Notre Dame going UNDEFEATED? College Football Playoffs in sights for Marcus Freeman and the Irish

from Tony is Notre Dame's biggest roadblock to an undefeated season Florida state do the Irish have the best defense in the nation best defense in the nation I think you're gonna you're gonna get pushed back there from Ohio State who brings almost everybody back who probably had a better defense than Notre Dame last year Michigan they don't bring everybody back but they bring a lot back they're G to they're going to push back on that Iowa will push back on that too but we we'll probably just make fun of Iowa's offense but is Notre Dame's defense one of the best in the nation yeah it sure is lots of questions answered already on that defense I me think so in the secondary you've got Xavier wats safety one of the best in the country Benjamin Benjamin Morrison another guy who made one of me and Cody's ultimate college football 2024 teams also Christian Gray who proved himself as a as a young player uh defensive tackles Howard Cross the third and Riley Mills like they're set there RJ Obin coming off the edge Jack Kaiser at linebacker this is a very experienced defense they'll have to plug in a few new parts but they should be very confident so the let's let's talk about the schedule because when when you see undefeated in Tony's question you're like whoa 12 and0 that is a bold statement is it though is it that bold I'm gonna I'm gonna go do a little old School Phil Steel on you here because I always enjoyed how Phil would break down a schedule because one of the first things he looks at is how many games are you going to be favored in this season if if the season started right now how many games would you be favored in and so I went to S&P plus our friend Bill Connelly over at ESPN does S&P plus and this is the most recent one that's been out there there's another update coming now that the rosters are all set but I imagine the teams at the top which did do a lot in the spring portal probably not changing very much so I think we we can pretty safely work off of this one it's a predictive model so it is kind of like a Vegas power ranking where they would use you know we we they would use it basically to set the Line in games so Notre Dame is number nine in S&P plus the next closest teams to Notre Dame that are on Notre Dame schedule are Florida State and Texas A&M Florida state is 12 Texas A&M is 13 Texas A&M is at Kyle Field so remember we're gonna we're going to probably give them three points in the spread for HomeField Advantage so that's probably a slight Notre Dame favor to a pick him Florida State obviously that's later in the season a lot can change between now and then but I believe Notre Dame as a home as the home team in this with the information we have now will be a slight favorite they're favorite in every other game every other game so they probably favorites as we start the season right now in 12 of their 12 games so yeah undefeated is definitely on the table is it easy no no undefeated season is ever easy no matter what your schedule looks like but this particular Notre Dame schedule does look like it is workable this Notre Dame schedule looks like you can navigate it now we talked to Tyler haa from blueandgold.com and and he pointed out because I I've always said in this version of the playoff which we've not actually seen one yet but my my thinking is that if Notre Dame goes 10 and two in any season in this version of the playoff they get in the playoff Tyler thinks with this schedule you might have to go 11 and one just because it's not on paper right now as as strong of a schedule I think you do have to you do have to go 111 probably as you look at it now although we'll see again because some of these teams could be better but here's here's the thing if you could beat Texas A&M that gives you the Mulligan against Florida State Louisville is a team that beat Notre Dame last year but you look at the way that game Falls and I think Louisville could be pretty good you I've said this multiple times like Tyler shook playing for Jeff Braum feels like a good marriage and Tyler shook if he could ever stay healthy for an entire season could be a really really good quarterback you saw Louisville be ahead of schedule last year Louisville schedule is considerably tougher this year so I don't know if Louisville will actually have as good of a record as they had last year but they they could have as good of a team now that team beat Notre Dame because Notre Dame was at the end of a pretty rough slog of games that had included you know the Ohio State game the Duke game that was a very tough road game at night and then you go to to Louisville and Louisville was good I mean Louisville won got the ACC Championship game but where that falls in the schedule this year it does not seem as daunting you know it's after Miami of Ohio it's at Notre Dame one I will throw out there Georgia Tech it's a neutral sight game but not really it's at Mercedes-Benz Stadium which is 2 miles from Georgia Tech's campus though I will say that's probably going to be a 50-50 crowd but I think Brent Key's done a really good job at Georgia Tech buster fauler one of the more hot Rising Star Commodities as an offensive coordinator hannes King really developed well last year after transferring from Texas at quarterback that could be a tough one but you look at the Florida State game one get him in South Bend we don't know what Florida State's going to be my my suspicous is they'll be pretty good like DJ young takes over at quarterback it's going to be a lot of new people but they attacked the transfer portal in a similar fashion and and maybe got a little better caliber of transfer this offseason than they have in the previous ones plus their High School recruiting has improved each year as they won more so I think Florida State we can we can pretty safely assume having watched Mike norell operate for the last few years they're be pretty good but like you go oh they play Notre Dame has to play Navy before Florida State but not right before Florida State there's a weekend between those games you remember my friend Bruce Feldman wrote about this years ago and and it's a great Theory the B the the body blow Theory basically when you play a triple option team that next week you are in danger because your your linemen are beating up it's it's just it's it takes a different toll but because there's a week in between I don't think that applies either so can Notre Dame go undefeated yeah absolutely Notre Dame is capable of going undefeated I don't think A&M's a gimi Louisville is going to be tough Georgia Tech obviously Florida State the other one I will point out and this is a team that we're not talking about very much right now it's strange because we talked about them so much each of the last two years is USC we are assuming USC is going to go into the Big 10 and be just okay we are assuming that USC is not going to be a challenge for Notre Dame when they play them at the end of the season we don't know that we do not know that Lincoln Riley has always had good offenses they just revamped their defensive staff Danton Lynn comes in as a defensive coordinator so we don't know if their defense is going to be better if that defense is better USC by the end of the season could be a very good team we don't know what the quarterback situation is going to be we're assuming it's going to be Miller Moss he looked awesome in the bowl game but I tend to give Lincoln riy offense is the benefit of the doubt so it could be that USC is pretty good by that point but we're just assuming that they're not going to be great I don't want to I I don't think we should make that assumption especially because that's an IND the year game what'll be really interesting I think is let's say Notre Dame drops the A&M game drops the Florida State game and they they sit 10 and one going to the Coliseum on the last day of the season that's going to be an incredible game even if USC hasn't been that great in its first year in the Big 10 having the ability to spoil Notre Dame's playoff chances potentially and that's going to be one of those big scoreboard watching games probably around the country because any body else who's in for an at large spot but kind of on the edge is going to be watching that the truth says we're also assuming the USC defense is going to be at least competent we don't need 2021 Georgia just limit teams to 30 points a agreed agreed it doesn't have to be a massive Improvement it an improvement to Baseline competency would be a well actually that probably would be a massive improvement over what we've seen at USC the past two years so yeah I I think we're going to have to reserve judgment on the Trojans until we actually get to see them play they open against LSU and and as we've said that LSU offense I'm not that worried about them reloading they've got Garrett nus I think CJ Daniels Kiron Lacy gonna be able to maybe not completely replace what you got from Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas but they're going to be pretty good they're also going to be able to run the ball with that offensive line so off the bat we'll get a better idea of where USC is defensively you know if LSU just runs through him for 50 points maybe we we revise that that assumption at the end of the season but how fun would that be if Notre Dame at the end of the year is playing for a playoff birth at USC it would be especially fun if USC is also in the mix for at large that's a ratings Bonanza right there but I just that's the part of the new playoff that really excites me the possibility of games like that because that matchup in in the four team system if Notre Dame has dropped one to A&M or floor state with this schedule I don't know that Notre Dame's still in the mix for a spot in the four te playoff at that point maybe they are it depends on whatever else has done but they're definitely in the mix for a spot in the 12 team playoff and I think that could be a truly fun way to end the season thank you so much for watching just a reminder subscribe to this channel right here so you never miss an episode of Andy Staples on 3 and oh by the way watch all the other great videos on the Onre Sports YouTube channel