Debating Notre Dame's Potentially Overrated College Football Rank

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00:00Okay, so let's start off with a team that I just simply hate talking about here on SportsGrid.

00:09But Mike, you want to do it, let's do it.

00:11It's the most overrated team in the history of college football.

00:14The team that always you're paying a significant tax to bet on.

00:18They rarely cover point spreads, and it feels like one out of every three or four years

00:22they say, I told you so, and then every other year they fall flat.

00:26It is the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who open up in a season, once again, can't ever figure

00:32out these rankings, Mike, as one of the top teams in college football, inevitably, until

00:36they lose to somebody, and then we forget about them.

00:38Look, I understand their popularity.

00:41I would also say that their defense and their defensive backs, my understanding is going

00:47into the year, they're going to be as good as any team in football.

00:50I get that.

00:51But beyond that, what's to like about Notre Dame?

00:53So paint me a picture where Notre Dame wins it all.

00:56Oh, I can't do that.

00:59And I can't even paint a picture for you, Craig, where they justify the preseason number

01:04seven ranking, except one thing, as I look at them, and that is the schedule.

01:09The schedule is, for a power team, about as good as it can get.

01:15You're in an independent situation, so you make your own schedule.

01:19So that means they don't shove Michigan down your throat, and they don't shove Alabama

01:23down your throat, or Texas, or whomever.

01:27You get to pick and choose, and they have not picked and choose a very difficult road

01:34for themselves this year.

01:36They do go to Texas A&M at the beginning of the season.

01:40Not the easiest opener, I'll give them that.

01:42They do have Florida State coming in to South Bend, and the rotation on the USC-Notre Dame

01:49rivalry takes them to Southern California.

01:52That's often, in the history of college football, been a difficult trip for them.

01:56But overall, it's just not that difficult.

01:59And so that, I think, is what empowers them.

02:03They bring in a new quarterback in Riley Leonard, who showed nice flashes when he was starting

02:09for Duke.

02:10Missed a half a year last year with injury, but really looks like a gifted player.

02:16But lost a 1,300-yard running back.

02:21Some teams, like, okay, they're going to get a lot better because they got a bunch of transfers.

02:25Nearly half of Notre Dame's transfers are walk-ons.

02:29So not exactly inspiring to see that group come in.

02:34I just don't see them in any way as the seventh best team in college football coming up this

02:38year.

02:39I hope it works out for Marcus Freeman.

02:41I really admired his work at Cincinnati that he did with the defense when he was the DC

02:48with the Bearcats on their terrific teams at the early part of this decade.

02:53And I think he can do fine, but I just don't think he's going to do this fine this soon.

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