Predictions, analysis of Notre Dame's 2024 schedule | Most difficult game, biggest blowout, more

I've got four questions for you all centered around the 2024 fighting hourish football schedule here's the first one what do you believe is going to be the most difficult game yeah I know we had this conversation where we both kind of ranked the schedule last week Darren uh I said I was going to get to it the day that we spoke I I think I got to it the next day or the day after that uh regardless I did get to it and I did spend some time thinking about it and I landed on Texas A&M as number one and I I think a lot of people are thinking that they're kind of going through I wouldn't say tumultuous times but it's an interesting time with getting rid of Jimbo Fischer and you know you never know what the first year of any head coach is going to look like you didn't think that Marcus Freeman was goingon to lose to Stanford and Marshall in that first year so maybe there's some unexpected things for Mike Elco at Texas A&M in year one but this is what I kind of landed on our our good colleague Jack soble at blue and gold he did tremendous work kind of reviewing these opponents and looking into them and studying them for our blue and gold Illustrated preview magazine and he landed on caror Wegman as the the number one quarterback on this Notre Dame schedule the best quarterback so I said okay if he's the best quarterback and I think Mike Elco is in that conversation for the best opposing head coach obviously you have Mike norell as well but I mean Jeff Braum who else are you looking at in that conversation I think Elco is certainly in that top three you have the best quarterback you might have the the best coach you're playing in front of 100 th 100,000 plus people at Kyle Field which is one of the toughest places to play as I said a couple weeks ago you ask EA Sports they will tell you it's the toughest place to play I don't know about that but it is hard and college game day is going to be there and it's week one and there's so many uncertainties for all of those reasons Texas A&M might not be the best overall team on Notre Dame schedule but again I I certainly think it's top three four for sure but the surrounding circum ances and everything that goes with it Darren I think that is the toughest game for Notre Dame in 2024 is that first one at Texas A&M in the six o'clock hour of today's show I'm ranking the Notre Dame opponent top 10 draft prospects for the 2025 draft cycle five of the 10 are from Texas A&M that caught me off guard a little bit it's a very very talented football team with their quarterback now healthy Tyler Irish schedule what do you believe will be the biggest blow out this is so tough to predict because there's there's a lot of teams I wrote I will bring up that article that I wrote uh last week again where I was ranking these opponents Darren I had the toughest time in the world ranking seven through 12 because I think Notre Dame is gonna have no issues with a lot of those teams maybe even all of those teams now you say I mentioned Marshall and Stanford I think Notre Dame is so far removed from those losses in the Marcus Freeman era that uh you're going to see more of what you saw last year where I think people were giving Notre Dame a hard time for beating Central Michigan by 24 points and I I look at the end of the day I'm like that was still just a blowout Victory like that's a good win for Notre Dame I think you're G to see a lot more of those to answer the question I think I ranked Northern Illinois as the the worst team Notre Dame has never lost to a Mac team um it's possible that the surfies are worse teams than Northern Illinois um and maybe even Stanford like we we saw what Notre Dame did at Stanford last year I think they could turn around and say hey we're not going to lose to you on this home field again and do that again in South Bend but there's something about the home opener being that Northern Illinois game and Marcus Freeman not wanting to to lose like he did against Marshall uh a couple of years ago I think win or lose at Texas A&M you're going to see a motivated Notre Dame team at Notre Dame stadium for that home opener and I think you could see maybe like a 40ish point victory in that let's say like 30 Point Victory if Notre Dame won that game 42 to7 or 42-10 I would not be surprised and then at that point you're looking at maybe the the largest margin of victory for the season Notre Dame football update with Tyler haa the Notre Dame football beat reporter blue and gold Illustrated blueandgold.com or on Budweiser's weekday Sports speed on WSBT radio and the blue and gold YouTube channel which game on paper is going to be probably a whole lot tougher than most people expect I keep going back to Georgia Tech and I don't know why the the great quarterback and great running back I think that's the best quarterback running back tandem that you're gonna see on the Notre Dame schedule in Haynes King and Jamal Haynes which the names go together I think they're going to be very good together against a lot of teams maybe even Notre Dame this year and there's something about playing a neutral site too that I think is like Notre Dame plays three of them this year um is that the that might be the first one too right Darren so I mean it's not like they will be in the groove of playing these neutral sight games and they never played at Mercedes ben Stadium I mean that Stadium's only been open for half a decade or you know it's only going on 10 years maybe whatever it may be so there's going to be some unusual circumstances and then that offense I just land on that offense is kind of and a couple years ago this Georgia Tech program was was bad bad I mean but they've made some strides here in the last like year and a half or so and like you say they have a good quarterback they have a good running back I look at are you are you well coached and they're a lot better coach now than they were a couple of years ago they have a good quarterback and like I said the running back as well so they have some things going for them that uh maybe if you're a Notre Dame fan just looking at the schedule you say oh yeah Georgia Tech we always beat these ACC teams it's going to be no matter but then you factor in the neutral site you factor in some of those other things I said and I wouldn't be shocked if uh they're hanging around for a little bit in that one I expect Notre Dame to win that game but it may be dicey for a little bit okay finally this is today's Twitter X question of the day which is the toughest three-game stretch on the Notre Dame schedule I'll give you four choices at Texas A&M Northern Illinois at Purdue second choice Louisville and Stanford at home and then that Georgia Tech game in Atlanta the third group of games Georgia Tech in Atlanta Navy and East Rutherford and then Florida State at home and the fourth three- game stretch Florida State and Virginia at home and then Army at Yankee Stadium all right so I'm going to get rid of the two choices that have two home games because I think Notre Dame showed last season they're pretty dang good team at home probably should have won all of their games at home uh we won't talk much more about that Ohio State game but I'm gonna go with the option of Georgia Tech Navy and Florida State because I think Florida state is probably your toughest your second toughest overall game behind that Texas A&M game it was kind of a tossup to me when ranking the opponents like I did last week is it Texas A&M is it Florida State because I think Florida state is very much in reload not rebuild territory Mike norell heck of a coach uh DJ OU angal doesn't scare me a whole lot but but if he somehow channels what he did in 2020 against Notre Dame then you have some issues I think he's more of the guy that we saw a couple years ago Clemson but no matter maybe he finds his revitalization with Mike norell and at Florida State and surrounded by some really good players so you have that on the list we already talked about Georgia Tech and why I think that could be a scary game and then Navy you have the possibility of Notre Dame doing what it did in Dublin against Navy and I think that's kind of what we're more used to seeing Notre Dame do but go back a couple years Darr and remember when Notre Dame was beating Navy by 19 points uh in Baltimore I believe it was I was at this game and then all of a sudden you're talking about a three-point Notre Dame Victory again it's kind of like the Marshall and Stanford thing I think this fighting Irish program is so much farther along now than it was then but sometimes Navy can just kind of sneak up and give you some issues I know there's some Message Board posters at Blue and gold.com who hate playing Navy just because because of the weird intricacies that go along with playing a service Academy and the and the option offense and all of those different things so if you give me neutral sight neutral site weird things attached to both of those games good quarterback like I said in the first one of those and then I just pumped up Florida State for reasons that I think everyone that's a college football fan knows I mean this is a 13-0 football team last year that's probably among those stretches that you named I think that's the toughest three- game stretch that Notre Dame has [Music]