Notre Dame Football: Ranking 2020 opponents by toughness

It seems like not too long ago that Western Michigan was one of the top Group of Five teams in the country and playing in a Cotton Bowl against Wisconsin. Then PJ Fleck left for Minnesota.

It’s been all downhill since and while the Broncos are still a decent MAC team, they’re far from what they had been under Fleck’s reign. They’re coming off a 7-6 season and are projected to finish in the middle of the pack in 2020, likely just barely reaching six wins. Starting a new quarterback, running back, two tight ends and a decent chunk of the defensive backfield will do that. Tim Lester will have a tough season.

Speaking of tough seasons, it’s been a rough few years for Arkansas as Chad Morris was expected to be the quick fix the program needed, but all he did was run it into the ground.

In fact, Arkansas is coming off back-to-back 2-10 seasons and before that, the Razorbacks went 4-8. So over three years, this team has won a total of eight games and Sam Pittman is hoping to change that. He’ll have some intriguing pieces to work with in Florida transfer Feleipe Franks, Rakeem Boyd and a trio of solid young receivers.

Defensively, though, this team will be a nightmare and might just give up 50 to Notre Dame in Week 2.