Stanford Appears To Be Notre Dame's Toughest Opponent So Far

As Notre Dame looks to add to it's 4-0 record, fans are excited yet curious about just how good the Irish are. Sure they have looked dominant for the most part, it has been against four really weak teams. Now here comes another traditional rival in Stanford into South Bend. When you think of Stanford, you think of a tough physical team that loves to run the ball. So on paper, this looks like a great game like the OT thriller two years ago.

But the reality is that the jury is still out on both teams. Stanford looks to have a very impressive defense as they have two shut outs in four games. Over all, the defense has surrendered only two touchdowns in four games. But those shut outs were against UC Davis and Army. That is clearly inferior competition.

Offensively, they have new starters on the line which has hurt their once great running attack. The leading runner is Barry Sanders with just 153 yards and a good chunk of that came in those two easy games. I think Notre Dame fans can relate to this on.

Kevin Hogan is now a Junior. He has less yardage and less touchdowns than Everett Golson. His best receiver is Ty Montgomery who has 26 catches for 276 yards and three touchdowns.

Stanford is 3-1 but I am not sure how impressive that is considering their one loss was to USC at home and they struggled to beat Washington who nearly lost to Hawaii.  Although we can hope for a good game, we will really only know that one team is out and will not know how good the winning team is. A loss will all but kill Stanford's playing chances. Notre Dame will have to win all games it seems to get in.

Notre Dame Will Be Defined Over the Next Three Weeks

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.

Syracuse Outmatched By The Fighting Irish

Where do we start with this one? How about with Everett Golson? He had what I would call an ambiguous night. Prior to this game, he did not turn the ball over at all. He turned it over three times in the first half and it easily could have been four. Then he threw a pick six late.  At the same time, he also had 25 straight completions while throwing for 362 yards and 4 touchdowns.

His best receivers were Will Fuller who caught six passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns and Corey Robinson who had a career night with 8 catches for 91 yards and a touchdown.

Once again the running game did not do much to help and the offensive line did not help the cause. These are areas that need to improve as the schedule gets tougher.

The defense was absolutely solid. With the inconsistency of the offense, it was nice to see that the defense had their back.

It is nice to get the win and be 4-0. But being real, Syracuse was completely outmatched. A better opponent would have capitialized on the Irish mistakes. Coach Kelly has lots to work on getting ready for Stanford.

Notre Dame Set to Officially Begin Its ACC Agreement With Syracuse

When this blog was created two years ago, it was right after the announcement that Notre Dame had struck the agreement with the ACC. It was all about the new direction Notre Dame would take in all of it's great history, hence "The New Notre Dame."

So first on the schedule is another team that is still new to the ACC. Syracuse is only in it's second season in the ACC. The game is another neutral field game at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. It is sort of like Syracuse's version of the Shamrock Series.

To tell you the truth, a team like Syracuse almost scares me more than a Stanford or a Florida State. The reason being that when we face those tougher schools, we know we are in for a fight. But The Orange are a different animal. They began the year by needed overtime to beat an FCS team in Villanova. After a bye, they blew out Central Michigan who had blown out Purdue the week before. Then just last week they got manhandled by Maryland from the Big Ten. That tells me that they are inconsistent and we don't really know what to expect. But much like it was for Purdue in Indianapolis, this is probably their Bowl game.

Watching Syracuse last week, I noticed a couple of things about them. their secondary looked slow and that is something that Everett Golson and our receivers can exploit. Also their quarterback is an Everett Golson wanna be. Terrell Hunt has only thrown for one touchdown so far, but he has rushed for five. He is decent but he is no Golson. The defense just needs to bring it and have one spy for him. I don't think he can complete passes under duress like Golson does.

Notre Dame should not have too much trouble with this one if they come ready to play.

Back To Reality For Notre Dame

Bye week is done and it is time for the Fighting Irish to get back to preparing for Syracuse. The reality that played out over the off weekend for Notre Dame is that there are really more questions than answers as far as how good Notre Dame really is. Sure they have looked really good, but it has not really been against anybody yet. I am not trying to be negative, but I have to keep it real.

The Irish have beaten three unranked teams who aren't very good.  Rice, though they are the defending C_USA Champs, is 0-3. Certainly there is no shame for a team like Rice to lose handily to Notre Dame and Texas A & M. But Old Dominion??? Really???

Michigan did look impressive against an FCS opponent week 1, since then they have been a disaster. Notre Dame shut them out and then the following week the Wolverines were really not that impressive in beating Miami of Ohio who has the longest current losing streak of 21 games. Now Michigan lost to Utah from the PAC 12. In that game, the offense only managed a field goal. That means that in 8 quarters against major competition, Michigan's offense has 3 points to show for itself. Looking at their remaining schedule, they might only win two more games. While that will make Irish fans chuckle, the reality is that Notre Dame dominated a weaker team.

Ironically, the best team the Irish have played might have been Purdue. I would never would have thought that after they got blown out to Central Michigan, but outside of that game the Boilermakers have been decent. But still they are not a team who will even contend for the Big Ten title and will struggle to even be bowl eligible.

So what do we have with Notre Dame this year? We know that we have a great quarterback who is among the best in the nation. We know he also has a great group of receivers. We don't know how good the line is to protect him. We know we have three really good prospects at tailback, but we don't know if one can establish himself as the featured runner.

We know we have a young and fiery new defense. We don't know how if they can stay disciplined in big games. We also don't know how they will matchup against physical offenses like Stanford and Florida State.

So when I look at that #8 ranking and wonder if it is accurate. If I think with my heart, I say "Hell Yeah!" But if I try to be even a little objective, I have to say we don't know yet.

Why I Hate The New Playoff System

Okay, so yes this is a piece for a bye week. But the new playoff system is a joke. For anybody to suggest that it is better than what we had is just silly. Where do I start?

How about with the panel? All I hear is about how great it will be to no longer have computers involved in the selection process. Humans have eyeballs and can see what happens on the field. That is a valid argument, but the problems with humans is that they also have bias which affects their objectivity. What is more objective and unbiased than a computer?

But beyond that, the problem is that it is not being decided on the field but chosen by a committee. I am okay with a Final Four, but why can't they use what was already there to determine it?

The old system had four major bowls. The Rose Bowl was Big Ten vs. PAC 12, The Sugar Bowl was SEC vs. at large or Notre Dame, The Orange Bowl was ACC vs. at large usually from the Big East aka AAC, and the Fiesta Bowl was Big 12 vs. at large or Notre Dame. Why can't they keep that system and the winners are your final four?

The other thing I really hate is the new system is totally unfair to Notre Dame. I keep hearing that the committee will be emphasizing Conference Champions when determining the four teams. That means Notre Dame will likely get left out if they lose even one game and we all know how difficult their schedule is every year.

Under the system I propose above, they can make the standards for Notre Dame very clear. If they win 10 games they are an automatic bid. If they win 9, they are eligible for an at large selection. What is so hard about that?

My biggest fear with it though is that I think it will be so SEC biased. ESPN owns the new SEC Network and this playoff is on ESPN. There is the motivation for the system to grant two SEC teams in. ESPN is biased toward Notre Dame. Do you think they would be if they had a contract for Notre Dame?

3 Things To Work On During the Bye.

After Notre Dame's rocky victory over Purdue, it is pretty easy to see the areas the Fighting Irish need to improve upon with a tough schedule ahead.  The offensive line, running game, and secondary are all areas to work on. I am not worried over 5 players who may or may not be reinstated. The coaches have no control over it either way.

Offensive Line

This is always a good place to start. The bottom line is that this unit just needs to play better. Everett Golson was running for his life out there. A quarterback of lesser ability would have not been able to make the plays Golson did. But he is going to get hurt behind this line with tough defenses like Stanford and Florida State on the schedule in the near future.

Running Game

The Irish have an interesting dilemma here. They have three runners in Tarean Folston, Greg Bryant, and Cam McDaniel who all have shown great potential. The problem is that with a three way rotation, none of them are really being featured and that makes it tough for any one runner to get into a rhythm. It seems that the Irish have to do one of two things. That is they can feature one runner and limit the carries for the other two. It is not clear which of the three should be featured at this point. Or they can go to a two back rotation instead of three. That will give more carries to two guys and allow them to go with the hot runner in the second half. But the problem is which runner do you take out of the rotation. This is not an easy decision here. It can be considered a good problem to have but it is a problem nonetheless.

Secondary

This is a unit that has just been decimated by injury. Hopefully, Austin Collinsworth will be back soon. Andrew Trumbetti who suffered a head injury against Michigan should be ready to go against Syracuse. Cole Luke has to go through concussion protocol and there is no word on his return yet. Nicky Baratti is done for the year after separating his shoulder. Finally, somebody needs to sit down with Max Redfield.  I do love the intensity this young man plays with. However, he not only will cost the team harmful penalties, but he will also hurt somebody possibly himself with the way he plays.

The bye week is coming at a good time. There are injury issues to deal with. The team needs to transition from a Big Ten type Schedule to now a ACC and PAC 12 schedule. The Irish will play Syracuse in two weeks. After that, the schedule gets really tough. The line up is Stanford, North Carolina, and Florida State. Then late in the season Notre Dame has Arizona State, Louisville, and USC. Even Navy always play the Irish tough. The only easy win appears to be Northwestern. It won't be an easy road at all, so the Irish have to make the most of this bye week.