Notre Dame football: True road games have stymied Irish in the past

In the past three and a half seasons, Notre Dame football is 3-9 in true road games. Now the Irish will face North Carolina State in Raleigh this weekend.

Notre Dame doesn’t play too many true road games, or games in which the Irish face their opponents in their home stadium. That’s just a fact. Some teams play up to six in a year. The Irish average around three.

Part of that is because of the Shamrock Series and Notre Dame’s seven-game home schedule, and part of that is due to the fact that the Irish are such a big draw it often makes financial sense for the host school to use an NFL stadium or some other massive structure to house the hordes of ND fans that follow the Irish.

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The bottom line is, more often that not, Notre Dame has not had to deal with truly challenging environments too much in recent history. Neutral site games, even if they are played in the city where ND’s opponent is located, are often watched by crowds that just about a wash in terms of rooting interest.

True road games are entirely different animals. Rabid student sections and unfamiliar conditions that are comfortable for the opponent often add up to upsets, losses and underdogs. There’s a reason Notre Dame’s opponent this weekend, North Carolina State, is 2.5-point favorites.

Let’s take a look at the past 12 true road games Notre Dame has played, which dates back to the beginning of the 2013 season, just after the Irish advanced to the BCS National Championship Game.

Opponent	Result	Score	Year

Texas	L	50-47	2016
Stanford	L	38-36	2015
Clemson	L	24-22	2015
Virginia	W	34-27	2015
USC	L	49-14	2014
Arizona State	L	55-31	2014
Florida State	L	31-27	2014
Stanford	L	27-20	2013
Air Force	W	45-10	2013
Purdue	W	31-24	2013
Michigan	L	41-30	2013

Overall Record	3-9
Record against ACC	1-2
Record in one-score games	2-6

So there you have it. The three teams Notre Dame has beaten on the road in the past four seasons went a combined 6-29 in the year the Irish played them. Very often these road contests have been close-fought battles, but three-quarters of the time, ND has failed to come out on top.

North Carolina State is hardly a powerhouse, but the Wolfpack are currently 3-1 and thrashed Wake Forest last week, who beat Duke earlier this year, who beat Notre Dame. Besides, the threat of Hurricane Matthew could mean this game will be played in terrible conditions with pouring rain, a la Clemson last season.

All of this is not to say the Irish will definitely lose this weekend. But after beating Syracuse in front of what seemed to be a pro-Irish crowd last weekend, Notre Dame cannot be declared officially back from the dead, especially with one of its only true road games coming up.

Should ND defeat NC State, the Irish will have a stretch of five neutral-site and home games, where the team has performed very well in the past, compiling a 25-7 record since the 2013 season.

Next: Irish Coffee Podcast: The Syracuse bounceback

Of course, this weekend’s game might not even be a road game at all. Given the aforementioned Hurricane Matthew, there’s been talk that the contest might be moved to a neutral site or even South Bend. Notre Dame fans should be hoping that’s the case, given the odds.

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