Will Notre Dame Contend For National Title in 2023?
You don’t have to tell Notre Dame football fans how long the national title drought has been for the Fighting Irish.
They know it came in 1988 some 34 seasons ago.
Is this finally the year the streak ends?
Well, Notre Dame enters Year Two of the Marcus Freeman Era ranked 13th in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls.
It’s farfetched to believe the Irish are good enough to topple defending national champion Georgia or perennial power Alabama or even LSU, led by former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly. Furthermore, Big Ten teams like Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State are all ranked ahead of the Irish and appear to have all the ingredients necessary to have a say who ends up being the king of college football.
The Irish are coming off a 9-4 2022 season, winning five of their last six games, including a victory over South Carolina in the Gator bowl
They got a huge boost in the off-season when touted Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman transferred in, giving Notre Dame a bona fide signal caller.
Last season Hartman was stellar, completing 62.8 percent of his passes for 3,700 yards with 38 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Imagine what those numbers would’ve been like had he not been sacked 37 times.
Hartman hopes to boost an anemic Irish pass offense that ranked 97th in yardage last season. He definitely will.
Notre Dame’s offense relied heavily on its running attack a year ago. When it ran for over 150 yards on the ground, its offense was really good – averaging 40 points and 457 yards per game. When it had fewer than 150 yards rushing, that production dropped to 23 points and 324 yards per game.
No doubt more will be expected from the aerial attack, but the big question is whether Hartman will have the kind of weapons he had at Wake.
Consider this … last season the Irish had just one player who caught more than 30 passes – All-American tight end Michael Mayer, who is now in the NFL after he was the 35th player taken in the draft.
Mayer will be impossible to replace.
Not helping matters, too, was the departure of top receiver Lorenzo Styles Jr., who bolted to play cornerback at Ohio State.
Another cause for concern is Notre Dame will have a new offensive coordinator in Gerard Parker, who has just one year of experience. Parker takes over for Tommy Rees who left for Alabama in the offseason.
What will help the offense? The return of three offensive linemen led by All-American tackle Joe Alt.
Also, leading rusher Audric Estime’s return will help greatly. He averaged nearly six yards per carry, scored 11 touchdowns and finished with 906 yards in ’22.
Plenty of newbies at receiver will be counted on as Notre Dame lost two of their top three players.
They are counting on Jayden Thomas, who led the Irish with 25 catches for 361 yards and three touchdowns a year ago.
Expect the offensive line to be good led by All-American tackle Joe Alt, who is expected to leave South Bend after his junior year for the NFL.
Notre Dame’s defense was good last year. Expect the same this season. The Irish allowed 329 yards per game and 23 points to rank 22nd and 39th nationally.
Remember Notre Dame’s defense held Ohio State, one of the nation’s top offenses, to just 21 points.
The Irish will miss defensive lineman Isaiah Foskey, an All-American (45 tackles and 11 sacks in ’22 – 26.5 sacks in his career). He’s now playing for the New Orleans Saints.
It’s a defense that ranked 49th against the run and 38th against the pass in ’22.
Helping fill the void left by Foskey will be tackles Rylie Mills and Howard Cross III. Those two combined for 57 tackles and 5.5 sacks. Plus, add Ohio State transfer Javontae Jean-Baptise and the Irish front will be a handful.
The strength of the D very well could be its linebacking corps as every notable name is back. J.D. Bertrand had a team-high 82 tackles, including 8.5 for loss. Marist Liufau ranked third on the team with 51 tackles. Former Indiana Mr. Football Jack Kiser had 58 stops, 5.5 for loss and 2.5 sacks last fall.
Notre Dame is loaded at linebacker.
The secondary will be led by Benjamin Morris, who ranked second in the county with six interceptions.
Both starting safeties return, too, in D.J. Brown and Xavier Watts so the secondary should be just fine.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
* Sam Hartman, Sr. QB – threw for 12,967 passing yards at Wake (2nd all time in ACC); led team to ACC championship game in ’21 and threw six TD passes in double OT loss to Clemson a year ago.
* Joe Alt, Jr., OT – could emerge as the very best offensive tackle in the college game. The 6-foot-8, 322-pounder has started 21 straight games at left tackle.
* Benjamin Morrison, Soph., CB – a freshman All-American, who was tied for seventh in the nation for most interceptions. Nine starts last season and had 33 tackles.
SCHEDULE
The Irish will face a very friendly schedule.
Barring an upset, Notre Dame should be 4-0 heading into the huge Sept. 23 showdown with Ohio State under the lights at Notre Dame Stadium.
Three weeks later mighty USC comes to town led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Caleb Williams.
Three weeks following the clash with the Trojans will be the toughest road game of the season against top-10 Clemson, which knows a thing or two about winning big games under Dabo Swinney.
In addition to Clemson, Notre Dame’s other three ACC games will be against N.C. State, Duke, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest.
The home opener will be Labor Day weekend when Tennessee State comes a calling Sept. 2 and the home finale will be against the Demon Deacons Nov. 18.
Notre Dame will conclude the regular season Thanksgiving weekend at Stanford.
Nine of the Irish’s 12 opponents had a winning record last season, but only three enter the season ranked in the top 25 – all three in the top 10.
For Notre Dame’s complete schedule go to http://fightingirish.com/sports/football/schedule/
OUTLOOK
We will begin to get answers to where the Irish are, starting tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. on NBC as Notre Dame opens its season against Navy in Dublin, Ireland.
However, we won’t get a really good read on exactly where this Irish team stands in terms of being in the College Football Playoff hunt until the Buckeyes come to town.
I expect Notre Dame to split its two toughest home games of the season – Ohio State and USC – and to lose at Clemson, finishing the regular season at 10-2.
Will that be good enough to be in the four-team CFP field? I say no. Remember in 2024 the playoff expands to 12 teams, but two losses this year likely will have a team on the outside looking in.
No, Notre Dame won’t contend for a national championship in 2023, but a 10-win season in Freeman’s second full year leading the Irish program isn’t too shabby at all.
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