Urban Meyer's Formula For Success In 2020 Should Favor Notre Dame
This has been a college football offseason unlike any we’ve seen in my lifetime. Spring practice was canceled, distance learning for the spring semester, workouts built around the COVID-19 issues.
The 2020 season will be impacted, of that there is no doubt. How it is impacted we do not know, because again, this is an unprecedented situation in modern college football. It’s hard to see this season being a “normal” one for college football, or Notre Dame.
Former Ohio State and Florida head coach Urban Meyer believes there’s a formula to success this season, and if he’s accurate it could mean very good news for Notre Dame.
“I really believe it’s all about what kind of team you have,” Meyer said in an interview with the Big Ten Network.
He mentioned Ohio State and Clemson as being teams that have the kind of team that should thrive due to the makeup of their team, but Notre Dame fits that criteria as well.
“They have a returning quarterback and also the same system coming back,” Meyer explained. “I just tried to envision, when I took over four jobs, and you’re installing an offense with a new quarterback, the amount of time that goes into that very unique position is inordinate, it’s not normal, the other positions don’t have to put that time in.”
Notre Dame returns Ian Book at quarterback, a fifth-year senior with 23 career starts. Book is coming off a season in which he passed for 3,034 yards, rushed for 546 yards and accounted for 38 touchdowns.
Meyer’s second key to success also favors Notre Dame.
“The second part, which is rather obvious … you better hope you have an early season easy schedule, because that’s basically your spring practice,” Meyer stated. “I actually treated some of those games like a chance to get some guys playing time and work on things.
“… If you open up with Virginia Tech, Oklahoma … (Ohio State’s) going to play Oregon this year, you can’t do that,” continued the future Hall of Fame coach. “But if you’re playing a team that you’re just so far superior in talent, I treated that like an extension of training camp.”
Notre Dame opens the season with Navy, Arkansas, Western Michigan and Wake Forest. While not a cake walk schedule, it’s certainly more than manageable, and to Meyer’s point, Notre Dame has a far superior roster to each of those opponents.
If you look at the preseason magazines, Notre Dame won’t face a Top 50 caliber opponent until the fourth game of the season when it travels to North Carolina to play Wake Forest.
Lindy’s Sports ranks Notre Dame’s first four opponents as the No. 80 (Navy), No. 91 (Arkansas), No. 90 (Western Michigan) and No. 60 (Wake Forest) in their preseason magazine. The projected records are 6-6, 3-9, 6-6 and 7-5, respectively.
Athlon Sports ranks Wake Forest No. 45, but Navy ranks No. 71, Arkansas ranks No. 74 and Western Michigan ranks No. 102.
There is plenty of time in September for Notre Dame to overcome the tumultuous offseason and build itself up as a playoff contender.
Meyer, a former Notre Dame assistant who compiled a 187-32 overall record as a head coach and won three national titles certainly knows what it takes to build a winner. His formula for 2020 could spell good news for the Fighting Irish.
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