has put themselves in the discussion. We'll let others decide, but I think we've played our way into the discussion."

A convincing win over Wake Forest could only help. The Demon Deacons, who need one more victory to become bowl eligible, arrive in South Bend having lost four of six, including a 37-6 drubbing at North Carolina State last weekend. Junior receiver Michael Campanaro had only five catches for 14 yards after hauling in 16 receptions for 123 yards and three touchdowns the previous week against BC.

This is Wake Forest's first trip to Notre Dame Stadium.

"We certainly hope our guys don't go there for sightseeing," coach Jim Grobe said. "That's going to be a key. I think we just have to go play. I'm going to try not to make too big of a deal out of it."

The schools met for the first time last season, with Notre Dame overcoming a halftime deficit to win 24-17 in Winston-Salem.

Irish cornerback KeiVarae Russell has been cleared to play in this one after sustaining a head injury against BC. Kelly also said nose guard Louis Nix III was not subject to any further penalty after being ejected from the BC game for unsportsmanlike conduct.

He said the Irish would be counting on receivers John Goodman, Daniel Smith, Chris Brown and others to make up for the loss of DaVaris Daniels, who sustained a broken left clavicle last week.

© 2013 STATS LLC

No. 3 Notre Dame stays perfect, beats Wake 38-0

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Notre Dame got one first-place vote in the coaches' poll last Sunday - head coach Brian Kelly's.

He won't be the only one voting the Fighting Irish No. 1 this week.

Against Wake Forest, the Fighting Irish reinforced Kelly's faith in his team, then third-ranked Notre Dame got some help later Saturday night.

Oregon and Kansas State, the two teams ahead of the Irish in the AP and BCS rankings, each lost. Now Notre Dame will control its own fate as it tries to capture its first national title in 24 years.

Earlier in the day, Everett Golson threw three touchdown passes and Cierre Wood scored on a 68-yard run as the Irish beat Wake Forest 38-0 to finish the season undefeated at home for the first time since 1998.

"I told them tonight I'm proud of them," Kelly said. "I voted them No. 1 for a reason, because I think they're the best team in the country. I think they played like that tonight."

The Fighting Irish were in third place in last week's BCS standings, but likely will move up after Kansas State, which was No. 1, lost 52-24 to Baylor and Oregon, which was in second, lost to Stanford 17-14 in overtime.

If Notre Dame manages to beat Southern California next week, it could wind up in a BCS title game against Alabama, now No. 4 in those rankings. Notre Dame won the national championship in 1973 when it upset the undefeated Crimson Tide 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl.

Kelly, who saw his 12-0 Cincinnati team left out of the BCS title game in 2009, said he has no doubt his 11-0 team deserves to play for the championship if its win the season finale at USC.

That's all he wants his players focused on, he said.

"They cannot do anything else but beat USC," Kelly said. "The rest is up to other people to decide."

Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe seemed to think the Irish have as much right as anybody to be there.

"No question about it. But maybe a couple of others should be, too. That's kind of the deal right now," Grobe said. "I can't imagine anybody from what I saw today playing any better than Notre Dame. But I think there are some other really, really good teams. They impressed me today. I think there as good as any team in the country."

Wood got the Irish moving with his 68-yard burst on the game's fourth play. Three plays later, Wake tailback Josh Harris caught a 13-yard pass but fumbled after a hard hit by Irish linebacker Carlo Calabrese and safety Zeke Motta recovered. Harris, Wake Forest's leading rusher, didn't play the rest of the game because of a head injury.

Golson kept the Irish going with his best passing game of the season. He threw three touchdown passes of 50, 34 and 2 yards in the first half.

Fourteen of his 17 first-half completions led to first downs as the Irish opened a 31-0 halftime lead. He finished with 346 yards on 20 of 30 passing with one interception.

Wood rushed for 150 yards on 11 carries and Tyler Eifert had six catches, giving him 130 for his career, breaking the school record of 128 set by Ken MacAfee in 1977.

The Irish improved to 11-0 for the first time since 1989 and need to beat USC to finish a regular season undefeated for the first time since 1988, the last time they won the national championship. The Demon Deacons (5-6) fell to 1-33 all-time against top 5 teams.

The victory virtually assures the Irish of a berth in a BCS game, even if it's not the title matchup.

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o, draped in leis after playing his final game at Notre Dame Stadium and handing out candy to anyone within reach, wasn't ready to make his argument that the Irish deserve to be in the title game.

"If we don't beat USC, there is no need to say whether you deserve it or not," he said. "You have to beat USC first. You can ask me that question after."

The Irish dominated on both sides of the ball, outgaining the Deacons 584 yards to 209. It was the first shutout for the Irish since a 35-0 win over Nevada in the season-opener in 2009 and their first shutout against a major conference team since a 42-0 victory over Rutgers in 2002.

"They jumped on us quick, got momentum, kept momentum rolling, and when the defense can't stop them, it's hard for the offense to really play hard," Wake Forest nose guard Nikita Whitlock said.

Tanner Price was 22 of 33 passing for 153 yards for Wake Forest with his longest pass for 16 yards. The Irish held the Demon Deacons to 55 yards rushing as Wake Forest dropped to 1-4 on the road this season.

"They were where they needed to be and they just force you to execute," Tanner said. "Obviously we weren't able to do that today."

After posting a 17-16 record at home the past five seasons, the Irish victory Saturday improved their record at Notre Dame Stadium to 6-0 this year. But this was the first time they made it look easy. The Irish needed overtime to beat Stanford, triple overtime to beat Pittsburgh and won the three other home games by a combined 13 points.

"We put it all together and played a complete game today," left tackle Zack Martin said.

Many Notre Dame students showed their respect by wearing yellow leis to honor Te'o, who is from Hawaii and who has played a key role in the Irish resurgence. Te'o, senior defensive end Kapron Lewis-Moore and senior safety Zeke Motta left to standing ovations with 13 minutes left.

"I wanted to make it a special moment for the seniors on defense. They have been obviously the rock. They've carried us while we were trying to find ourselves offensively," Kelly said. "It just seemed to me to be a pretty good gesture to allow us to honor those seniors."

When Notre Dame went 11-0 in 1989, the Irish were beaten by Miami in the regular season finale and finished the season ranked No. 2 behind the Hurricanes.

The last time the Irish headed to Los Angeles to play Southern Cal undefeated was a year earlier, in 1988, when the squad coached by Lou Holtz beat the second-ranked Trojans 27-10 en route to the school's last national championship.

Te'o said that's the only focus now.

"I don't care about anything else but winning and being part of this team," he said. "And now we have to work on USC, and beating USC."

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