Notre Dame Is Going Undefeated(For Real This Time)
It’s that time of year again. Hope springs eternal or whatever. This is the 4th annual “ND Is Going 12-0″ blog. If you want to take a trip down memory and read the blog from 2012 when I was the only person in America besides Lou Holtz to correctly predict an undefeated season for the Irish you’re going to have to email the DevNest because it’s somehow been lost to the deep web. The blog only exists in the hearts of the faithful now. And while I have written this “Undefeated blog” every year since 2012, this is the first time since 2012 that I actually believe the Irish will go undefeated. Notre Dame is a playoff team. Remember where you heard it.
Offense
Malik Zaire is QB1. Even though he’s only thrown 35 passes in his career you could argue that this is the most stable ND has been at quarterback in the Kelly era. It’s been a god damn carousel since Dayne Crist. I’m all in on Malik Zaire. I love dual threat QBs in college and if I’m being 100% honest…Malik Zaire is one of the sweetest names in college football. That’s a winning name. Can’t wait to say a million times this year. Malik. Zaire. Awesome. Word is that Zaire has taken hold of the team in a way that Golson, for one reason or another, never could. He’s not the passer that Golson is, but he’s a better trigger man in the run game and hopefully won’t be the turnover machine Golson was the last 8 games of 2014.
The offensive line returns four starters, including Ronnie Stanley at LT, who is going to be drafted higher than any ND player since like Rick Mirer. Games are won along the line of scrimmage and the O-Line is one of the strongest position groups for ND. Notre Dame will probably run the ball more than they have recently so these guys will get a chance to maul people.
The Irish have plenty of talent at the skill positions to light up scoreboards. Tarean Folston will likely be a 1000 yard back and he will share some carries with converted DB/WR CJ Prosise. The biggest problem at WR is finding a way to get snaps for everyone. Will Fuller is an All-American who can line up anywhere and do anything Kelly asks of him. Chris Brown(that guy who had that one catch against Oklahoma in 2012) will line up opposite of Fuller, but David Robinson’s kid and Torii Hunter’s kid will see a lot of action. Notre Dame should be awesome in the Redzone this year with a real running threat at QB and big targets like Robinson and stud freshman TE Alize Jones.
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Defense
The line should be BEASTING
That was Isaac Rochell blowing 13th overall pick Andrus Peat the fuck up. He gets to play with Sheldon Day
I couldn’t find game film of Day murdering people because he gets hurt all the time, but he’s healthy now and will be an impact player. Jarron Jones was supposed to be a big part of the defense at Nose, but he’s out for the year. Nobody seems to be worried because true Freshman Jerry Tillery is great I guess. If nobody else cares Jones is out, then I don’t care
Linebackers
Jaylon Smith may be the best LB in the country. Freak. He will likely play some Mike, Will, and maybe DE in passing situations. Maybe some safety. Who knows. He can do everything. He’s super man. They also get Joe Schmidt back from injury. The defense really went to shit last year when Schmidt got hurt. He was the brains of the operation. He is also the hair of the operation. Quarterback hair on a linebacker. Very rare.
Secondary
KeVairae Russell is back from suspension/jumping on stuff
Russell was one of the premier corners in America before getting suspended for academic issues. Notre Dame finally has a corner that can shut down some of the top WR in the country. ND has experienced and athletic safeties with Schumate and Redfield. They’ll get contributions from Drue Tranquill as well(Drue Tranquill is the Malik Zaire name of the defense…and he’s a white guy).
There’s so much talent on this defense that I can’t even really remember that they gave up almost 40 points per game in the 2nd half of 2014. That happened to somebody else. This is a talented, and now experienced group
Special Teams:
Only thing you need to know is that they have an Asian kicker. The last time ND had an Asian kicker…1988. Yup..national champs.
Schedule: Toughest thing about this schedule is deciding which game I’m gonna go to.
9/5 vs Texas: Texas stinks. Game is close in the 1st quarter, then the Irish pull away for an easy win. Win
9/12 @ Virginia: One of the 5 ACC games ND has to play. Virginia, like Texas, but worse. Win
9/19 vs Georgia Tech: The first real test for Notre Dame. GT runs that funky wing-T triple option bullshit. They take advantage of teams who aren’t used to seeing their unique offense. Bad news for GT, Notre Dame plays Navy every year so they’ve seen this offense before. Bad news for ND…they haven’t figured out who to stop Navy. In the end ND wins a tight game. Win
9/26 vs UMass: Can’t find a way to fit a B1G team on the schedule, but they’re playing UMass. Embarrassing, but ND should win by a zillion and every team in America has a few cup cakes. Win.
10/2 @ Clemson: Remember that time Clemson won a big national tv home game? Neither can I because it has never happened. Win.
10/10 vs Navy: Kind of trap game coming after Clemson and before USC, but ND has too much talent to lose to Navy and they already beat GT at this point so the scheme should be fresh in their mind. Win
10/17 vs USC: Over-hyped and their coach is a drunk. Win
10/30 @ Temple: See UMass
11/6 @Pitt: New coach, again, same old story. Average program with a great running back. ND wins this game with ease.
11/14 vs Wake Forest: See UMass and Temple. Blow out.
11/21 @ Boston College: This game is being played in Fenway which is awesome, but BC stinks so they could play it on the Moon and ND would still win.
11/21 @ Stanford: Clemson, USC, GT, blah blah blah. This is the toughest game on ND’s schedule in my opinion. Classic Stanford team. Veteran QB, multiple TEs, good skill, and a tough defense. In the end I think ND has more playmakers and they win a slug fest.
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So there you have it. A path to 12-0 that seems plausible. Notre Dame basically has a 4 game schedule. If they go 3-1 against Clemson, GT, USC, and Stanford they will be in the playoff. That doesn’t really matter since they’re winning all four of those games.
Now I’m not a homer. I’m not going to predict a national championship just yet, but they’ll be in the playoff along with LSU, TCU, and Ohio State.
PS: I’ll be doing more ND blogs this year because there seems to be an appetite for it based on the amount of emails and tweets we get. They won’t be this long in the future, but ND blogs will be more frequent. If you don’t like ND…don’t click on the blogs. It’s that simple.