Notre Dame football: 5 Reasons the Irish will win the 2017 national title
By Jacob Wilson
1. The defense steps up
The first reason that the Irish would find themselves in title contention would be in the case that the defense finally plays up to the level they have been expected to. The Irish defense has been below average for the last few years, finishing outside of the top 25 every year since their 2012 campaign.
If Notre Dame wants to compete for a title this year, it’s going to take much more than their 2016 effort in which they finished 62nd in points per game. In fact, this team may have to pull out a top 20 season in order to take the pressure off of a brand new offense.
Should Notre Dame experience such a jump in defensive standing, much of the credit may be attributed to the recently added takeaway specialist in Mike Elko. Elko, whose defense finished top ten in opponent turnovers last season, should bring another element to an Irish defense that finished outside the top 100 in the same figure.
How does the schedule factor in?
USC, Miami and North Carolina all enjoyed solid offensive production last season. There is little reason to believe that these teams will not carry this success into the 2017 season. Notre Dame will have to be prepared to combat such offenses, and the ability to take away the football will suppress other offenses while giving their own young offense the chance to capitalize on some of these chances.
With the amount of unpredictability surrounding an offense with both a new quarterback and offensive coordinator in Chip Long, Notre Dame will be holding tightly to the expectation that their defense will finally come into its own down the stretch.
However, simply coming into their own may not be enough. Considering the overall output of the team last year, this defense will likely need to finish within the top ten to realistically compete for a national championship.
To give an idea of just how good this defense would need to be in order to make the championship, Notre Dame’s defense was second in the nation the last time the made it to the big game. Can they come close to this number over the course of this year? It’s not likely, but it will definitely be necessary if the team hopes to bring an inexperienced offense to the title game.