Notre Dame Football: 3 reasons the Irish will beat North Carolina in Week 4
Notre Dame football got it’s first win of the season last week defeating California by a final score of 24-17. It was the first win at Notre Dame under head coach Marcus Freeman.
The game against Cal last Saturday was not the prettiest win for the Irish but the players, Freeman, the rest of the coaching staff, and especially the fans will take it. You will take an ugly win over an embarrassing loss anytime.
Freeman started his Notre Dame career at 0-3. If it got to 0-4 the Irish faithful would not have been too pleased. After back to back home games Notre Dame hits the road to take on the undefeated North Carolina Tar Heels who come into this matchup at 3-0.
The Tar Heels come into this matchup against Notre Dame well rested after having a bye last week. They had a week one win over Florida A&M, followed by a thrilling shootout at Appalachian State, and another road victory at Georgia State.
With former quarterback Sam Howell now in the NFL North Carolina has passed the keys to its offense to freshman Drake Maye. If the last name sounds familiar it is because Drake is the younger brother of Luke Maye who played basketball at the University of North Carolina under Roy Williams. Maye has come in this year and has been very impressive for Mack Brown and the Tar Heels. On the year through three games Maye is 72-97 for 930 yards. Maye has thrown 11 passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown, and only throwing 1 interception.
The Tar Heels offense is scheduled to get their big threat wide receiver in Josh Downs back which will make Maye very happy. Downs has missed the previous two games with a leg injury.
Notre Dame will have to be ready on both sides of the ball, but especially on the defensive side to help stop this high-powered offense from going up and down the field all game long. The Irish have what it takes to do this and come away with a road win to get to .500 and finish out the month of September with a victory.
Here are three reasons what Notre Dame has to do to get a win on Saturday afternoon at North Carolina.