As Admiral Akbar famously said in Star Wars Return of the Jedi, “It’s a trap!”and every year many college football teams find themselves in a trap games. Typically, the higher ranked team plays down to their opponent and the game is much closer than it should be, occasionally resulting in a surprising loss.
Looking ahead at the Irish schedule for 2020, there are plenty of marquee games on the slate, visiting Wisconsin in Lambeau, hosting Clemson, the regular season finale against USC in Memorial Stadium, those games will see Brian Kelly’s team hyped up for. What about the games that could potentially trip up the Irish?
I look at game that involves the Irish traveling, the game prior to a big game being played, and a team that returns some production from last year. The game that sticks out like a sore thumb to me is the September 26th contest in Charlotte against Wake Forest. A team that went 8-5 last year, lost just one game at home, returns their QB in Jaime Newman, leading receiver Sage Surratt and second leading rusher Kenneth Walker III. The Irish have two games after this game, traveling to Wisconsin and at home to Stanford, which are viewed as much bigger contests.
Bud Elliott of 247Sports sees it a bit differently that I do, marking the October game at Pittsburgh as Notre Dame’s trap game. He says “If Notre Dame gets through the Wisconsin and Stanford games, it could be primed for a letdown. And a physical Pitt team on the road could prove a bigger challenge on the field than on paper.” I get Elliott’s rationale picking this game, but with a bye right after, I view this as a game where the Irish can lick their wounds a bit after the two games ahead of it and get healthy following the week off.
There are other potential trap games in the Irish’s 2020 slate, Duke ahead of Clemson, Louisville before USC that could trip up Notre Dame. Which game do you see that could slow down the momentum for the Irish this season?
