Notre Dame Football: 3 Bold Predictions vs. Ball State
By Chase Eyrich
It will be closer than you think
While Notre Dame will look to step on the gas early, that might be the downfall to a crushing victory. Last season there were a couple of games that Notre Dame should have put away much easier than they did. An 11-point victory of Wake Forest and only 6-point difference against Navy do not give validation to the talent of Notre Dame’s team last season.
But, Ball State obviously isn’t as talented as either of those programs. So what will stop the Irish from rolling over the Cardinals?
Well, it depends on what you’re expecting. Notre Dame opened up as 33-35 point favorites this week. How many Irish fans will actually be pleased with a 35-point victory?
If the Irish don’t post 77-points like Ohio State did against Oregon State, will we hear some hate? Of course, because you can’t please everyone.
Notre Dame is more than capable of putting up those numbers. But, after a fast start, we will likely see the production start to slow down. This will be for obvious reasons. It wouldn’t make sense keeping Wimbush, Te’von Coney, Drue Tranquill and others in the fourth quarter with a 30-point lead. Those guys have proven themselves already.
While the reserves are still going to provide more talent than the majority of Ball States roster, their inexperience will slow down the production. Outside of the younger players getting a chance to play, this is a perfect opportunity to experiment.
The exciting part of this matchup is that we don’t know what we’re going to see. Will Notre Dame play both Wimbush and Ian Book in the same series just to see how it goes? Will we see the freshman Phil Jurkovec? With the new redshirt rules, we could see a lot of players that we otherwise wouldn’t.
Add to the fact that Clark Lea is new to his defensive coordinator role, and this game comes at the perfect time for him to make any in-game adjustments to this team.
The earlier Notre Dame puts this game away and starts experimenting, the more likely the production slows down early and the final score ends up being closer than you would expect it to be.