Notre Dame football: Roster questions affect “way-too-early” 2018 ranking
As prognosticators try to guess where Notre Dame fits in the 2018 college football landscape, uncertainty about their roster tempers expectations.
The NCAA’s decision to reject Notre Dame’s appeal of its punishment for academic misconduct in 2012 wasn’t the only news that came out today concerning the Fighting Irish football team.
Well, that’s the only official news, anyway, as far as I know.
But people are already giving opinions on where Notre Dame will rank heading into the 2018 season. And it’s never too early to start thinking about how next year’s team will stack up.
And again, it gives us something else to talk about than NCAA punishments and vacated wins.
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Anyway, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach put out his third edition of the 2018 Way-Too-Early-Top 25 (it really is way too early, isn’t it?) for college football. And, while these rankings obviously aren’t official in any sense, they’re about what you’d expect to see.
And Notre Dame finds itself in a familiar range to start the season.
The Fighting Irish came in at No. 21, curiously one spot lower than they landed in the previous edition of these early rankings.
Why is Notre Dame so far down the list and seemingly teetering on the edge of college football’s Top 25? Key losses and quarterback issues. Schlabach writes:
"The Fighting Irish face a little uncertainty heading into 2018. The Irish were hit hard by early departures to the NFL draft — Nelson, St. Brown and Adams declared — and highly regarded defensive coordinator Mike Elko left for Texas A&M.The Irish figure to have a competitive quarterback battle during the offseason. Brandon Wimbush accounted for 30 total touchdowns this past season, but he struggled to throw the ball down the field, which seemed to frustrate Kelly. Sophomore Ian Book replaced Wimbush in a 21-17 win over LSU in the Citrus Bowl and completed 14 of 19 passes for 164 yards with two touchdowns and one interception."
To be fair, he also made sure to reference Notre Dame pulling in a top-10 recruiting class, headlined by Houston Griffith, Derrik Allen, Kevin Austin and Shayne Simon. So it’s not all negative with Notre Dame. Plus, the Irish certainly will start next season with more positive momentum than they did coming out of a disastrous 4-8 2016 campaign.
That said, uncertainty clearly exists, and the Irish will have to answer a lot of questions in order to become real playoff contenders regardless of where they rank to start next season.
Next: Will top Notre Dame recruits stand out in camp?
Who will play quarterback: Wimbush? Book? Newcomer Phil Jurkovec?
Can they retool a left side of the offensive line that loses Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson?
Can they replace departed playmakers at running back and receiver?
Will their young defensive backs push for time early and add a spark to the secondary?
Once Notre Dame starts getting answers on these fronts, we’ll start to figure out where they really belong in the grand playoff scheme.