Irish Breakdown

Major Notre Dame Critic Predicts Irish Upset Over Ohio State

One of Notre Dame's biggest public bashers is now backing the Irish to upset the Buckeyes Monday night
Nick Shepkowski|
(EDITORS NOTE: caption correction) Jan 9, 2025; Miami, FL, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman leads the team onto the field before the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium.
(EDITORS NOTE: caption correction) Jan 9, 2025; Miami, FL, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Marcus Freeman leads the team onto the field before the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium. | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

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Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Publicly there have been a good number of naysayers regarding Notre Dame football during the 2024 season but few have been more vocal than former Auburn star and NFL MVP Cam Newton.

Newton has called for Notre Dame to lose a number of games during his appearances on ESPN's First Take, and has even gone as far to essentially say that nobody wants to see the Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff.

Meanwhile, all Notre Dame has done since the postseason kicked off is dominated everyone's feel good story of the 2024 season (Indiana), beat the SEC champions in the heart of SEC country (Georgia in New Orleans), and knock off a Penn State team that was favored by kickoff of the Orange Bowl.

However, just hours before kickoff of the national championship game against Ohio State, Newton is now changing his tone on Notre Dame. The First Take staff made their picks for Monday night's championship game and Newton pulled a complete 180.

The national media has been all over Ohio State to win so it's somewhat surprising to see a split crew regarding tonight's game.

Man, alive would it be poetic to have Cam Newton change his tune on Notre Dame and the national narrative surrounding the Fighting Irish undeniably change.

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Nick Shepkowski
NICK SHEPKOWSKI

Managing Editor for Notre Dame On SI. Started covering Chicago sports teams for WSCR the Score, and over the years worked with CBS Radio, Audacy, NBC Sports, and FOX Sports as a contributor before running the Notre Dame wire site for USA TODAY.

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