Notre Dame football schedule 2020: Predicting every Fighting Irish game

The Notre Dame football schedule is always tough.

After missing out on the college football playoffs last season with an 11-2 record, Brian Kelly’s Notre Dame football team is hoping they can get back to competing for a national championship.

This is not an easy schedule by any means for Notre Dame either. Right off the bat, they are tasked with traveling to Maryland to take on a Navy team that was 11-2 last season. Shortly after they have a couple of neutral site games conveniently in the back yards of both Wisconsin and Wake Forest. Pair all of that with hosting Clemson and going on the road to USC to end the season, and you have a pretty difficult schedule.

It’s a big reason why the committee always considers Notre Dame as a top team to make the playoff because while they might not be in a conference, they always play power five competition.

In this case, the Irish will play 10 teams that are inside power five conferences with the exceptions being Navy and Western Michigan. These two games come within the first three games of the season, so it is safe to say that the meat of their schedule comes later in the season.

On the field, the Fighting Irish will get their biggest piece of the puzzle in quarterback Ian Book back for another year. That being said, most of his key playmakers have graduated, with leading rusher Tony Jones Jr. and leading 1,000-yard receiver Chase Claypool both gone.

Defense, however, is a different story as they will return their top two leading tacklers from last season in rover Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and linebacker Drew White. Both had 80 tackles last season, leading the team. But the losses on that are still plentiful as well, with losing 5 defensive ends and all of their secondary to graduation.

So while Notre Dame will certainly have the athletes to compete with the best in college football, several questions linger. Who will step up to be the go-to playmaker for Book, and how much will a lack of depth on the defensive line hurt the Irish?

This is going to be a different Notre Dame team this season. How will they stack up against their schedule?