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Notre Dame Football: 3 reasons the Irish will beat North Carolina in Week 9

By Danny McCormick

Oct 2, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly and his players wait to take the field before the game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 2, 2021; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly and his players wait to take the field before the game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
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Notre Dame football and North Carolina will meet for the second year in a row in Week 9 in South Bend under the lights. Last year, the Irish went into Chapel Hill on the Friday after Thanksgiving and came away with a 31-17 victory over the Tar Heels.

These two teams have played each other 21 times leading up to Saturday with the first matchup between these schools dating all the way back to November of 1949. Notre Dame currently leads the series so far with 19 wins and only two losses in their meetings. The first loss was back in 1960, and the second came back in 2008.

The Irish have won the three most recent games back in 2014, 2017, and last year in 2020.

North Carolina came into the 2021 season with a lot of buzz and hype surrounding their program, but it has not gone as planned for the Tar Heels. They came into the season as a top-10 team but that did not last long as they were upset in Week 1 at Virginia Tech. North Carolina currently sits at 4-3 on the season and was idle in Week 8 prior to their trip to South Bend.

Some people around the college football world had Tar Heels quarterback Sam Howell as a shoo-in for the Heisman trophy, or at least to be a finalist for the award. Right now that seems almost impossible as of this week.

Howell is still having a good year for North Carolina throwing for 1,851 yards, and 18 touchdowns, while rushing for 494 yards on the ground and adding five rushing touchdowns, too. One guy that Sam Howell and the Tar Heels will not have to worry about is star safety Kyle Hamilton for Notre Dame. He injured his knee in the first half of last week’s game against USC and was ruled out for this week’s game according to head coach Brian Kelly.

Notre Dame comes into this matchup feeling good about themselves after a very nice win over USC 31-16 on Saturday night inside Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish ran the ball extremely well and moved the ball through the air against the Trojans all night long.

Here are three reasons why I believe Notre Dame will beat North Carolina.

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