One Foot Down and the other in your ASS - ND 2024 Schedule and Expectation
Interesting (TO HELL WITH NOTRE DAME!) article over at One Foot Down discussing the ND football 35 year championship drought, where the program is at and what could be in store for 2024.
The 2024 schedule makes 2023 Michigan look like murderers row with only Texas A&M (opener), Purdue and USC away from South Bend.
This Year's Path
Texas A&M (7-6 in 2023. Haven't won 10 games since 2012. Maybe give them credit for 9-1 in 2020)
NIU (7-6 in 2023. Pretty up and down over the last 10 years.)
Purdue (4-8 in 2023. Haven't won 10 games since 1979! 3 winning seasons in the last 10 years)
Miami OH (11-3 in 2023 and a conference championship. Sleeper? 3 winning seasons in 10 years, though)
Louisville (10-4 in 2023. Lost 3 straight to end the season. A fairly consistent team over the years)
Stanford (3-9 in 2023. That was their 3rd straight 3-9 season. They haven't been good since 2018)
Georgia Tech (7-6 in 2023. It was their first winning season since 2018.)
Navy (5-7 in 2023. That's their 4th straight losing season.)
FSU (13-1 last year. They are on the upswing with two straight 10 win seasons after a 5 year mediocre stretch.)
Virginia (3-9 in 2023. Haven't won 10 games since 1989 and their last winning season was in 2019.)
Army (6-6 in 2023. Fairly consistent for a Service Academy with only one losing season in 8 years.)
USC (8-5 in 2023.3 winning seasons and 3 losing seasons in the last 6 years. Took a dip last year from 22.
This picture from that article makes it look like this ref has a Stretch Armstrong arm.
Which Head Coach is that?? Dan Devine?
Ara Parseghian I think
Yes, that’s Ara.
Yes, that is Ara Parseghian. Mentor to Bo Schembechler at Northwestern.
I spoke with Ara on the phone once.
Trueness.
Gerry Faust and I were at a wedding together when I was in my early 20s. I had been enjoying the night.
I told him he was my favorite coach. He got a big smile and said is that right?
I said yes I’m a Michigan fan.
Not one of my more mature moments.
Was he ordering pizza?
Sean Connery?
I'll take this guy over Brian Kelly.
Roger Moore?
Knute Rockne
/s
George Clooney
Knuge Clokne
Boy, if you come here to try to make a substantive comment about a post these days, you may be out of luck. I know I'm guilty myself sometimes, but the amount of silliness you have to scroll through to find thoughtful remarks is amazing.
Just wanted to point out that this is why ND would rather not be in the SEC of B1G: They'd have to play people, and wouldn't receive nearly as much attention.
You can just click the karat and collapse the post and its replies if you don't want to read them. I have to say, though, I don't think this particular instance of "silliness" was bad at all.
Don't want to make a bigger deal of it than it is, because I looked back through my own posts and saw plenty of wisecracks. Has just seemed to happen a lot to me lately that the top is routinely meta or silly. And unfortunately, you don't really know to click the karat until you've read the stuff.
Not a fan of Notre Dame at all but did you intend to say our 2024 schedule? Because our 2023 schedule was pretty damn easy compared to that schedule.
Penn State away, Maryland away and Ohio State at home in 2023 trumps what ND has on its 2024 schedule.
Rutgers, UNLV and Bowling Green turned out to be bowl bound after it was said and done in 2023.
That schedule is probably easier. No one compares to OSU from last year. It’s a bunch of mediocre teams. FSU and USC are in semi-rebuilding years. Both lost their QBs and FSU had 10 guys drafted. Last year was their peak roster year.
You misunderstand. Our schedule was 'easy' last year, NDs is ridiculously easy this year, therefore ND 2024 makes M 2023 look like a murderer's row.
Worth calling out: Notre Dame can sell that it's a "tough schedule" because they only have 6 home games (most schools have 7 or even 8), but at the same time they only play TWO TRUE road games outside the state of Indiana:
- At Texas A&M on opening weekend.
- AT USC the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
- They are at Purdue, but that's of course in Indiana.
- Their game vs Georgia Tech got moved to the Falcons Stadium (more seats for ND fans).
- Navy is in East Rutherford, and Army is at Yankee Stadium.
Anyway, if they can get by A&M in the opener --- it will be interesting to see if that game gets scheduled to be in the hot late August sun or if it is at night ---- there's no reason they wouldn't be 10-1 at worst going into the USC game. Like it or not, they will be in the CFP talk.
I look at that and think they are a playoff lock. A 10-2 Notre Dame will get a ton of love in the media.
And losing even 2 games would be a embarrassing with that schedule.
Not according to the guy who wrote the article. His take is it's ND against everybody. No one gives them a chance and the entire college football world is hoping to bury the Golden Domers forever!
A better question might be, "Who wouldn't go 10-2 with this schedule?
Yeah I mean I look at that schedule and say there is no margin for error. If I were picking the CFB I’d think they’d have to be undefeated to get in. Especially with no conference championship game. Just like Michigan last year. Any loss was an elimination. But because it expanded to 12 teams and I have no say, I suspect they are going to get heavy consideration even at 10-2. Probably over a 9-3 B1G team.
Even with 2 losses, from the Big Ten UM, OSU, Oregon, PSU are likely locks
From the SEC; Bama, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Texas. That is 9 teams.
That leaves a ton of teams vying for 3 spots; Oklahoma, Oka State, FSU, USC, Miss, Clemson, Arizona, Washington, Louisville, Iowa and maybe a non power 5 will be in the mix.
If ND loses 2 with that schedule I doubt they get in.
Michigan State.
How and why would anyone hope to bury Notre Dame? This assumes people still give a shit about Notre Dame. They haven’t won shit in decades, they obviously don’t play anybody and their NBC contract was impressive 30 years ago, but it doesn’t mean dick now.
Their fans are as delusional as Nebraska and Tennessee.
Unfortunately for all of us... unless it's a mircle season with 15 teams with 10 wins....an EIGHT OR NINE win Notre Dame team will be getting enough media slob-knobbing to get in and probably will.
Especially when it becomes a 16 team playoff soon enough
They’re certainly in the conversation about the most weasly and self-promoting team in the country.
Speaking of which, does Michigan really play only 6 home games in 2025? That’s a joke
I don't know how this applies to the current thread, but I'll upvote it anywhere I see it on MGoBlog.
Upvote to at least 45 points.
I put in the 45th dagger
It's way more relevant than op.
They'll still manage to lose at least 3 games
I’ll go to church on Sundays and pray for that.
Obligatory 70s era Purdue T-shirt
Purdue Pete is throwing off some strong "We work hard, we play hard" vibes there.
I don't have the data in front of me, but it seems like there have been many years where the Domers have caught bluebloods in "dip" years, making their schedule look more fearsome than it really is.
That's interesting because the Linked article takes a deep dive into telling you the opposite and that they have had to take the more difficult path having been rejected by the B1G back in the day.
I don't really see that in the article. They cherry-picked a single season (2016). Later, "Past regimes leaned harder and harder into the path, embracing every big boy program they could find." (I'm not comfortable taking that on faith.)
In "The New Path" section you get ...
... the ACC Deal led to some lighter difficulty each season. Sure, you got Clemson a few times and FSU was good in 2014, but mostly they've had to play a bunch of 8-4 or worse ACC teams 4 to 6 times a year. USC falling flat most seasons also assisted in this lighter schedule, and Stanford and Navy rapidly descended into hot garbage perennial opponents.
... and then:
With a schedule like this, it should be easy to win 8 games in the regular season and winning 10 is well within the realm of possibility each year.
Still, I can't prove offhand that they were often lucky pre-ACC. It just feels that way.
They made the playoffs during the weird 2020 season if I rememeber correctly, but 2021 was the year where they finished 5th in the regular season and would have likely gotten in over Cincy or UM had either suffered a late-season loss. That year they went 11-1 in the regular season and beat some big-name teams like FSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, USC, and UNC while losing to Cincy, but digging in you see that:
- FSU went 5-7 (2022 they went 10-3)
- Purdue went 9-4
- Wisconsin went 9-4 before the wheels came off for Chryst
- USC went 4-8 (next year they went 11-3 with Lincoln Riley taking over)
- UNC went 6-7 (sandwiched in between 8-4 and 9-4 seasons).
So yeah, just sort of a meh season where they looked...fine on paper but I think only Cincy finished ranked and that was their one loss. They've had this ability to play "helmet" teams when they're sort of down, and the casual fan doesn't realize it.
big-name teams like . . . Purdue
hmm
Big (Drum) teams like Purdue?
The "luck of the Irish" has been mainly schedule related since 2010
3 of their main rivals - USC, Stanford, and us - all unfortunately had a mediocre decade-ish... Which is hyper annoying
Watch them sail through that cupcake schedule, make the playoffs, and then get blasted when they have to play a good team.