Notre Dame Football: 5 bold predictions for November 2018

Here are five bold predictions for Notre Dame football as it heads into the month of November with hopes of a playoff berth.

The Irish last made the National Championship in 2012, losing to who other than Alabama by a score of 42-14. Now, Brian Kelly and his Notre Dame squad are primed to make a late-season run at what would be the program’s first College Football Playoff birth. There are still a few games left to play, but Irish fans have to be happy about where their team stands eight games into the year.

Notre Dame will kick off the month of November with a road game against Northwestern, the same team that upset the Irish four years ago at Notre Dame Stadium. Remaining on the schedule are teams such as No. 19 Syracuse and under-performing Florida State and USC squads, giving the Irish a good chance to finish the regular season undefeated.

Should this happen, the Irish should be all but a lock to make the College Football Playoff. With that deliberation far off, here are five bold predictions for the Irish as they enter the month of November with an 8-0 record.

5. Notre Dame’s defense leads the league in points allowed

Outside of Syracuse, no remaining Notre Dame opponent averages over 28 points per game. While the Orange have dominated the majority of their opponents this season, their offense was fairly pedestrian in a matchup against a stingy Clemson defense. While the Irish defense has been comparably less consistent than Clemson’s, they still remain a threat to Syracuse’s offense.

With Notre Dame’s matchup with the Orange still weeks away, the Irish will direct their attention to more immediate threats such as Northwestern and Florida State. As for the former, the Wildcats will be starting the inconsistent Clayton Thorson in what could be a huge outing for the Irish defense.

As for Florida State, the Seminoles are on pace to average nearly four fewer points per game than they did under quarterback James Blackman in 2017. Both starting quarterback Deondre Francois and the Seminole run game have struggled behind a porous offensive line, averaging under 348 total yards per game up to this point in the season.

The Irish will finish the regular season with a matchup against long-time rival USC. The Trojans have struggled mightily after consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins, going 4-4 midway through the 2018 season. The Trojans haven’t been particularly explosive on offense either, suggesting that November may be the most consistent month of the season for the Irish defense.