Notre Dame enters a critical part of the season tonight and it ends in three weeks in California.

If the Irish want to get into the College Football Playoff, they need to win their remaining games. It won't be easy, but with the teams left and their records, winning the next four should impress the selection committee for the national title race.ND faces unbeaten Temple in Philadelphia today, followed be a game at twice-beaten Pittsburgh, which will be followed by the home finale against Wake Forest. The Shamrock Game, a neutral site contest against Boston College, will be held at Fenway Park in Boston and the regular season finale will come at Stanford, which has only one loss as of today and that came in the first game of the season.So the schedule favors ND for a chance at the national tournament, if they can run the table and win the next four. Wake Forest and Boston College, although good teams, don't have the type of record that would help the Irish in the national rankings.At the beginning of the season, I looked at Temple as a game ND could take lightly coming off a bye week and looking ahead to Pitt. But the Owls are 7-0 and in the top 25 and that fact has not escaped the Irish. ND knows that this is probably the biggest game for Temple in many, many years and the Irish also know that beating an undefeated team will mean a lot in the drive for a place in the national title tournament. Temple will be up for the game, but so will Notre Dame.This is the second meeting between the two schools. They last met in 2013 in South Bend with the Irish coming out on top, 28-6. Tonight's game was originally scheduled for last year, but ND had to ask Temple to change it because of a scheduling problem, which the Owls' athletic department graciously agreed to do.As i mentioned, Temple enters at 7-0 with wins over Penn State, 27-10; Cincinnati, 34-26; UMass, 25-23; Charlotte, 37-3; Tulane, 49-10; UCF, 30-16; and East Carolina last week, 24-14.The Owls are led by Quarterback P.J. Walker, who has completed 113 of 189 attempts with three interceptions and nine touchdowns. He has a solid 130.73 rating. Johad Thomas leads the rushing attack with 886 yards on 165 carries and 12 TDs. He's backed by Rayquill Armstead with 134 yards on 31 carries and two TDs. Top receivers are Robby Anderson with 388 yards on 31 catches and 5 TDs and Thomas has caught 18 for 204 and a score. Defensive leaders are Tyler Matokervich and Jarred Abuon.The game will be televised nationally by ABC with a 8:10 p.m. kickoff.IRISH NOTES: Kelly teams are 7-1 in games following an open date while at ND and 18-2 in his coaching career. Because the open date came at a time when the students are in break, Kelly gave the team a week off and told them to go home and just relax and forget about football for a time. He told them it had been a long stretch since the Texas opener and they deserved a break. ...Former Berwick and ND star QB Ron Powlus has been in the ear of QB DeShone Kizer helping the young QB handle the pressure of being the starting QB at Notre Dame. Powlus is ND's football director of player development. ...Speaking of Kizer, his stats continue to rise even during a week off. He moved up two spots in the national pass-efficiency standings to No. 14. Kizer's 156.9 rating remains on track to be the third-best, single-season mark of all time at ND, behind Jimmy Clausen's 2009 season (161.4) and Brady Quinn's in 2005 (158.4). ...ND moved up in the national rankings thanks to losses by Florida State and Utah. ND is now 9th. ...The last time ND played a team who was 7-0 or better was in 2004 against USC, which beat the Irish 41-10 and was the last game for coach Tyrone Willingham. The last time they beat an unbeaten team was 1993, defeating Florida State, 31-24. ...Temple is sixth in rush defense, ninth in pass-efficiency defense, 14th in total defense, eighth in scoring defense, and eighth in sacks. ...ND got another top recruit during the bye week. Four-star defensive end prospect Khalid Kareem of Farmington, Michigan, announced he will play for the Irish. He is the 17th commitment in a class that will probably top out at 23 or 24 players. Kareem is 6-4, 257-pounder and rated as the No. 8 strongside defensive end nationally by 247Sports. ...With the game in Philadelphia tonight, there are hundreds of ND fans from this area going to the sold out game. ...Tonight is the first time ND is playing Temple in Philadelphia but it is not the first time the Irish are playing in the City of Brotherly Love. It will be ND's 17th game in the city. The Irish are 14-1-1 in games in Philly with a 10-1 mark in neutral-site games and a 4-0-1 record at Penn. The most recent Irish game in Philly was 22 years ago, a 58-27 win over Navy at Veterans Stadium. ...ND will enter the game in good health. Two players who were injured and missed time are back. Left guard Quenton Nelson and center Nick Martin practiced all week. Nelson was injured in the Clemson game and hasn't played since and Martin suffered a sprained ankle against USC. Another player injured against USC, starting strong safety Elijah Shumate, who suffered a neck/shoulder injury, was cleared for practice this past Monday and will play tonight. ...Five teams on Notre Dame's 2015 schedule have a combined 31-4 record: No. 3 (Associated Press) Clemson 7-0, Navy 5-1, No. 21 Temple 7-0, No. 23 Pittsburgh 6-2 and No. 8 Stanford 6-1. ...Notre Dame is 15-0 in its previous football games played on Halloween (Oct. 31), the most recent in 2009 in San Antonio versus Washington State - and also including two games in Philadelphia (victories over Navy in 1964 and 1970). ...The start time for next week's game in Pittsburgh has been set. The Irish and Panthers game has a noon start. The Wake Forest game will start at 3:40 p.m. and Boston College at 7:40 p.m. The Stanford game time is still not set....In my preseason picks, I have the Irish winning today. The game means a lot to Temple's program, but it also means a lot to the Irish. As I stated at the beginning, ND is still in the hunt for a spot in the national tournament and a win over an unbeaten Temple team will mean a lot. Games ahead against Pitt and Stanford only helps the Irish, providing they win them all, including Wake Forest and Boston College, of course. It probably will be close game tonight, but the Irish should prevail.