College Football: 10 Teams who could dethrone Clemson and Alabama
6. Notre Dame
Notre Dame reached the mountaintop for the second time under Brian Kelly, and for the second time saw that they were woefully overmatched against legitimate national championship caliber opponents.
Kelly and Notre Dame said all the right things leading into their Cotton Bowl matchup with Clemson, swearing that this game would be different than their blowout defeat to Alabama in the 2012 BCS Championship Game.
Turns out it wasn’t much different at all as the Irish looked slower and smaller than the Tigers en route to a 30-3 beatdown that sullied an otherwise perfect season in South Bend. Some suggested that Notre Dame’s blowout loss to the Tigers was proof that they should never get another crack at the playoff unless they join a conference, but Clemson’s subsequent shellacking of Alabama in Santa Clara should have quieted that noise.
Notre Dame returns 13 starters, the most important of which will be rising senior Ian Book. Book took the reins from incumbent starter Brandon Wimbush early in the season, and transformed the Irish offense into a formidable unit that helped lead them to an undefeated regular season.
Losing RB Dexter Williams will hurt, as will a slew of key pieces on defense including DT Jerry Tillery, LB Te’von Coney, and CB Julian Love. Some help will be on the way with the nation’s No. 15 recruiting class heading to South Bend, but the bulk of the optimism for the Irish in 2019 is already on the roster.
There won’t be any gripes about Notre Dame’s schedule next season, and if they are able to work their way through it undefeated then they will have well earned another spot in the playoff.
They’ll face tough road games at Georgia, Michigan, and Stanford, all of which will represent opportunities to earn quality wins. The home slate is much more manageable, but also features some tricky matchups against the likes of USC, Virginia Tech, and Boston College.
The ugly loss in the playoff left a sour taste in the mouths of the Irish faithful, but 2019 should produce another strong Notre Dame team that boasts the potential of breaking into the playoff for the second year in a row.