Notre Dame Football Bold Prediction: Irish will exceed sack per game numbers in 2020

While it’s tough to make any bold predictions with so many unknowns, we’ve got a few for the Notre Dame football team.

Fans are hoping that Notre Dame football plays some sort of a season this upcoming academic year. Usually around this time, it’s time to start making bold predictions, projecting records, and trying to decipher depth chart storylines.

Admittedly, however, that becomes much more difficult, given the circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And since no one knows just exactly how many games Notre Dame will play this year, it’s hard to project season totals.

And that is exactly why, for the purpose of this exercise, we will talk in terms of per game numbers.

I’ve already talked about how Notre Dame has a lot coming back in terms of pass rush in 2020. Talented defensive ends Daelin Hayes and Ade Ogundeji will anchor the ends of the defensive line. And when you add in more experienced linebackers, a wildcard in Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah at the ROVER position, and a talented defensive secondary, it’s easy to get excited about the Fighting Irish defense in 2020.

For that reason, I think Notre Dame exceeds the number of sacks per game in 2020.

In 2019, the Irish registered a total of 34 sacks over the course of 13 games, which amounts to about 2.5 sacks per game. I think Notre Dame will average about 3 sacks per game in 2020.

Obviously, more sacks is better for the Irish defense — that almost goes without saying. But not only will the Irish have a similarly talented pass rush from a year ago, but they will also will be reliant upon corners Tariq Bracy, Shaun Crawford, and Nick McCloud. This should give Irish defensive coordinator Clark Lea the opportunity to be more aggressive defensively that will allow the Irish to get to the quarterback more frequently.

At any rate, Notre Dame has to be excited about its defense in 2020. Let’s hope they get the opportunity to play.