Notre Dame Football: 3 Bold Predictions For Irish-Trojans
By Chase Eyrich
Prediction #3: Julian Love will come up huge
USC is going to the air this weekend. We’ve already hit on the success that Sam Darnold has had, as well as his ability to spread the love to his receivers. While throwing for 296 yards per game, Notre Dame hasn’t faced an offense like this one. But this week, no receiver will play as big of a role as Deontay Burnett.
Burnett comes in as Darnold’s main target with 49 catches for 626 yards and six touchdowns this season. Julian Love is the one who will be covering him this weekend.
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Of course, as mentioned earlier Love was the one with the pick six against MSU. While covering Burnett before the ball ever touches his hands will be extremely important, he’s a bigger threat after the ball is in his hands. A huge part of his 626 yards this season have been after the catch. For Love, it will be important to be able to bring Burnett down before he sees an open field.
If Love can bring him down fast that might actually be more impressive than actually shutting him down.
When it comes to the questions about this defense, a lot of them come in the secondary. An area where we can be sure that Darnold will try to expose. It will be a huge matchup for the secondary as well as Darnold, but if they can slow down the Trojans it could help the Irish reach that 7-1 mark as well as solidifying the abilities of the defense.