Notre Dame Football: A Look at the 2021 Football Schedule

Recently, Notre Dame football announced its 2021 football schedule. Here is a look at all 12 regular season games.

It was only a couple of months ago that most teams were able to announce their 2019 football schedules. Typically, a program needs to wait for its conference to announce the season’s conference schedule, to confirm the order and location of in-conference games. For Notre Dame football, one of the charms of being an Independent is not having to wait on that to know who you’re playing.

Now, because Notre Dame can plan years ahead in scheduling, without the constraints of a conference schedule bearing down on them. Here is the Notre Dame Football schedule for 2021.

Week 1: at Florida State

Traveling to Florida State is never easy. They will have athletes, not matter their record. Also, playing Florida, in early September will be extremely hot. Cramping could be an issue come game time. Given the names of the two programs it has a chance to be a marque match-up, early in the season.

Week 2: Toledo

Notre Dame starts the season at home, against the MAC. Hypothetically, it shouldn’t be too tough. Toledo does have tough teams every now, and again, though. Still, Notre Dame should not struggle.

Week 3: Purdue

Purdue is excited about their coach, Jeff Brohm. They’re still waiting for proven results, beyond hope. The Boilermakers will have talent, and a fighter’s chance. Still, early on, you’d like to think the Irish win this one.

Week 4: Wisconsin (at Chicago’s Soldier Field)

Wisconsin is going to play a slow, smash-mouth game. Possessions will be cut down. That’s just Wisconsin’s identity. It’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

Week 5: Cincinnati

Brian Kelly’s former team is considered one of the rising programs in the AAC, a rising conference. Like Wisconsin, head coach Luke Fickell has a smash-mouth sensibility. Fickell recruits well, but how long will he actually be at Cincinnati.

Week 6: at Virginia Tech

Notre Dame made traveling to Virginia Tech look easy, in 2018. It isn’t easy. It won’t be easy in 2021, either. What Virginia Tech looks like, in regards to its roster, remains to be seen, though.

Week 7: USC

Hopefully, USC is still holding onto Clay Helton by 2021. That seems unlikely, though. USC is likely to have a different coach, and tons of talent. Good thing they’re coming to South Bend.

Week 8: North Carolina

North Carolina football was an embarrassment in 2018, and were lucky to finish 2-9. In a highly criticized hire, they brought coach Mack Brown back to Chapel Hill. Brown was good coach for them in the 1980s, and 1990s, but he has been out of football for years now, and in his last few years at Texas, he looked old. Who knows if Brown makes it to 2021?

Week 9: Navy

Everyone knows that Navy is well-coached. If they can find a QB to run their triple option, they’re deadly. Even when they’re not playing great you need to be near perfect on offense, because you won’t get many chances.

Week 10: at Virginia

Virginia is a program that could be anywhere from a ten win team, to a two win team by 2021. They’re very difficult to judge. Still, historically, Virginia shouldn’t be too big off an issue.

Week 11: Georgia Tech

Senior night will come against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets are another ACC team in transition, making it difficult to predict what they’ll look like a couple years from now. Georgia Tech is a tough place to recruit, though, and Notre Dame should have more talent.

Week 12: at Stanford

Traveling to Stanford is going to be a very tough way to end the season. There’s no doubt that the Cardinal will have reloaded on talent, and will be ready to go in 2021. Hopefully, Notre Dame will be playing to finish an undefeated season.

It’s too early to do any in-depth analysis of any of these games. Some of these teams have new coaches, others are liable to lose their coaches. Besides that, there are two seasons of college football in between now, and when this is Notre Dame’s schedule. With how quickly rosters turn over in college football, the important players will be different for every team on the schedule.

There are, however, some worthwhile notes on the schedule. The first thing is that Notre Dame will play seven home games to only five away games. That’s fairly standard for most power conference teams. Power 5 teams like to host out of conference games, so that they have less chance of being upset.

The five ACC teams on Notre Dame’s schedule are Florida State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia Tech. As of now, the toughest seems like it will be Virginia Tech. Even though the Hokies are dealing with a lot of transfers, they have a stable coaching situation, and travelling to Virginia Tech is one of the toughest things to do in college football.

Virginia and Georgia Tech also made bowl games in 2018. Georgia Tech is changing from the triple option to a modernized offense under new head coach Geoff Collins. Whether or not that works remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Virginia over-performed in 2018. They could be trending upwards, but again, there’s a lot of time to change.

As for Florida State and North Carolina, neither did well in 2018. Between their head coaches, they’ve been at their schools for a combined one consecutive year. Both are in good regions for recruiting. So, in two seasons they could be in very different positions.

Notre Dame will play a total of nine Power 5 teams. They will also not play a FCS team, as per usual. In other words, despite playing as many Power 5 teams as anyone in a conference, they won’t play a FCS school. A team like Florida, who played two FCS teams in 2018, will still thump their chest on their strength of schedule. They’ll attack Notre Dame’s strength of schedule, anyways. That’s the cost of being Notre Dame.