Notre Dame Football: 5 reasons Irish will beat LSU in 2018 Citrus Bowl

Notre Dame football has been less than impressive as of late, but they still have all the weapons required to take down the LSU Tigers in the Citrus Bowl.

The Tigers are no strangers to the Citrus Bowl as this will be their fifth time competing since 1979. The Irish, however, will be playing in this particular bowl for the first time in program history. While these two teams don’t share the strongest of histories, they are two of the most easily recognized programs in all of college football playing in one of the most historic bowls in the game.

What both teams do have in common are recently up and down schedules. The Tigers hit their rough patch after a pair of losses to Mississippi State and Troy while the Irish hit their drought with losses to Miami and Stanford. LSU clearly has the momentum after righting the ship, but the Irish have plenty of things going for them as well. Here are five of them.

5. Notre Dame benefits from a month off

One of the few benefits of going without a conference championship is the amount of rest allotted for a team’s upcoming bowl game. With selection Sunday taking place after the conference championships, the Irish haven’t had a whole lot of time to focus on LSU, but an extra week of rest goes a long way in terms of injuries.

The injuries that plagued running back Josh Adam’s sophomore season have reared their ugly heads once more, albeit in a more limited fashion. Adams has been limited in a few games this season, some of which head coach Brian Kelly has chalked up to academic stress. Either way, with finals out of the way and a month to nurse any injuries, look for Adams to get back on track.

So how did the Irish get over a month worth of rest in the first place? It started with their latest loss to Stanford, an 8:00 p.m. contest that finished late Saturday night on the 25th of November. Fast forward a month and the Irish are still practicing for the same game, the Citrus Bowl that will roll around on the first day of the new year.

While long breaks always present the potential for players to fall out of “football mode”, this break should only help the Irish as they’ve seemed to be out of football mode for a while now. A significant break away from the game should allow for this Notre Dame team to regroup and prepare for one of their most meaningful games yet.