Notre Dame football has a fantastic team and Kirk Herbstreit is a big believer in them.
Kirk Herbstreit thinks Notre Dame has what it takes to win it all this season.
“To me, they have all the pieces,” said Herbstreit on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning. “The makeup of this team. This Notre Dame team has lost some big games on big stages in the past.”
“This Notre Dame team this year, seems to have a chip on their shoulder. This young freshman (Michael) Mayer represents that, Tommy Tremble, Kyren Williams the back, the offensive line, Ian Book represents that. Collectively, when you have everyone on the same page playing with the same chip on their shoulder, this is a dangerous team and that’s who Notre Dame is right now.”
Notre Dame will be the first team to clinch a College Football Playoff spot
With Notre Dame only having one regular-season game left vs. the toothless Syracuse Orange on Saturday, the Golden Domers should get to 10-0 (9-0) before playing the Clemson Tigers in the ACC Championship game. This will be a rematch of the most significant game of the season up to this point, as the home dog Irish upset the Tigers up in South Bend a few weeks ago.
Because the ACC punted on Clemson and Notre Dame’s final conference game, they will face each other in a rematch with potentially two College Football Playoff berths on the line. While Clemson would have to beat Notre Dame to get in as the ACC Champion, Notre Dame has done enough up to this point to get in as a one-loss, non-champion should the Irish fall to the Tigers.
This is not yesteryear’s Notre Dame team. They have a dominant ground game, are getting great play out of star quarterback Ian Book and have the tenacity on defense to compete with anyone. While it remains to be seen how Notre Dame stacks up with the likes of the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Irish are certainly capable of winning a national semifinal game.
Though they are not the favorites to win it all, Herbstreit is right to believe Notre Dame can do it.
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