ulukinatme
Old Skool
cincibuck;1958475; said:
This schedule will be tougher than it seems. All of these teams went to bowls last year if I recall except 3, and one was USC which would have qualified sanctions aside. Also, this is Notre Dame we're talking about here, they'll find a way to screw up regardless.
Theres 3 teams on this schedule that you can never count out no matter what the record is that year: BC, MSU, and Michigan. I would add USC to that list, but usually we just lose. With the other 3 teams it can go either way. Sparty always plays the Irish tough, Michigan has been pulling out late heroics the last two years, and BC is the king of Irish upsets. Last year's Michigan game our QB was knocked out for half the game and the backups were completely unpreparred, Kelly screwed that one up bad.
Stanford may have lost Harbaugh, but they've still got Andrew Luck and a hard nosed offensive line, I don't know of a better QB in college football this year.
I think Pittsburgh will improve now that the Wanstache is gone, maybe they'll actually feed their best RBs the ball now.
Wake Forest is one of the few games that don't scare me, but Maryland could be a decent game. Despite being in the ACC, they lost 4 games last year and Randy Edsall coming in as coach is an upgrade imo.
Purdue is the only easy Big 10 team I see in the list there, and they're due for a better season sometime now.
I think if the defense plays like they did at the end of last year, Air Force's passing shouldn't be a problem.
USC will be tougher against Notre Dame this year. For one, Matt Barkley was out and they were playing super conservative all game with Mitch Mustain. The game probably wouldn't have been as close if our freshman QB wasn't starting in the Colliseum and gave up 4 turnovers, but USC probably would have been more agressive too. Since USC hasn't really felt the pain of the sanctions yet aside from the bowl games, I don't think they'll be hurting yet.
Notre Dame has a real problem with Navy though. They handled the triple option fine against Army later in the season, but before that Navy ran them over with the fullback. They had a real problem handling the cut blocking too. The good news is that Ricky Dobbs is graduated, he's been the QB for some time now and contributed to a lot of their wins.
A lot of Irish fans are thinking BCS game this year, but I think the team still needs a year or two to improve...maybe by the time Aaron Lynch and these other Freshman are upperclassmen. He was a force in the Spring game. With Tuitt and Williams added in and 2 years to bulk up and get experience, that would be one heck of a defensive front. I'm guessing losses this year to USC for sure, Michigan State, Navy, and Stanford...hopefully not Michigan. 7-4 with a bowl game against...I dunno
Upvote
0
