Notre Dame Football: Writers project 2019 Irish record

Here’s how some of our writers see the 2019 Notre Dame football season playing out.

We’re just about two months away from opening kickoff of the 2019 Notre Dame football season and our writers are ready to call their shots on how thing thing is going to go. We’ve ready all the preview magazines and fully digested the happenings of the Spring session. We’ve read about the opponents and know the obstacles.

Let’s do this.

Carlee North

I have the Irish going 10-2 with losses being at Georgia and home against Virginia Tech. I think the game in Athens will be closer than almost everyone is predicting, but I just think the first true hostile game (sorry Louisville) will be too much to ask for a young linebacker unit and the up and downs of the special teams to pull off. As for Virginia Tech, I think the Irish get a win against Michigan the previous week, which just gives off the feeling that the “high” will carry over against a much improved and sneaky Virginia Tech team. They also will have two weeks to prepare for the Irish, which will only make it tougher.

Connor McJunkin

11-1. Notre Dame is returning a lot of talent, and have a pretty favorable home schedule this year, with the toughest matchups most likely being USC and Virginia Tech. It’s the road matchups that will tell us where this team and program are at. The Irish will drop another close one to Georgia in Week 3 and run the table after that. We’ll just have to hope that’s good enough for another CFP berth.

Jack Leniart

2019 Record Prediction: 9-3. I went back and forth between 9-3 and 10-2. Ultimately I settled on a record of 9-3. The first thing that gives me pause about the upcoming season is the road schedule. The Irish have to play Georgia, Michigan, and Stanford all on the road. It is likely that they will lose two of those games. On top of that, Notre Dame has a couple of tricky home games that could easily trip them up. After some of the good fortune they had last season, I think the Irish are due for a slight setback.

Mason Plummer

10-2 for the Irish in 2019. It’s hard to hope for much more than 10 wins this season, considering the talent drain as well as the extreme difficulty of this year’s schedule. ND returns a very solid team this year, but i think 10 wins and a solid bowl game would be a successful season for Brian Kelly and Co.

Nathan Erbach

10-2. It’s still a little early for protections, but this team is as talented — if not more than last year’s team — just with a perceived tougher schedule. It’s hard to go 12-0 every season. Road games against Georgia, Stanford and Michigan make it tough to project more than 10 wins during the regular season. With that said, if this team wants to get the respect they probably already deserve, an 11-12 win season is right there for the taking.

Sonny Martinez

10-2. I get the trio of tough road games, but Notre Dame will win at least one. I don’t see a loss on the home slate, but a trip up is certainly possible.

Corbin Whitney

2019 ND Football Record Prediction: 10-2, with losses at Georgia and home against Virginia or USC. I think this year’s team has the potential to be better than last year’s team (talent-wise), but the schedule this year is not really in their favor. I believe the Georgia game will be hard fought, but Georgia will win in the end. It is hard to predict, but I could see ND being upset by either USC or Virginia at home. USC will be tough due to there extremely talented receiving corps and based off of how last year’s game turned out (somewhat close). Additionally, I feel like the Virginia game is one that Notre Dame could overlook.

J.P. Scott

Confidence and certainty scare people — I get it. But I am confident in this 2019 Notre Dame football team and skeptical of the hype some of their opponents are getting. Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm gets happy feet in the pocket when there is too much going on around him. The Bulldog offensive line is stronger at run blocking that they are pass blocking. The Notre Dame front seven is going to get to Fromm and make a game-changing play in what should be a one-score game.

Aside from the Georgia game, the Irish will be the more talented and better coached team in every game — including the one in Ann Arbor. You can’t predict mishaps, poor decisions, injuries and bad calls. And this Notre Dame team has the potential to be more explosive on offense than it was a season ago. For those reasons, right now, I believe Notre Dame can and will run the table for a second-consecutive season and punch a ticket to the College Football Playoff. Gimme the Irish going 12-0.