I’m calling it now.
Notre Dame is my pick to win the national championship.
I’ve gone back and forth between Oregon and Notre Dame because I think those are two of the most complete teams in college football this season. But when I look at Notre Dame, and particularly the road they have in front of them during the regular season, I keep coming back to the same conclusion.
This team is built to make a run, and the schedule is built to let them do it.
When I go through Notre Dame’s schedule, I see two games that I consider legitimate hurdles: BYU and Miami.
That’s it.
BYU concerns me because that’s a road game against a program that knows how to win football games. That environment can get nasty, and Notre Dame had better show up ready to play.
Then there’s Miami.
That’s the one game on the schedule where I look at the opponent and say, Okay, this could be a heavyweight fight. Miami has the talent and athleticism to line up with Notre Dame and make it a four-quarter football game.
Outside of those two?
I just don’t see another team on that schedule that I believe should beat Notre Dame.
Now, I’ll throw one little asterisk beside Navy.
I’ve been around football long enough to know that you never completely dismiss a team running that triple-option offense. It’s different. You don’t see it every week, you have to prepare differently for it, and one blown assignment can turn into six points before you know what happened.
Navy can shorten the game, eat clock and frustrate the hell out of you.
Could that cause Notre Dame some problems?
Absolutely.
Do I think Navy beats them?
No.
And that brings me to the bigger reason I’m picking Notre Dame.
A favorable schedule isn’t just about piling up wins. It’s about what that schedule does to you physically by December.
Notre Dame doesn’t have to navigate the kind of weekly meat grinder that some of these SEC and Big Ten teams are going to face. They’re not going to spend two months playing heavyweight fight after heavyweight fight and then limp into the College Football Playoff held together with athletic tape.
That’s important.
Really important.
Championships aren’t necessarily won by the team that looked the best in September. They’re won by teams that are still getting better in November and still have their best players standing in December and January.
Notre Dame has an opportunity to do exactly that.
And I think CJ Carr is going to be a huge part of it.
I love what I’ve seen from this kid. He’s talented, he’s poised, and he’s now got experience under his belt. If he takes the next step that I expect him to take, Notre Dame isn’t simply going to have a quarterback capable of managing games.
They’re going to have a quarterback capable of winning championship games.
That’s the difference.
Oregon still scares me. If you told me Oregon wins the whole damn thing, I wouldn’t argue very hard with you. They’ve got talent everywhere, they’re well coached, and they’re absolutely one of the teams capable of standing on that stage at the end.
But today, I’m planting my flag.
Notre Dame.
I think they get through the regular season. I think that schedule puts them in tremendous position for the playoff. I think they arrive there healthier than a lot of the teams they’ll be facing.
And once they get there, I think they’ve got enough talent, enough experience and enough quarterback play to finish the job.
So I’m not waiting until November to jump on the bandwagon.
I’m calling it before the season gets rolling.
Notre Dame will win the national championship.
