Notre Dame Football: 5 reasons the Irish will beat Michigan in Week 1

5. Talent on the offensive line

Last season all five starters on the Notre Dame offensive line started all 12 regular season games. They were led by Quinton Nelson and Mike McGlinchey who have both moved on to the NFL. The unit rushed for 270 yards per game and a school record 6.3 yards per carry.

Those two losses are significant, but one thing that has not been mentioned during Brian Kelly’s tenure at Notre Dame is his ability to recruit quality offensive line talent. The Fighting Irish have highly ranked players at each position in the offensive line with the stand out being Alex Bars who moves from Right guard to left guard to make way for sophomore Tommy Kraemer.

The thing I like most about this unit is their ability to play multiple positions for a lot of their starters. Center Sam Mustipher has been a starter the last two seasons and will help the Notre Dame rushing attack against a very talented Michigan defensive front four. Expect them to run the ball at least 35 times in this game to control the clock early.