Week One Duke Opponent Preview: Notre Dame Better Than Last Year?

Irish coach thinks team could top last season's squad

Notre Dame finished last season with an 11-2 record, including a blowout win over Duke at Wallace Wade Stadium. At the end of the season, coach Brian Kelly said the team could be even better this year than last.

While Kelly wasn’t ready to double down on that prediction, he discussed the positives he sees on his Fighting Irish team as Notre Dame prepares to host Duke in the opener on Saturday.

“There are a lot of things to like about the team, when you look at the basic tenets of a great football team,” Kelly said. “They run the football. They have a quarterback back. Certainly, from a defensive structure, your system is in place. I feel like you have the ability to stop the run. The perimeter, I think we’re better than we were last year, in the sense we have—the safety and corner positions have evolved. Coming into the season with special teams, we felt really good about where we are, but you’ve got to go play the games. We’re in a different place this year, in terms of preparation than we were in December (when he made his prediction). A lot of different things have occurred. We didn’t have spring practice. I don’t know that anybody’s really going to be able to tell what that does in terms of an effect on your football team, especially in these early games. The second thing is, we didn’t get all our (fall) practices in, quite frankly. But the basic tenets of having a really good football team, maybe a great football team are in place. Now we have to go prove it.”