Tag: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

The picks are in! Analysts predict Irish vs. Duke outcome and more

ESPN’s College Gameday crew picks this weeks slate of games with Wake Forest alum and NBA star Chris Paul.

It’s become a Saturday tradition at ESPN, as their analysts pick games with a celebrity guest. Find out who picked Notre Dame to beat Duke along with the other big games of the day.

ESPN College Gameday with Wake Forest alum and NBA star Chris Paul

Costal Carolina at Kansas

Lee Corso – Kansas

David Pollack – Kansas

Kirk Herbstreit – Kansas

Desmond Howard – Kansas

Chris Paul – Kansas

 

Charlotte at Appalachian State

Lee Corso – App St.

David Pollack – App St.

Kirk Herbstreit – App St.

Desmond Howard – App St.

Chris Paul – Charlotte

 

Louisiana at Iowa State

Lee Corso – Iowa St.

David Pollack – Iowa St.

Kirk Herbstreit – Iowa St.

Desmond Howard – Iowa St.

Chris Paul – Louisiana

 

Florida State at Georgia Tech

Lee Corso – Florida St.

David Pollack – Florida St.

Kirk Herbstreit – Florida St.

Desmonds Howard – Florida St.

Chris Paul – Florida St.

 

Syracuse at North Carolina

Lee Corso – North Carolina

David Pollack – North Carolina

Kirk Herbstreit – North Carolina

Desmond Howard – North Carolina

Chris Paul – North Carolina

 

Duke at Notre Dame

Lee Corso – Notre Dame (BIG)

David Pollack – Notre Dame

Kirk Herbstreit – Notre Dame

Desmond Howard – Notre Dame

Chris Paul – Notre Dame

 

Clemson at Wake Forest

Lee Corso – Clemson

David Pollack – Clemson

Kirk Herbstreit – Clemson

Desmond Howard – Clemson

Chris Paul – Wake Forest

Watch: ESPN thanks Notre Dame’s for what?

During College Game Day, ESPN showed a video thanking the Irish for something they have never done.

The Irish have never be associated with a conference, but this year due to obvious circumstances, Notre Dame Football expanded their relationship with the ACC. ESPN thinks this decision was monumental in the ACC moving forward with fall football and singled out the Irish’s decision. Check out this video, as ESPN thanks the Irish for joining up with the ACC for the season potentially saving ACC football for 2020.

A change in philosophy has the Irish close to elite football status

When Brian Kelly suffered his worst season as Notre Dame head coach, he made changes immediately. They have really paid off

As the Irish step into their first, and most likely only, ACC conference season, there are plenty of questions along the way as to how Notre Dame will fare. Chip Patterson of CBS Sports tried to tackle how Brian Kelly will guide the Irish through this odd season.

Before Patterson got in-depth on how the Irish would do in conference play, still weird to say that, he looked at how they got to this point. Patterson singled out Kelly’s change in player development and recruiting since going 4-8 in 2016. The head coach addressed those issues and “the results were immediate, with Notre Dame going 33-5 over the last three seasons with three top-12 poll finishes and an appearance in the 2018 College Football Playoff.”

You can say that Kelly has really excelled with the change, not hoping the players improve, but instead putting an emphasis on drastic improvements. Patterson singled out linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Kyren Williams as two players who have benefitted from new priorities. This led Patterson to come to the conclusion that “Notre Dame is uniquely built to overcome whatever obstacles are ahead in the 2020 season.”

That main obstacle being the Clemson Tigers, who pretty much own the ACC right now. Patterson knows that as “Clemson is still the odds-on favorite to win the league, but Notre Dame is too strong to think we can pencil in those two matchups as ‘win, win’ for the Tigers.”

Notre Dame/Duke Game Predictions

Week One is finally upon us! Last night saw Miami open up the ACC football season as they ran over, through and around UAB en route to their opening night victory. Now the majority of the ACC gets going for 2020 on Saturday with Notre Dame and Duke …

Week One is finally upon us!

Last night saw Miami open up the ACC football season as they ran over, through and around UAB en route to their opening night victory.

Now the majority of the ACC gets going for 2020 on Saturday with Notre Dame and Duke doing battle in South Bend to start the season.

How 2020 goes is anyone’s guess and I’m not talking about Notre Dame specifically.

Do we get to December without a stoppage in the sport?

Does the Big Ten and/or Pac-12 get in on the action at some point late this fall?

And will the American sport that most resembles European soccer in terms pageantry feel the safe to a nation when you cut 75% or more of attendance in most places?

We don’t have the answers to these questions for you here but we do have predictions as to how Week One goes for Notre Dame and Duke.

Shall we?

Geoffrey Clark leads us off:

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Former Irish commit Colzie sets commitment date, possible recommitment?

One-time Notre Dame commit Deion Colzie has set a date to make his second commitment. Could lightening strike twice for the Irish?

Last October, Brian Kelly scored a huge win when Georgia wide receiver Deion Colzie committed to the Irish. Notre Dame held on to Colzie’s commitment until March 20, when he reopened his recruitment. Colzie now has set a date to commit for the second time.

Taking a look at where some of the experts think Colzie is headed is not very encouraging. At 247Sports, there have been 6 “crystal ball” picks, each one of them favoring instate Georgia. The other pick was made for the Irish, but it was made the day Colzie previously committed to the Irish. It’s noteable that Irish Illustrated insider Tom Loy has picked Georgia.

Rivals sees it the same way, but with an asterisk. Their Notre Dame insider Mike Singer picked the Irish in their FutureCast, after another one of their insiders picked Colzie to recommit as well. So you’re saying there’s a chance?

Right now it tough to tell what Colzie’s intentions are. No doubt, Kelly and wide receivers coach Del Alexander would love for Colzie to rejoin the Irish 2021 recruiting class. Right now, Lorenzo Styles Jr. is the lone commit at the position. We will continue to monitor the situation, as the countdown to September 28 has begun.

WATCH: NBC Sports Notre Dame season opening hype video

Check out NBC Sports Notre Dame hype video prior to the season starting on Saturday.

It’s game week and all of us are excited. Football is finally back after a much longer hiatus than expected. Normally, a spring game would have been an appetizer to the regular season, but with them canceled, our football tanks were left on empty. They’re starting to fill up and NBC Sports is just as excited as we are. Check out their hype video prior to the season starting.

ESPN names Top 25 ACC football players, how many Irish stars made it?

Ahead of the ACC season kicking off tonight, ESPN ranked their Top 25 players in the conference. Find out how many Notre Dame stars made it.

Two more days, just two more days until the wait is over and Notre Dame Football is back in our lives. As we look towards the future of the one-off ACC season, ESPN has ranked the Top 25 players inside the conference.

You might think that due to an overwhelming amount of analysts picking the Irish to finish second in conference play behind Clemson that this list would be littered with Notre Dame players. Well, unfortunately that isn’t the case. Just two Irish stars made the list, safety Kyle Hamilton and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah.

Hamilton was ranked just one spot ahead of JOK, checking in at 10th on their list. Andrea Adelson and David M. Hale comprised the list, and were very complimentary of the sophomore star. “ACC QBs would be wise not to pick on Hamilton during Notre Dame’s brief foray into the league.” After taking away four passes in part-time work last year, Hamilton should become a national name after this season. Don’t be surprised to see him become an early entry player after his junior campaign.

Right after Hamilton was JOK, ranked as the 11th best player in the ACC. They called Owusu-Koramah a “dominant force at linebacker” which seems to be true. Adelson and Hale brought to attention JOK’s success at getting to the quarterback, “he got pressure 22.2% of the time — best on the team.” Expect defensive coordinator Clark Lea to unleash JOK in his final year on campus.

Although it was disappointing not to have more Irish stars on ESPN’s list, the team should still be competitive in every game it plays this year. This just add fuel to their fire, and Notre Dame has plenty to play for this season.

ESPN and 247Sports make predictions ahead of ‘20 season

Experts from two major outlets predict how the 2020 ACC and college football season will play out.

Saturday can’t get here soon enough, but until then we have to count down the hours until the Irish kickoff against Duke at 2:30pm EST. While we wait, let’s take a look at how some of the biggest football analysts see the season playing out.

Over at ESPN, Mark Schlabach gave out his predictions to how the conference would shake out, the Irish finishing second behind Clemson, and conference awards, where the Irish went home empty handed. Notre Dame was featured in each of Schlabach’s game’s of the year: ACC conference game, non-conference game and upset of the year. The game of the year is obvious, when the Irish host Clemson on November 7, which Schlabach has Notre Dame winning. If correct, the Irish could potentially stop the Tigers from tying the longest winning streak in-conference play at 29 games set by FSU in the early 90’s.

When looking at the upset of the year, you won’t think the Irish would worry much about Pat Narduzzi’s Pittsburgh Panthers. A so-so offense, but solid defense, shouldn’t pose many problems from Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees but Schlabach thinks Pitt will. Having home-field advantage won’t be much on an advantage for any team this year, as crowds aren’t expected to be capacity by any means. An upset would be very disappointing especially against the Panthers, as Notre Dame on paper is a much better team.

As for the non-conference game of the year, the tilt against South Florida won’t be an easy win, but should be a win regardless. It’s a bit concerning that Notre Dame didn’t sniff any of the individual awards, but if it’s wins over individual awards, the Irish will surely take it.

Over at 247Sports, it was more of a collective on how the season would play out. Six of their seven experts have the Irish making the ACC championship game, the other team with a berth was North Carolina. The end goal is winning an ACC championship, at least this year it is, getting to the College Football Playoff is a byproduct of winning the conference.

Staying with 247Sports, only one of their seven experts had Notre Dame in the final four of the CFP, Bud Elliott had them finishing 3rd overall. That’s the good news, back to ESPN, Schlabach has the Irish losing twice, once to the aforementioned Pitt and again to North Carolina. This loss would hurt the most, as Schlabach predicts it will knock the Irish out of a CFP spot. What hurts even more is the Irish will have a shot to beat Clemson twice, but fail to achieve the sweep and finish second in the ACC.

These are just predictions, a guess as to what the season will hold of the Irish as they venture into the ACC for the season. I think we all hope Elliott is correct, making the CFP would be exactly what Brian Kelly is looking for this season.

Rivals: Irish don’t have enough firepower to beat Clemson

It’s a bit premature to make that assumption, there are a lot of unknowns about Notre Dame’s new offense behind Tommy Rees’ direction.

There are plenty of prognosticators who want to go out on a limb and make predictions that might be a bit far out there. Rivals’ Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney both looked at if the Irish could beat out Clemson for the ACC Title.

Both, Farrell and Gorney, believe that Notre Dame won’t be able to knock off the perennial College Football Playoff contestant. Farrell says that “I don’t think there’s a threat” when referring to Notre Dame’s potential to topple the Tigers. Farrell cites Clemson’s hunger after losing last year’s CFB Championship to LSU and that he “can’t see either (North Carolina or Notre Dame’s) defense holding up to the explosive Clemson offense.”

Clemson’s explosive offense has probably the best pair of backfield mates in quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back Travis Etienne in the country. However, losing potential star wide receiver Justyn Ross to a spinal injury and Tee Higgins going to the NFL, gives the Tigers WR unit some questions going into the season also. Lots of talented players are behind them, but like the Irish, they’re going to have to find playmakers. Their situations, Notre Dame’s and Clemson’s, are very similar and claiming Clemson has an explosive offense at this point in time seems foolish.

Gorney see’s things playing out very similar to Farrell. He worries “the Irish don’t have enough offensive firepower to keep up with Clemson… because Notre Dame is still looking for playmakers in the passing game.” Gorney, like Farrell, fails to see the similarities between both teams playmakers situations.

It’s a bit premature to say Notre Dame’s offense won’t be able to contend with Clemson’s. Defensive coordinator Clark Lea is a rising star and new offensive coordinator Tommy Rees had time to install his offense during the offseason. Rees will find playmakers from his talented group, it could be tight end Brock Wright, wide receiver Braden Lenzy or Lawrence Keys III, running back Chris Tryee that breaks out. The Irish will have players break out and perform at a high level this year.

Farrell and Gorney are a bit off when saying the Irish don’t have the offensive firepower, there’s plenty of talented players on the Notre Dame roster who will have their opportunities this season. Each team will have plenty of time to get their offenses humming by the time they meet on the field November 7th. It should be a great one that will impact not just the ACC race, but the CFP as well.

ESPN updates Power Poll, Irish sitting pretty

Notre Dame is in a much more advantageous position in ESPN’s final preseason Power Poll than either of the other polls.

The season is finally upon us, we can officially say it’s game week. The Irish start their season on Saturday, hosting Duke at 2:30pm EST. The excitement for 2020 is at it’s peak and ESPN just put more gas on the Notre Dame hype machine heading into the regular season.

The world wide leader updated their Power Poll prior  to major conference play and Brian Kelly’s Irish squad ranked 5th overall according to the experts at ESPN. Chris Low, who compiled the rankings had some very encouraging things to say about the Irish: “Finally, Notre Dame has joined a conference, at least for this season. This Irish will play 10 ACC games and be eligible to play in the conference championship in December. They have the pieces in place to get there, too, from veteran quarterback Ian Book to one of the top offensive lines in the country to budding superstars on defense in linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and safety Kyle Hamilton. This is a team primed to win 10 or more games for the fourth straight season.”

That’s high praise from Low, who is very high on what the Irish can accomplish this season. In a surprise, Low actually doesn’t have Clemson, they’re number two, as his top overall team like both polls do, it’s Alabama. Looking at other Notre Dame opponents for his coming season and you’ll find North Carolina at 15, Louisville at 22 and Florida State at 23.

The season is here and we are extremely excited for what lies ahead in what could be the only season the Irish could qualify for an ACC title. Hell, might as well go win it since we can.