Notre Dame Football: 5 reasons it’s time to panic about 2018 season
Notre Dame football may be 3-0, but the Fighting Irish have been flirting with danger for the past two weeks. It may just be time to panic.
A 3-0 team panicking after its start to the season? You bet. Notre Dame has been flirting with danger for the past two weeks and the Irish don’t have a single win this season by more than one score — the biggest win was by eight points against Ball State.
The Irish are still unbeaten with a ranked win over Michigan, but the Ball State and Vanderbilt games have been concerning, to say the least.
Brian Kelly is at a different place to start this season than he was last year as his team was considered underrated last season and this year the Irish are thought to be overrated.
Despite being a top-10 team, it may be time to panic for Notre Dame, and here’s why.
5. Close wins against inferior foes
Opening the season with a win over Michigan was huge. The Irish were able to make a statement against one of the best teams from the Big Ten and one that was considered a dark-horse to make the College Football Playoff.
The next week, they suffered a bit of a hangover against Ball State, winning by just eight points and everyone was quick to give them a pass because, well, they had just won an emotional rivalry game.
Then there was the Vanderbilt game. The hangover from Michigan was no longer an excuse and the Irish had a tough time shutting the door on the usually-average Commodores.
Notre Dame is struggling in the easiest part of its schedule, so just imagine the kind of trouble it might be in when facing Stanford, Virginia Tech, Northwestern, Florida State and USC.