Notre Dame Football: Top Storylines vs. New Mexico
Coming off a bye week after their 35-17 victory over Louisville, No. 7 Notre Dame football looks to kickoff their home opener of the 2019 season vs .the Lobos of New Mexico.
Notre Dame football is 1-0 and ranked No. 7 in the AP Poll coming off their bye week, leap-frogging Michigan after the Wolverines’ poor showing vs Army.
While a bye week this early in the season isn’t ideal, it gives the Irish a chance to regroup and get a few guys healthy before the 11-game stretch they’ll have going forward.
The bye week also gave Notre Dame and its fans a chance to look at the Louisville game and break down the performance of Brian Kelly’s squad. After a shaky start, especially by the defense, the team settled in and went on to beat the Cardinals comfortably.
The performance was far off from perfect, and a lot has to be fine-tuned heading into this week’s contest — and of course — the huge matchup vs. Georgia next week.
While New Mexico is hardly a game many people had circled when this year’s schedule was released, it is the most important game of the season because it’s the next one. While it is easy to overlook them with the Bulldogs patiently waiting for Notre Dame’s arrival in Athens next week, this is a great opportunity for Notre Dame to fine tune themselves and gain some confidence moving forward.
As many fans know all too well, the Irish sometimes struggle to dominate and win convincingly over teams they should blow out. Last year, fresh off a huge prime time win over Michigan, the Irish struggled to beat Ball State the following week and then had a nail-biter vs. Vanderbilt.
While Brian Kelly blamed the poor outings on his lack of preparing the team, that line has been said and heard one too many times during his career with Notre Dame. Kelly has assured the same mistake won’t happen this week.
Brian Kelly’s description of preparing for New Mexico is about playing to Notre Dame’s “standard” which sounded a lot like the Ball State press conference last year.
— Pete Sampson (@PeteSampson_) September 9, 2019
Kelly said he didn’t prepare the team well for that.
“It won't happen this week."
With that being said, I’m just happy Notre Dame football is back this week. The Irish play in South Bend for the first time in 2019 and the game should serve as a great opportunity to see improvements across the board. Here are the top storylines heading into this week’s game vs. New Mexico.