Irish fans these days can be described as optimistic and at the same time cautious. The 4-0 record is cause for optimism. Notre Dame has really looked dominant on defense and has arguably the best quarterback in the nation. But there is also reason to be cautious. The reason being that they haven't really played a good team yet. Rice, Michigan, Purdue, and Syracuse have a combined record of 7-11 and an 0-9 record against teams from Power 5. On top of that, Notre Dame has looked sloppy in the last two games. Granted it was on neutral fields in games that were kind of like the bowl game for both Purdue and Syracuse. Therefore, teams like that will play above themselves for awhile until reality sits in.
Nonetheless, while Irish fans are hopeful the reality is that we do not know how good this team is. My intuition tells me that they are better than the 8-4 team from a year ago, but it is way to early to compare them to the team that went 12-0 two years ago. The good news is that we will have a better idea about Notre Dame after these next 3 games.
Stanford may have owned this rivalry in recent years, but that was without Golson. Also their offensive line is not as tough as they usually are. Nonetheless, we can always expect a physical battle from Stanford.
Next up will be North Carolina who has not lived up to expectations, but this has trap game written all over it. Notre Dame needs to be ready to play for this one.
Finally, Florida State will round it out for Notre Dame to play in Tallahasse. That is the ultimate measuring stick as to how good the Irish are.
So we may not know just yet how good Notre Dame is, we will in about three weeks.
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