3 reasons Notre Dame football could disappoint in 2024

Wrapping up another successful season in 2023, Notre Dame football has reached a point under Marcus Freeman where it feels like a "playoff or bust" mentality moving forward.

With the playoff expanding to 12 teams, Notre Dame has as good of chance to make the playoff as it has at any point under Freeman. The only downside is that the highest the Irish could ever be ranked in the playoff is fifth because the top four seeds go to Power Four conference champions.

That's neither here nor there, though. Notre Dame has high hopes heading into 2024 and I think the Irish will make a playoff push, but if they were to fall short, these would be the reasons why.

3. Run game regression

With Audric Estime departing, the backfield is likely to be a by-committee workload between Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price, and Gi'Bran Payne. That's obviously not ideal coming from a Doak Walker Award contender and going right into a backfield with no true RB1, but these are three talented backs.

Are we sure that they can carry the load or feed off each other in a by-committee situation? No. This is one of those "wait and see" type of things that might make fans uneasy.

The offensive line should be solid yet again but if the run game takes a step back, the rest of the offense could crumble under immense pressure. All the best teams in college football have elite run games and losing Estime could really impact that outlook for the Irish.

This could happen, but I'm buying stock in Love.