Notre Dame Football: 3 bold predictions for October 2020

The month of October is here and Notre Dame football is looking to make some noise in the College Football Playoff race. Let’s get bold.

Notre Dame has finally joined a conference. No, that’s not a typo, but it’s also extremely temporary given a COVID-19-ridden season.

The Irish are 2-0 with a game against Wake Forest postponed. They haven’t played a game in nearly a month and that might lead to some rusty play to begin October. The Irish open up against Florida State and have battles against Louisville, Pitt and Georgia Tech to round out the month.

If the Irish can finish the month with an unbeaten record, they’re going to be right smack-dab in the middle of a playoff race. Oh yeah, and the conference title race.

What could we see from the Irish in the month of October?

3. Defense forces at least 10 turnovers

On the season, Notre Dame has just a +1 turnover margin. That came from the opener against Duke when the Irish forced two turnovers and only had one of their own.

In a 52-0 blowout of South Florida, you’d think that the Bulls would have turned the ball over quite a bit to lead to that lopsided finish, but the turnover battle ended in a 0-0 tie. That’s surprising for a Notre Dame defense that has been solid and gets after the quarterback.

The Irish need to force more turnovers if they plan on competing in the ACC against some of the big boys and that’s going to happen this month as they’ll cause at least 10. With four games on the schedule, averaging 2.5 per game doesn’t seem all that bold, but when you have two all season leading up to October, that’s quite the task.