Notre Dame Football: Irish Open as Underdog in Citrus Bowl

Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly has an opportunity to play the underdog card for the first time in 2017.

For the first time this season, Notre Dame is an underdog. According to Vegas Insider, the Irish opened up as a 1-point underdog against LSU in the Citrus Bowl.

Throughout the season, Las Vegas favored the Fighting Irish in every single game. In their three losses, the sharks favored Notre Dame by 5-points, 3.5-points, and 3-points against Georgia, Miami (FL) and Stanford respectively.

As an underdog, Brian Kelly possesses an opportunity to use this situation to motivate his team. How will the 2017 version of the Notre Dame football team respond when no one believes in them?

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At this point, the answer is completely unknown. For the majority of the season, Kelly and the Irish talked about dominating their nameless faceless opponents. As the campaign wore on, Notre Dame appeared to drift away from this mentality.

In 2014, Brian Kelly successfully played the Fighting Irish up as an underdog against LSU. In the Music City Bowl, betting experts favored LSU over Notre Dame by 7.5 points.

The Fighting Irish used dueling Quarterbacks and a smart game plan to upset the Tigers in Nashville. With a last-second Kyle Brindza field goal, the Irish upset Les Miles’ football team, 31-28.

Despite not having Miles as their coach, the 2017 version of the LSU football team is very similar to the group from 2014. The Tigers are dominant on defense.

Currently, LSU ranks in the top of several defensive categories. In points allowed, the most important defensive statistic, the Tigers are yielding 18.8 points per contest.

On the other side of the football, LSU continues to play at a mediocre level. The Tigers rank 71st in scoring offense with 28.1 points per game.

When Notre Dame takes the field as an underdog on Jan. 1, 2018, they hope to repeat their success from the 2014 Music City Bowl.

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