Notre Dame football: 5 bold predictions for Irish in October

4. Notre Dame goes undefeated

Notre Dame’s battle with USC had been circled on the calendar before preseason workouts were even an afterthought. In one of college football’s best rivalries, the Irish have evened things out after being the little brother for the majority of the 2000s. However, the Irish still have a bad taste in their mouths after last year’s 45-27 loss in Los Angeles.

With the Irish playing some of their most crucial games over the next few weeks, here are reasons why they’ll be able to pull it off against each team.

North Carolina

The Irish matchup exceptionally well against a North Carolina team that has suffered through one of their worst defensive seasons to date. Wimbush and running back Josh Adams will face off against one of the league’s worst run defenses, setting up for what could be an ugly one early.

USC

USC’s tendency to set up shootouts with opponents finally came back to bite them last week as they fell 30-27 to Washington State. While Notre Dame’s defense has performed on the same level as USC’s for the most part, Sam Darnold has proved to be fairly careless with the football for a Heisman candidate. Look for an aggressive Irish defense to take note and capitalize on this.

N.C. State

N.C. State state is a good football team, there’s no way around it. They have put their Week 1 loss to South Carolina behind them, claiming victory in their last five contests. However, they have had a few close calls up to this point. The Wolfpack put only six points between them and what has been a poor FSU team before beating Syracuse by only seven. Look for the Irish to make enough big plays to pull this one off.