Rankings in college sports can be a bit misleading. It really is hard to say who has the best team. One week you can be great; the next, you can suffer. Everyone is relying on people who will go do almost anything other than play professionally.
Teams carry over 50 players, and only two or three from most teams will advance to the professional ranks. Maybe more at some of the best schools. Tonight, we have the #2 team in the country taking on the #8. Do either deserve their ranking?
Notre Dame comes into the game with a 6-0 record for the season, but I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t believe in this team. I know there is plenty of talent on their roster, but they aren’t exactly challenged with their schedule.
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Beating up on teams that will combine to have a losing record isn’t exactly a major accomplishment. Are CJ Carr’s 1,378 passing yards and 16 touchdowns as impressive as, say, Julian Sayin’s 1,772 yards and 17 touchdowns? Sayin has at least faced Iowa and Texas this season.
This season, the Fighting Irish have played Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, Purdue, North Carolina and Stanford. That combination of teams isn’t the worst in football by any means, but they also aren’t ranked teams.
They do have three teams coming up on their schedule who are ranked – today against BYU, Nov. 7 against Miami and Nov. 21 against SMU. They haven’t really had a challenge this season, and only one game could be considered remotely close with an 11-point victory.
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BYU is coming into this game as the top team in the Big 12 and has a perfect record. They are the 8th-ranked team in the country and a loss here, unless very close, will almost certainly drop them down in the national rankings. So far this season, the Cougars have taken down Utah Tech, Arizona, Colorado State, TCU, and Iowa State. I’d argue that they have had a tougher schedule than what Notre Dame has faced.
This team is built around a balance of passing and rushing, instead of being solely focused on one of those games.
Bear Bachmeier, the quarterback, is completing over 65% of his passes for 1,033 yards and eight touchdowns. He has also pulled the ball down and run with it 36 times, second most on the team, and scored four touchdowns. Take him out of the game, and the team has three guys with over 20 carries, averaging over five yards per carry and seven touchdowns. I do wonder if the team will have any success against Notre Dame if they don’t get the ground game going to open the passing attack. Perhaps they will need to get the passing game going to open the running.
The books seem to expect this to be a bit of a defensive battle. The total opened at 54.5, but it has been bet down to 46.5 points. The spread also started at 11.5 in favor of the Fighting Irish. I personally like BYU at home to make this a game. I think their defense can combat some of Notre Dame’s running game. I also think Bachmeier will make this a dynamic game for him. Give me BYU +10.5.
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