Earlier this week, it was announced that No. 2 Notre Dame officially won a spot on the December 19 ACC Championship Game in its first season as a conference member while the league was making adjustments to its schedule to complete the college football season. 2020. Fighting Irish know they will play in Clemson or Miami in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a chance to claim the first conference championship in the program’s history.
Notre Dame will no longer play its December 12 game in Wake Forest, as the ACC seeks to name its conference championship participants after the action of Week 14, so Saturday’s game against Syracuse is not just the last game in home of the season, but also the end of the regular season.
It will be the last time on the field in South Bend for Ian Book and a senior class who helped to change Notre Dame’s place in the modern college football scene. Fighting Irish have won 32 of their last 35 games, won 23 consecutive games at Notre Dame Stadium and are one of only four teams to lose three or less since the beginning of 2018. These other teams are Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State.
Although Notre Dame has always been an iconic brand, Brian Kelly and this group of juniors and seniors helped transform the program into a modern powerhouse on the same footing as teams like Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. A big part of Saturday will be celebrating these veterans and how their success helped set the standard for Notre Dame football’s future.
Storylines
Notre Dame: Fighting Irish’s defense played one of their best games of the season in North Carolina, and that side of the ball is becoming a key storyline for how Fighting Irish compares to other contenders for the national title. With 16.7 points per game allowed, Notre Dame has the third best scoring defense of all Power Five teams, but the ability to keep teams out of the final zone has become a hallmark of the unit led by Clark Lea. In Lea’s 35 games as a defensive coordinator, 32 opponents were left with less than 30 points. According to Notre Dame, that 32 count includes an extensive list of opponents ranked LSU, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Clemson, Georgia, Virginia, Navy and, as of Saturday, North Carolina. It’s a group that has aged, remained old, relied on the development of players and an elite strength and conditioning program to establish itself as one of the country’s toughest defenses since the beginning of 2018.
Syracuse: With the clock ticking and Syracuse in a position to attempt a touchdown to tie the game against NC State at home, Orange saw their hopes of a second ACC victory dashed by a spike in the fourth down. It was a disheartening way to lose in a season that has been the most difficult in recent memory for Syracuse. The combination of injuries and dropouts left Orange entering a few weeks of play with the availability of players closer to the FCS teams (which have 63 stock market players), with many of the main contributors being healthy for being subclasses. It is important to recover after that moving ending for NC State, but this Fighting Irish team apparently tied to the playoff is not the ideal opponent for a recovery performance.
View information
Meeting: Saturday, December 5 | Time: 14:30 ET
Location: Notre Dame Stadium – South Bend, Indiana
TV: NBC | Live broadcast: fuboTV (try for free)
Siracusa forecast in Notre Dame, choices
Most recent odds:
Notre Dame Fighting Irish -33.5
There are many trends related to the underdogs of the conference of more than 30 points that would tell you to take a pamphlet in Syracuse, but don’t take the bait. Orange is coming out of a broken heart with a potential draw, ending in a fourth down, and that disappointment is more suspect than Notre Dame’s potential hangover from a big win in North Carolina. Even if the Irish are rusty, it will be on the attack. The under is the best move, but if you have to side roll with the favorite. Choice: Notre Dame (-34)
What college football choices can you confidently make in Week 14? Visit SportsLine to see which teams will win and cover the spread – all from a proven computer model that has generated over $ 3,500 in profit over the past four seasons – and find out.