Notre Dame Has All The Ingredients For A Great 2020 Season

Notre Dame is set to embark on another quest to end the program’s now 31-year title drought. The 2020 season kicks off on Saturday when the Fighting Irish host the Duke Blue Devils.

Brian Kelly’s squad enters the season as a Top 10 team, and there are plenty of predictions that Notre Dame will be a playoff contender this season. Kelly enters his 11th season at the helm, and the fourth season of the post-2016 makeover that has resulted in a 33-6 record.

It’s time for Notre Dame to make a run and get over the hump, which means not just making the College Football Playoff, something the program has already done, but to get there and win at least one game. That’s really the only outcome to the season that will allow anyone to say the program is moving forward and not stuck in neutral.

There are a number of key ingredients in place that have Notre Dame in great position to make this happen, and none of them have anything to do with programs like Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon not playing this season. Head coach Brian Kelly even mentioned that Notre Dame has some ingredients in place to not only be good in 2020, but great (see video above).

VETERAN AT KEY AREAS

Former Florida and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, who owns three national championship rings, spoke this summer about the ingredients to winning a title in this extraordinary season.

His keys were about having a veteran quarterback and having experience in the right areas, like the offensive line. Notre Dame has a third-year starting quarterback (Ian Book), five returning starters along the offensive line, a deep group of pass catchers with legit big-game experience, a veteran and deep defensive line, two returning starters at linebacker and an experienced secondary.

Notre Dame has experience, talent and depth at all the right places.

ABILITY TO WIN THE TRENCHES

Another key ingredient to recent national title contenders is the ability to win in the trenches on both sides of the ball, and Notre Dame is poised to do that against the best of the best.

A strong case could be made that Notre Dame will have the nation’s best offensive line in 2020, at least it should. The Irish also return every defensive tackle that played a snap in 2019, and despite the loss of both starting ends from last season that position should also continue to be a strength.

Notre Dame also returns its two best linebackers and its tight end depth chart is loaded.

This is a team that has all the pieces in place to be a dominant football team in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

TALENT AT THE SKILL POSITIONS

Notre Dame lost quite a bit at the skill positions from last year’s team, but there is plenty of talent and depth returning. Losing Chase Claypool certainly stings, as does the loss of tight end Cole Kmet, but remember, the year after Notre Dame lost Michael Floyd it went 12-0 and played for the national title. When Miles Boykin left, Claypool smoothly stepped into the go-to receiver role and actually out-played Boykin.

Let’s be honest, there are A LOT of teams around the country who would gladly take a depth chart that contains Tommy Tremble, Braden Lenzy, Javon McKinley, Lawrence Keys III, Joe Wilkins Jr., Michael Mayer, George Takacs, Jordan Johnson, Xavier Watts, Kyren Williams and Chris Tyree.

I didn’t even list starters Avery Davis, Ben Skowronek and Brock Wright.

The Irish lost three starters in the secondary, but yesterday Kelly made this statement about the defensive backfield …

“On the perimeter I think we’re better than we were last year in a sense that we have the safety and cornerback positions have evolved.”

There is more than enough skill talent on this roster for Notre Dame to make a run at a national championship.

RELATIVELY SOFT SCHEDULE

Notre Dame’s original 2020 schedule was going to be a solid one, but the revamped schedule the team is about to play is much easier. Notre Dame dropped away from home contests against USC and Wisconsin for a road game against North Carolina and a home game against Florida State.

Notre Dame’s 11 opponents combined for a 74-67 record last season, but the 10 teams not named Clemson went just 60-66. Six of Notre Dame’s 11 opponents finished the 2019 season with a losing record, and only Clemson won more than eight games.

The irony is that for years the Notre Dame haters complained about how the Irish benefitted from their independence, but joining a league in 2020 actually gave the program an easier schedule.

STATEMENT GAMES ARE AT HOME

Looking deeper into the schedule, all but one of Notre Dame’s “statement games” will be at home. The best team on the schedule - Clemson - travels to South Bend for a Nov. 7 matchup. I would argue that the next two most talented rosters on the schedule are Florida State and Louisville, and both programs must travel to Notre Dame for October contests.

Notre Dame is 19-1 at home in the last three seasons and enter the fall riding an 18-game home win streak.

ROAD SCHEDULE IS MANAGEABLE

Notre Dame’s regular season road record of 12-4 the last three years is still quite good, and all four losses were to teams that finished ranked. The only preseason Top 25 road opponent this year is North Carolina, a team that went 7-6 last fall.

Notre Dame’s other road games are against a quality Pitt squad that went 8-5 last year, an 8-5 Wake Forest team that lost its quarterback and star wide receiver, a 6-7 Boston College team that Notre Dame beat 40-7 and a 3-9 Georgia Tech team.

BYE WEEKS SET UP NICELY

Notre Dame has two bye weeks this season, and both come at opportune times. I would argue that Notre Dame’s toughest three game stretch is from Oct. 17 to Oct. 24 when the Irish host Florida State and Louisville before traveling to Pittsburgh. The good news is Notre Dame gets a bye week before that stretch begins.

If the Irish get through Clemson with an unblemished record the only preseason ranked opponent left on the schedule is North Carolina. That game is on a Friday, but the Irish get a bye the prior week, which should make it much easier to work around Thanksgiving.

Talented quarterback? Check.

Great in the trenches? Check.

Experience? Check.

Talent? Check.

Depth? Check.

System continuity? Check.

Good home schedule? Check.

Management road schedule? Check.

All the ingredients are in place for Notre Dame to make a title run in 2020.

———————

Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content, our premium message board and gets you a FREE subscription to Sports Illustrated! Click on the link below for more

BECOME A MEMBER

Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!

Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes.
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Follow me on Parler: @BryanDriskell
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook

Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter