Slap the Sign
Fansided

Notre Dame Football: Top Storylines vs Virginia Tech

By Connor McJunkin

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA - OCTOBER 05: Phil Jurkovec #15 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish runs with the football in the second half against the Bowling Green Falcons at Notre Dame Stadium on October 05, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, INDIANA - OCTOBER 05: Phil Jurkovec #15 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish runs with the football in the second half against the Bowling Green Falcons at Notre Dame Stadium on October 05, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 4
Next
Notre Dame football
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – OCTOBER 26: Ian Book #12 of Notre Dame Football looks to throw a first half pass against the Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

After last week’s humiliating loss to No. 19 Michigan, Notre Dame football returns to South Bend and looks to bounce back vs Virginia Tech.

There’s not much left to be said about last week’s game that hasn’t already made its rounds across social media and the college football world. It was ugly, plain and simple. The second loss eliminates Notre Dame football from the CFP discussion and perhaps more annoyingly, marks another season derailed by a terrible primetime performance on a big stage.

Of course, last Saturday wasn’t anything new for Irish fans. Although many thought — myself included — that the Irish had turned a corner as a program where they could compete on the big stage (especially based on the Georgia game earlier this year). It turns out that we were all fooled.

Since 2012 (excluding 2016 for obvious reasons), Notre Dame has now lost a huge, potentially season or program-changing game each year:

2012: vs No. 2 Alabama 42-14

2013: vs No. 8 Stanford 27-20

2014: vs No. 2 FSU 31-27

2015: vs No. 12 Clemson 24-22 / vs #7 Ohio State 44-28

2017: vs No. 15 Georgia 20-19 / vs #7 Miami 41-8

2018: vs No. 2 Clemson 30-3

2019: vs No. 3 Georgia 23-17 / vs #19 Michigan 45-14

Different year, same story.

While many are quick to put the blame on quarterback Ian Book, who certainly deserves his fair share, the Michigan game was not solely on him. Nobody played well, including the handful of seniors and veterans that are supposed to be the experience needed to compete and win those type of games.

Moving forward, the season is still very-much salvageable. A 10-2 regular season would almost certainly guarantee a New Year’s Six Bowl game and would mark a third straight 10-win season, something that hasn’t been done in South Bend since 1991-1993.

To get to that 10-win mark, it starts with rebounding at home vs a 5-2 Virginia Tech team. These two met last year in Blacksburg, where a strong second half led to Notre Dame pulling away with a 45-23 win.

The Hokies are a bit of a mystery. Three of their five wins have come from Old Dominion, Furman, and Rhode Island, while the other two were vs Miami and a six overtime victory over North Carolina. They have a decent run game and an average passing game with a defense that doesn’t really jump off the page.

Regardless of how and who they’ve played coming into this Saturday, Notre Dame and its fans know by now each team plays its best when they line up across from those gold helmets.

Overlooking a game like this after such a letdown from last week could lead to another loss and the season quickly getting out of hand.

Here are the top storylines for this week’s matchup vs Virginia Tech.

Home/Notre Dame Football