Notre Dame: Football season holds some awesome matchups
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish go into most football seasons with promise and 2019 is no different. How will they do after going undefeated in 2018?
The 2018 season was a really good one for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team. They went 12-0 and had an undefeated record to earn themselves a spot in the College Football Playoff. They had some quality wins on their resume including wins over14 Michigan, 7 Stanford, 24 Virginia Tech, and 12 Syracuse. They also defeated a Florida State team that was not having a usual Florida State season but still a quality football program.
Things didn’t go so well for them in the college football, as they were defeated by the Clemson Tigers in the Cotton Bowl by a final score of 30-3. They were blown out by Clemson who went on to win the National Championship over the Alabama Crimson Tide. Either way most would agree that going undefeated and having a College Football Playoff Berth was a success for the Irish.
2019 brings a whole new challenge. They have what appears to be an even more daunting schedule on their hands. They have a few top-flight opponents including one major team they will go against. Nothing is impossible in sports, but the path to a re-berth in the College Football Playoff goes through:
September 2nd vs Louisville
September 14th vs New Mexico
September 21st at Georgia
September 28th vs Virginia
October 5th vs Bowling Green
October 12th vs USC
October 26th at Michigan
November 2nd vs Virginia Tech
November 9th at Duke
November 16th vs Navy
November 23 vs Boston College
November 30th at Stanford
Ian Book is back for another season and he will be looking to have some more success with head coach Brian Kelly. The obvious beast on their schedule is Georgia. The Bulldogs are a true threat to win the whole thing and would be a tough win for the Irish to pull off. If they were to somehow beat them, there is no reason they can’t go undefeated again. It a really daunting task but there have been way bigger upsets in history.
Georgia is currently at #3 on in the rankings, and there are currently two other teams that are currently ranked on their schedule. Michigan is at number seven while Stanford rounds out the top 25. At number nine, Notre Dame is right there with all of the tough teams. Michigan is a team that has underwhelmed since Jim Harbaugh took over as head coach but once again they come in with high expectations. It is obviously going to be a difficult game but they have proven they can beat them in the recent past.
Stanford is another intriguing matchup for the Irish as it pretty much always is. They played them last year at Notre Dame Stadium and won 38-17 which is nice. They have had some troubles lately though when the game is played at Stanford. Brian Kelly is winless when the Stanford game is played on the road. This is the year that the Irish and their fans hope is the one that they break that streak.
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Obviously Alabama and Clemson are going to be the top two teams in the country but we will cross that bridge if we ever get there. This should be a really fun college football season and Notre Dame could play in a really fun Bowl Game if they put together another really strong regular season.