What do Notre Dame fans see as acceptable for Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish in the first year under a first-time head coach? Couple the coaching change with several staff changes and a schedule that has match-ups at Ohio State, North Carolina, and USC as well as a neutral site game against BYU and a home tilt against Clemson and you’re looking at what could be amongst the toughest schedules in the country for 2022.
Would Notre Dame fans be OK considering the circumstances then if the Irish were to miss out not just on the College Football Playoff but on the New Year’s Six (NY6) as a whole?
Longtime college football reporter Brett McMurphy has his first set of projections out already and calls for the Irish to in fact miss out on the NY6 entirely and sends them to a bowl game they’ve never played in against a team they’ve never faced.
Bowl projection: Outback Bowl, January 2, 2023
Bowl opponent: Kentucky
Projected line: Notre Dame -1
New head coach and a tough schedule are certainly both undeniable but when you’re as close to being seen as a truly elite program like Notre Dame currently is, missing out on the NY6 entirely feels like a miss.
Even with a murderers row of a schedule.
Related:
Predicting Notre Dame’s game-by-game results in 2022
The 45 FBS teams Notre Dame has never played
Reaction to Notre Dame hiring Al Golden as defensive coordinator