The four regular or semi-regular Notre Dame opponents:
Miami: “Manny Diaz’s first season as Miami’s coach certainly won’t help season ticket renewals. But his defense was not the problem. Miami lost games in which it scored 20, 25, 35, 21, 24, 17, and 0 points. That might have seemed like a normal output in losses in 1999, but not 2019. The game has changed and teams have to score points. The addition of QB D’Eriq King has been drawing rave reviews. The Hurricanes get Pitt, UNC, and Florida State at home, which could decide the Coastal, but have to avoid the bad road loss. Perhaps new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee can get the job done.”
North Carolina: “The pressure to win comes from the recruiting. North Carolina has the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation right now, and if it is going to finish in the top ten, it will need to have a strong year on the field. It’s tough to see elite recruits sticking with UNC football if the Tar Heels are again losing to middling ACC teams with regularity. The pressure to take the next step and capture a program-changing recruiting class is real. ”
USC: “USC is just 13-12 in the last two seasons. The Trojans are coming off an embarrassing bowl loss to Iowa, and must open the season with Alabama. However, this could be the best USC team in quite a while, so expectations are relatively high. The Pac-12 South and to some extent the league as a whole look open, especially with Utah losing so much. The offense should take another step in Year 2 of the Air Raid, provided the team’s psyche doesn’t crater if Alabama crushes the Trojans to open the season.”
Virginia Tech: “2020 has the chance to be a bounceback year. The Hokies are sixth nationally in Bill Connelly’s returning production metric. They have a friendly ACC schedule which dodges Clemson and has Miami come to town in mid-November when it should be cold. This almost has to be the year for Justin Fuente to prove he is the man for the job.”
Joining those four who Notre Dame sees annually in USC’s case and regularly in the case of the other three, were Nebraska, Oklahoma State, South Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M and UCLA.
Reaction: