Game Prediction: Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs #16 BYU Cougars
Notre Dame (2-2) heads out to Las Vegas this weekend to take on the 16th-ranked BYU Cougars (4-1). It is an opportunity for the Fighting Irish to earn the biggest win of the young Marcus Freeman era. It is a chance for Freeman and the Notre Dame program to earn their first win over a ranked opponent under his watch.
Beating the Cougars won't be easy, as BYU is 7-2 against Power 5 opponents over the last two seasons. The IB staff has broken down the game and now it is time for us to make our predictions.
BRYAN DRISKELL, PUBLISHER
Prediction: Notre Dame 38, BYU 20
I'm going back to my old prediction ways of looking at what Notre Dame should do, and when you break this game down the reality is this is a game that Notre Dame should not only win, but pull away and earn a convincing victory. It won't be easy, but the Irish matchup well against BYU in both trenches and for the most part the strengths/weaknesses matchups also favor Notre Dame.
The question is right now we don't know how this football team handled the bye week. It's a new staff with a first-year head coach, so everything we experience is a first. If Freeman and the staff handled the bye week well the Irish should come out in this game fresh and focused. My prediction assumes that Tommy Rees and the offense will build on its success against North Carolina and start fast. That means running the football and finally starting to generate some big plays.
Defensively, as long as the staff is able to get the unit focused after the departure of Jacob Lacey it should be able to keep the BYU offense relatively in check. Notre Dame should be able to dominate the BYU ground attack by dominating the line of scrimmage, and if it does it will create enough mistakes in the pass game to keep the points down and allow the offense pull away with an impressive victory.
VINCE DEDARIO, FOOTBALL ANALYST
Prediction: Notre Dame 37, BYU 20
This is a great opportunity for Notre Dame to pick up a quality win on the road, sort of. Even though the Irish are unranked going into this matchup and BYU is at #16 Notre Dame is actually favored to win this one by four points. Based on the way the two teams have played the past few weeks I think that spread is appropriate and frankly it is a little low.
I think this game will tell us a lot about Notre Dame as well as the coaching staff in that they are coming off a bye week and a victory over a North Carolina team that can easily score a lot of points also gives them up in droves. So who is this Notre Dame team? Can they run the ball at will like they did against the Tar Heels? Can they get their receivers more involved? Can the defense continue what they have been doing from a scoring standpoint against good offenses? These are all questions we are looking for answers to and I think we will get a good idea where things stand by the time we all wake up Sunday morning.
RYAN ROBERTS, DIRECTOR OF RECRUITING
Prediction: Notre Dame 31, BYU 20
Has Notre Dame turned the corner or was their 45 game explosion more a product of a less than impressive North Carolina defense? It’s probably somewhere in between. I do believe that Notre Dame will be able to establish a running game early and give quarterback Drew Pyne some chances off of play action.
BYU is a good football team and quarterback Jaren Hall will create some issues, especially while extending the play as a passer. Ultimately Notre Dame dominates in the trenches enough on both sides of the football. The offensive and defensive lines are the difference in this one.
SHAUN DAVIS, RECRUITING ANALYST
Prediction: Notre Dame 31, BYU 21
The Shamrock Series heads to Las Vegas as the Fighting Irish and No. 16 BYU get ready to tangle in the desert. Notre Dame had a week off to try to regroup after a shaky 2-2 start to the season, after gaining some offensive momentum in a 45-32 win over North Carolina. BYU has a quality win over Baylor at home and looks to overshadow a disappointing loss at Oregon with the upset on Saturday night. Quarterbacks Jaren Hall and Drew Pyne will play a prominent part in this matchup for different reasons as Hall will face one of the best pass rushes on their schedule and a secondary that will be able to cover his host of receivers. Pyne will be facing a multi-look defense bent on creating turnovers and short fields for their big play offense. Can the Irish run game and offensive line continue to improve and dominate the action?
SEAN STIRES, STAFF WRITER
Prediction: Notre Dame 38, BYU 24
BYU’s offense is fairly similar to North Carolina’s. The Cougars are averaging 293 passing yards and 152 rushing yards per game. Their defense is allowing 162 rushing yards per game, and that has to be BYU’s biggest concern in this matchup. Oregon ran for over 200 yards in BYU’s lone loss of the season and Utah State ran for 147 in the first half of last week’s game. If Notre Dame can own the trenches the Irish will have another big offensive day.
ANDREW MCDONOUGH, IB CONTRIBUTOR
Prediction: Notre Dame 31, BYU 21
The Fighting Irish head to Las Vegas with momentum from a two-game winning streak and rested from the bye week. BYU also brings a two-game winning streak into the game, but the Cougars have not been impressive over the last few weeks in lackluster victories over Wyoming and Utah State after the blowout loss to Oregon. The Oregon loss - a game in which BYU trailed 38-7 at one point - exposed some things about BYU that will give them problems against Notre Dame. First, Oregon was able to make BYU one-dimensional. Even when the game was in doubt, the Cougars could not run the football, and finished the game with just 61 yards rushing on 2.5 YPC.
Jaren Hall is one of the best quarterbacks ND will face this year, but he can't do it alone. Second, a balanced offense helmed by a QB that could extend plays with his feet gave BYU trouble. Oregon QB Bo Nix only rushed for 35 yards on 3.9 YPC (and 3 TDs), but he consistently used his feet to keep plays alive and made big plays in the passing game. Oregon finished with 227 yards passing and taking out a 22-yard loss on a fumble, 234 rushing yards.
UPDATED IB STAFF STANDINGS
Bryan - 20-4
Vince - 18-6
Ryan - 18-6
Shaun - 17-7
Sean - 16-8
Andrew - 15-9
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