After our first win of the Marcus Freeman era, we have to wonder if the Irish Notre Dame Fighting Squad will be going bowling this year.
A lot could change between now and Thanksgiving weekend, but Marcus Freeman’s Irish fighting style at Notre Dame is still far from being College Football Playoff style.
The Golden Domers nearly exploded at home to the California Golden Bears on Saturday afternoon, culminating in Freeman’s first win as Irish coach. Coming into the ball game, Freeman has been 0-3 since taking charge of Brian Kelly, including the Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State last holiday season. At 1-2 a year we have to wonder if Notre Dame is good enough to go 6-6…
Let’s do something we never thought we’d have to do and assess whether the Irish will be good enough to bowl next holiday season.
Football Notre Dame: After the first win, are the Irish good enough to bowl?
Here’s what awaits the Irish fighters in their remaining nine matches. If they want to achieve eligibility in Freeman’s first season, Notre Dame has to go 5-4 the rest of the way.
- Week 4: At the North Carolina Tar Heels (September 24)
- Week Five: Bye
- Week 6: opposite BYU Cougars (October 8) (Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas)
- Week 7: vs. Stanford Cardinal (October 15)
- Week 8: UNLV Against the Rebels (October 22)
- Week 9: At Syracuse Orange (October 29th)
- Week 10: Against the Clemson Tigers (November 5)
- Week 11: Opposite Navy Midshipmen (November 12) (M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore)
- Week 12: vs Boston College Eagles (November 19)
- Week 13: At USC Trojans (November 26)
So, Notre Dame has the next North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels come from goodbye, playing Florida A&M in Week 0. Notre Dame will have its annual farewell in Week 5. To play Syracuse upstate and inland, Clemson at home, Navy in Baltimore, Boston College at home and University of Southern California finishing.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s pick three matches that the Irish will surely win, and likely lose three. UNLV, Stanford and Navy are victories Notre Dame must have. Losing the Rebels, the Cardinal, or the Marines would be devastating to the increasingly controversial Irish eligibility prospects. Once again, this Irish team lost to Marshall and almost lost to Cal…
In terms of the Notre Dame games they are unlikely to win, the Irish don’t beat Clemson, they don’t beat USC in Los Angeles and would be lucky to split the pair between North Carolina and BYU in Las Vegas. At best, this Notre Dame team will go 1-3, maybe 2-2 in that set of games. Of course, the luck of the Irish may be on their side here, unlike in recent times …
As for Syracuse and at home across from Boston College, those could go either way. The orange is playing great football now under Dino Papers, while things are starting to slip away from Jeff Havley at Chestnut Hill. At the moment, the Orange have triumphed over the Irish, while the Eagles are unable to launch in what looks like another lost season for Boston College.
At best, this is an 8-4 team, thanks to early losses to Ohio State and Marshall. It’s very difficult to see this Notre Dame team beating Clemson and USC at this time. If he hits that fan, this team will win four games with victories coming over Stanford, UNLV and the Navy. Fortunately for the Irish, they must go 5-4 times to finish in as little as 6-6 to achieve pot eligibility.
With wins over Stanford, UNLV, the Navy, Boston College, and either BYU, North Carolina or Syracuse, that would be enough for Freeman to lead his program into the saddest bowling all-time.
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