When No. 10 Notre Dame takes on No. 9 Arizona State Saturday at Sun Devil Stadium, it will be a showdown between two 7-1 teams who have both displayed a recent reemergence of their storied pasts.

From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, Lou Holtz was the head coach of Notre Dame and there he led the Fighting Irish to seven nine-win or better seasons during his 11-year tenure. Holtz led Notre Dame to its first national title since 1977 with a 34-21 victory over West Virginia in 1989, only his third year as head coach for Notre Dame.

Jump to the present and fourth-year Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has brought the Fighting Irish back into the national conversation, having gone to a bowl game each season since Kelly's first season in 2010 and in 2012, Kelly took Notre Dame to the BCS National Championship Game.

After Holtz left the program following the 1996 season, and before Kelly took over the program, Notre Dame only won one bowl game in a 14-year span, the win coming in 2008. During the stretch, Notre Dame had four different coaches, and two 10-win seasons.

But now, the Irish are back to playing at a level to match their program's storied tradition and the words of ASU's head coach reflects it.

"This is the biggest challenge we've had yet," Graham said. "This is the best football team we've played to this point. Best quarterback (senior Everett Golson), best receivers, they've got big playmaking abilities and I think explosives, that's going to be a big key in the game."

For ASU, its historic stretch of time, besides one-off Rose Bowl appearances in 1987 and 1997, came during the tenure of legendary former ASU head coach Frank Kush, for whom its playing field is named.

Kush coached the Sun Devils from 1958 to 1979, which included a stretch in which ASU won nine more games in seven seasons in the 1970s. Kush led the Sun Devils to their first ever bowl game victory in 1970 when ASU beat North Carolina 48-26 in the Peach Bowl.

ASU went 11-0 that season, was the Western Athletic Conference Champions, and was the only undefeated team in the nation. In five of the next seven years, the Sun Devils went to the Fiesta Bowl, where they won four times including the Bowl's inaugural year. In many ways, the Fiesta Bowl's rise to prominence mirrored ASU's successes in the 1970s.

Now in Graham's third year as ASU's head coach, the Sun Devils have been to two bowl games in the past two seasons and this season, are currently No. 9 in the second-ever weekly College Football Playoff rankings headed into their matchup against No. 10 Notre Dame.

"This is what you coach and play for," Graham said. "Sold out crowd, I mean Notre Dame at home, two teams 7-1, top ten teams in the country, pretty cool."

Graham has a 14-4 record at Sun Devil Stadium and led ASU a Pac-12 South title last season before losing to Stanford in the Pac-12 Championship Game at Sun Devil Stadium.

The Sun Devils need just two more wins this year to establish a record for their most wins in any three-year period since joining the Pac-10 in 1978. With just four games remaining in their regular seasons schedule, they're the odds on favorite to repeat in the South. Their resurgence under Graham, in many ways, parallels what Kelly has accomplished at Notre Dame.

Last season, ASU lost to the Fighting Irish in Arlington, Texas 37-34, but Graham said this Notre Dame team is nothing like last season.

"There's obviously a lot of challenges there," Graham said. "We obviously need to play out best game. They play their best game, we play our best game and it's going to be on heck of a battle. It's two very good football teams playing."

Graham said that while this isn't perhaps his most talented team, it's the best overall team he's coached.

"These guys know we're playing on a national stage and this is one of those opportunities, like playing Stanford, it as an opportunity to step forward as a program," Graham said. "This is a giant step for us forward and I told our guys, 'I don't want a person going out there trying not to mess up, go out there and will into it. Go out there and attack it and seize it and seize the day."

Graham said the winner of the game Saturday will obviously help itself tremendously in terms of national title conversations, but ASU still has to focus on winning four more conference games in addition to Saturday's matchup.

However, for Graham, this game on this stage still gives a little life to his step.

"Do a handspring out of my bed a little but when I get to weeks like this," Graham said. "(Defensive coordinator Keith) Patterson, we sit around, and I'm still a little kid. Coach Patterson and I were college roommates, played ball together so we talked about doing this stuff so it's pretty cool to get to do it. So there's a little bit like a fan in us so we love this. We love the opportunity and I'm excited about it. I'm excited about, these games don't make me nervous. I love these games. The games you're supposed to win are the ones that make you nervous and obviously it's not like we're not supposed to win this game but this is a game that man, I see nothing but opportunity for us you know to have 'em here and to be sitting where we're sitting. We're blessed."

Notre Dame and ASU have a lot of similarities when it comes to personnel and philosophy on the defensive side of the ball. Both are young defensives and both have had or are in the process of having to overcome injuries.

Saturday against ASU, the Fighting Irish will be without starting linebacker Joe Schmidt who suffered a season-ending ankle injury against Navy Saturday. True freshman linebacker Nyles Morgan will get the start in his place.

"Their system is a lot like ours defensively," Graham said. "I think they do some exotic stuff and you could tell, he (Schmidt) was the one directing traffic so just depends how well the person coming in is prepared to do that. I know that that was so disruptive for us. That was, I think that was what really, really, you know, the worse we played, it was the core of it and it's not an excuse but you know that does matter."

ASU sophomore Spur linebacker Viliami Moeakiola is similar to what Schmidt was to Notre Dame in terms of relying on Schmidt to get players lined up and be the director of the defense. When Moeakiola got injured against Colorado for ASU, the defense saw a lack of production and it suffered.

"No person is more important on a team, but I think we would have a real hard time having the success we've had defensively without Laiu (Moeakiola)," Graham said. "And the reason why is he's the guy who stabilizes everything and makes sure, we just don't have mental errors due to alignments so that's got to be a big challenge for them.

"Laiu, if you ask me who is the most valuable person on our defense I would try not to answer, but if I did it would be him."

Thirteen days removed from injuring his left knee late in the second half against Washington in Seattle, junior offensive guard Christian Westerman is slated to play against Notre Dame Saturday, Graham said Thursday.

"Two days ago I would have told you probably not, I thought he would be doubtful, but he practiced half the practice yesterday and all the practice today and as long as he you know doesn't have any complications from that he'll be ready to go," Graham said.

Westerman was practicing Thursday and was taking first-team reps at left guard in a maroon offensive jersey during the portion of practice media was able to see.

Westerman had been in a green non-contact jersey since his injury on Oct. 25 and as late as Tuesday, was icing his left knee on the trainer's table during periods media members were allowed to observe.

Sophomore offensive lineman Stephon McCray worked at left guard and earned his first start against Utah when Westerman was out.

Graham said after practice Thursday that starting junior defensive tackle Jaxon Hood won't play against Notre Dame Saturday, which means sophomore Viliami Latu will be elevated from second-team to starter, and true freshman Emanuel Dayries will be pressed into action for the first time as a Sun Devil.

"Dayries is going to play," Graham said. "Jaxon won't be with us this week, he's got some personal issues to take care of and (junior defensive end Demetrius) Cherry will be off his suspension (due to a recent arrest for misdemeanor DUI) so he'll play."

Patterson said on Wednesday that Hood wouldn't play after Hood hadn't attended practice Tuesday or Wednesday, but didn't give a clear reason.

"It hurts (not having Hood) but at the end of the day there's certain things more important than football and you know, I think too, yeah all that stuff is difficult man but I think its how you respond to those things," Graham said.

What appeared to be a likely redshirt season for Dayries will turn into him playing 10-15 snaps against Notre Dame Saturday behind Viliami Latu according to Graham.

"You know what, he (Dayries) has had a very good week of practice," Graham said. "He is very athletic, you know I think he was enjoying eating and just hanging out and being on scout team and he was running scout team against the offense four days ago and now he's on the starting rotation on the defensive line and what a great kid because I went to him and said you know, we really want to redshirt him, but for these seniors and for this football team and he said, 'Coach, no doubt.' I said it would be a 10-15 play deal and he said, 'Shoot coach whatever I can do I'm ready.' So he's had great energy about it."

Graham said playing Dayries this late isn't the easiest thing in the world to do with the system ASU has on defense, but that Dayries is doing well and he's going to have to depend on veteran defensive players helping him out on the line throughout the game Saturday.

"You can't break your foot and have a pin put in it and miss six weeks and come back and not miss a beat," Graham said. "But he's a winner. The one thing I keep telling people is, he's the only quarterback in this league that's undefeated."