Fansided

Notre Dame Football 2017 preview

By John Buhler

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - OCTOBER 01: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and his team wait to head on to the field for the start of the game against the Syracuse Orange at MetLife Stadium on October 1, 2016 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ - OCTOBER 01: Head coach Brian Kelly of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and his team wait to head on to the field for the start of the game against the Syracuse Orange at MetLife Stadium on October 1, 2016 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
7 of 7
Next
SOUTH BEND, IN – APRIL 22: Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Dexter Williams (2) in action during the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Blue-Gold Spring Game on April 22, 2017, at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN – APRIL 22: Notre Dame Fighting Irish running back Dexter Williams (2) in action during the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Blue-Gold Spring Game on April 22, 2017, at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Game-by-Game Prediction

We’re going to break this up into third to better analyze the season ahead for Notre Dame. The first block of games for the Irish is most crucial, but Notre Dame fans aren’t going to be happy about it. After winning the season debut over Temple, the Irish will drop two their next three games. Georgia has the deeper roster and will win a thriller up in South Bend. After a solid rebound win in Chestnut Hill versus Boston College, Notre Dame stumbles again to rival Michigan State in East Lansing.

At 2-2 through the first four games, Notre Dame will take the Georgia and Michigan State losses in stride to win three of the four games in the second third of their schedule. The only loss of this subsection of the season will be to eventual Pac-12 Champion USC. Notre Dame picks up momentum with wins over Miami (Ohio), at North Carolina and North Carolina State. The Irish will enter the final third of the regular season at a respectable 5-3.

While 5-3 isn’t great, it’s still a better mark than what Notre Dame was a year ago. All the Fighting Irish need to do is win one more game to get back to a bowl. Notre Dame achieves that feat easily, as they go 3-1 in the final third of 2017. Wins over Wake Forest and Navy help get this program back on track.

While a loss on the road in Miami to Mark Richt’s Hurricanes won’t be great, his Miami team will play in the ACC Championship Game against cross-divisional foe Florida State. At 7-4, Notre Dame gets its biggest when of the season down on The Farm in Palo Alto to beat the rival Stanford Cardinal to improve to 8-4.

This Notre Dame team will have too much pride to not get to a bowl game, probably in the Southeastern United States in Jacksonville, Nashville or Charlotte. Should the Irish beat an underwhelming SEC team in their holiday season bowl, Notre Dame finishes the season cracking the top-25 in the final AP Poll.