Tag: Football Bowl Subdivision

Reddit map: USC, Boston College fans consider Notre Dame biggest rival

How do you feel about this?

College football fans are an interesting breed. While some adhere to traditional rivalries involving their teams, there are other teams they just hate more when their team plays them. If only there was a way to track how fans feel about certain rivalries. It turns out there is.

A website called Know Rivalry tracks how fans feel about playing certain teams and what they feel their biggest rivalries are. A college football fan on Reddit decided to place all Football Bowl Subdivision teams on a blank screen geographically and then draw arrows from the teams pointing to what fans believe to be their biggest rival.

Notre Dame fans and USC fans both consider the other team their team’s biggest rival, which isn’t a surprise. But perhaps of the heavy Irish and Catholic connection to their location or university, Boston College fans also consider the Irish to be their top rival:

While the Irish and Trojans play each other every year, the Eagles pop up on the Irish’s schedule only five times between now and 2037. Also, the Irish have won nine straight in the series with the Eagles last emerging victorious in 2008. The teams last met in 2022.

If that’s how Eagles fans feel, fine. Let’s just hope they don’t get as upset if they lose to Syracuse.

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2026 Notre Dame interior offensive lineman target to visit campus

Hope the Irish can impress him enough.

Notre Dame has been a hotbed for offensive line talent in recent years. While there are concerns about that unit in 2024, the future always seems bright these days. Hopefully for the Irish, that future will include 2026 recruit Ben Nichols.

Nichols, Michigan’s No. 3 recruit in the 2026 class according to 247Sports, has received offers from 19 Football Bowl Subdivision programs. The Irish made their offer on St. Patrick’s Day this year. Now, he’ll be making a visit to campus when the Irish open their home schedule against Northern Illinois.

Nichols took to social media and expressed excitement about his upcoming trip to South Bend:

The Irish have some stiff competition to try and win Nichols’ services. Alabama made the most recent offer in late August. Others aiming for him include Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Illinois.

Good luck to the Irish in landing Nichols. They just might need it.

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Big Game Boomer: Notre Dame will win seven to 11 games in 2024

What would need to happen for the Irish to hit their floor?

Predictions about whether Notre Dame will make the 2024 [autotag]College Football Playoff[/autotag] seem to be of the mixed variety.

They’ve ranged from the Irish hosting a first-round game, to playing in a fringe bowl game. It sounds like many experts expect the Irish’s season to either be a great success or colossal failure.

Among those who think the Irish could fall on either end of the spectrum is Big Game Boomer, who has made one college football list after another for social media. The time had come for him to predict the ceiling and floor for every Football Bowl Subdivision team, and he has the Irish going 11-1 at best and 7-5 at worst:

With all the talent the Irish have, it seems highly unlikely they’ll mess things up so badly that they end up a bowl most people don’t care about. But the chance is there, and that’s enough to scare any Irish fan. Let’s hope they don’t let it happen.

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Offensive line named biggest liability for Notre Dame in 2024

Do you agree?

Every college football program has a weakness from the best to the worst. That’s why Big Game Boomer, who has published one college football list after another on social media, decided to determine the biggest liability for every Football Bowl Subdivision program and put it all into a list.

When it came time to pick Notre Dame’s biggest liability in 2024, Big Game Boomer opted to go with the offensive line:

At first, one might scoff at the idea of the Irish having weak offensive linemen. Then, you remember that the corps lost [autotag]Joe Alt[/autotag] and [autotag]Blake Fisher[/autotag] to the NFL. What’s left is a group consisting of a few upperclassmen but a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Indeed, [autotag]Joe Rudolph[/autotag]’s job has gotten tougher.

Irish fans undoubtedly will be concerned if the offensive skills players can’t do what they’re able to because their blockers failed them. There’s a reason those players always credit those blockers when they’ve had a big game. Without them, they’re nothing.

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Oklahoma Sooners among ESPN’s best remaining unbeaten teams

Where did the Oklahoma Sooners land in ESPN’s ranking of each of the remaining undefeated teams in college football?

The Oklahoma Sooners are off to a really nice start to the 2023 season. They’re one of 39 unbeaten teams remaining in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

While the schedule hasn’t been impressive, that’s not anything the Sooners can control. Everyone was aware of how favorable the schedule was entering the season, and that’s played out through three weeks.

Of the 39 unbeaten teams remaining in 2023, ESPN’s Bill Connelly ranked the Sooners at No. 8 (ESPN+).

Why they’re ranked here: Oklahoma has faced two bad opponents in three games, but Dillon Gabriel‘s numbers are still hilarious: 83% completion rate, 10.8 yards per dropback, 11-1 TD-to-INT ratio, 92.5 Total QBR (third overall). Week 4 opponent Cincinnati might have the first decent defense the Sooners face, but OU hasn’t given us any reason to doubt so far. – Connelly, ESPN

The Sooners offense has been incredibly impressive through three games, winning by an average margin of victory of 46.33 points per game. They’re doing what they want through the air, and [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag] has been much better than a year ago.

In the 2022 nonconference, Dillon Gabriel didn’t have a four-touchdown or 300-yard game. He’s had two of each in 2023.

In 2022, his best completion percentage was 75% in week two against Kent State, and his low was in the week three win over Nebraska at 59.3%. His low completion percentage this season came in the week two win over SMU, where he completed 70% of his pass attempts.

He’s completing 82% of his passes in 2023. Through three games in 2022, he only completed 66% of his pass attempts.

And that’s a big reason for Oklahoma’s success on offense, as the running game has been slow to get going in 2023.

Defensively, the Oklahoma Sooners have shown improvement, in particular on third down. The Sooners are allowing a third-down conversion just 30.4% of the time. Oklahoma’s run defense, which was an issue a year ago, is allowing just 2.29 yards per attempt this season, which is tied for tenth in the nation.

The Sooners are a better team than they were last year. Now will that translate to an 11-win season, Big 12 title berth, or College Football Playoff appearance? Only time will tell.

The Sooners take their next step toward returning to contender status this Saturday against Cincinnati.

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What the experts are predicting: Notre Dame vs. Tennessee State

What’s your prediction?

Notre Dame and Tennessee State have not met before, but they will Saturday in the first 2023 game at Notre Dame Stadium. Some Irish fans might not be happy about the Football Championship Subdivision level coming to South Bend, but there’s nothing that can be done about that right now. The only thing fans should be focused on is the Irish improving to 2-0.

Let’s look at what some college football experts are predicting for this game:

Tale of the Tape: Notre Dame offense vs. Tennessee State defense

Can the Irish offense light up an FCS defense?

We now have an idea of what Notre Dame probably will do offensively this year. Granted, Navy might not have been the best opponent to make any such assessments. After all, the Irish were able to do literally whatever they wanted when they had the ball. The result was one of the most impressive offensive performances we’ve seen from this program in quite some time.

Tennessee State might not be the best opponent to judge the Irish’s offense against either. While the Tigers were decent on defense overall in 2022, the fact remains they’re the first Football Championship Subdivision to ever face the Irish. It’s not impossible for them to pull off the upset, but they would be lying to themselves if they said this would be easy. Few lesser-known opponents can say that’s been their experience at Notre Dame Stadium.

Here’s a look at how the Irish’s offense through extremely limited Football Bowl Subdivision rankings matches up with the Tigers’ 2022 FCS rankings:

Notre Dame players named to preseason award watch lists

Will anyone win this year?

It’s the time of year when we start seeing award watch lists come out in anticipation of the college football season. With Notre Dame expected to be highly ranked once again, there are plenty of players who are ripe for watching. Whether or not any of them actually take home any of this hardware is anyone’s guess right now, but they’re at least on the radar of those who know college football best.

In some cases, more than one Notre Dame player is on the watch list for the same award. Also, as different award watch lists come on different days, it can be difficult to keep track of them all. Rest assured, we will be doing just that as these lists continue to come out.

At season’s end, we’ll find out if any of them or maybe somebody different becomes the first national award winner for the Irish since [autotag]Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah[/autotag] won the Butkus Award in 2020:

Twitter user: Quarterback is Notre Dame’s biggest strength in 2023

Does this surprise you?

Every team has a strength that stands out above the rest. With training camp still a month away, fans have plenty of time to look up and down every roster and identify that strength. Not the least of those fans is Big Game Boomer, Twitter’s college sports list aficionado. He released a list of the biggest position of strength for every Football Bowl Subdivision team, and what he came up with for Notre Dame may or may not surprise you:

We could talk about every Irish quarterback to drive this point home, but we all know this has everything to do with [autotag]Sam Hartman[/autotag]. Had he played for the Irish in 2021, he would have set the single-season program records for passing yards (4,228), completions (299) and touchdown passes (39). Irish fans have every right to be excited about the Wake Forest transfer, and everyone will be watching to see how he does on a bigger stage. There’s little reason to think he’ll do poorly, so keep the faith up.

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Actual players will be allowed in ‘EA Sports College Football’

Will this influence your decision to buy the game?

When EA Sports announced that college football would be returning to its lineup, former enthusiasts rejoiced. Now, thanks to the advent of NIL, the rechristened “EA Sports College Football” will be even better. That’s because EA Sports has confirmed to ESPN that actual Football Bowl Subdivision players who opt in will be featured in the game. Those players will be compensated.

It is not yet known whether Notre Dame will agree to be included in the game, which is slated for release in 2024, but it appears a major hurdle for that scenario has been cleared. When EA Sports made the fateful return announcement in 2021, the university was among a handful of schools that said it wouldn’t participate in the new game unless NIL compensation could be agreed upon. Northwestern and Tulsa opted in after this latest announcement, so it appears to be only a matter of time before the Irish domino falls.

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