Notre Dame Football: Previewing a week one matchup with Duke

We think there will be a Notre Dame football season, starting September 12th against the Duke Blue Devils. What can Irish fans expect?

For the time being, there’s still a Notre Dame football season. That season, supposedly, will start on September 12, with Duke visiting South Bend.

In a normal season, games against teams like Duke are the most annoying aspect of the ACC deal. They amount to an unimpressive (even when Duke is good, beating them isn’t a resume booster) power five slot that doesn’t even have the added benefit of being a traditional rival. However, it’s a key match-up for the ACC in the agreement, as it brings eyes to Duke football that wouldn’t be there under ordinary circumstances.

In 2020, it’s just nice to have anyone schedule to play.

The Irish and Blue Devils have only ever met 6 times, and Notre Dame leads the series 4-2. They’re 1-1 against each other, under their current head coaches, with Notre Dame beating Duke 38-7 last season. Their 2020 meeting was a regularly scheduled game, and wasn’t added due to the pandemic.

2019 Duke

Duke’s biggest question mark was always going to be how they replaced now-Giants quarterback, Daniel Jones. The reality of which, was they never fully replaced him. It didn’t help that they played one of the most challenging schedules of any ACC team, despite being a member of the much-maligned Coastal Division. To go along with Notre Dame, they also played Alabama in their out of conference schedule. Even FCS level North Carolina A&T and the C-USA’s Middle Tennessee State can’t make that out of schedule much lighter.

Add a tough stretch towards the end of the season, starting with a blowout loss to Orange Bowl participant, Virginia, rising North Carolina, and Notre Dame and playing spoiler to Miami’s Bowl bid was all the Blue Devils had by the end of the season. In the end, the Blue Devils finished 5-7 and they wouldn’t go to a bowl game.

What led to missing a bowl game for just the second time since 2012? Well, they were 110th in passing offense, and 79th in rushing offense. This led to just 25.3 points per game, also known as, not enough points per game.

On the other hand, their defense was legitimately good. They did allow more points on average than they scored, 29.2, which explains the losing record. Duke’s true strength came from being disruptive on defense.

2020 Duke

Duke will need to continue to be disruptive, and aggressive on defense in 2020. The plan is to start the attack at defensive end. Victor Dimukeje and Chris Rumph II will lead the charge here. Both Dimukeje and Rumph found themselves on All-ACC teams in 2019, and combined for 15 sacks. Their ability to press quarterbacks should lead to forced and errant throws, which will in turn open things up for a secondary that plans on attacking mistakes.

This ability to force opponent’s mistakes, through aggression, is how Duke will have to beat more talented opponents. The Blue Devil’s need to steal possessions.

On offense, Duke still needs to replace Daniel Jones. At least, in 2020, they bring a lot of potential to the position. Chase Brice will be taking over for the Blue Devils. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he was Trevor Lawrence’s backup for their National Championship run in 2018. When Lawrence went down against Syracuse, it was Brice who had to save the day.

After Brice, though, the cupboard is bare. Noah Gray, a senior tight end, will likely be the Blue Devil’s leading receiver. He had 51 catches and 3 touchdowns last season. Meanwhile, Deon Jackson is a senior at running back, but far from a back to fear on defense.

Prediction

Notre Dame has the experience and talent to brush aside all of Duke’s defensive strength, and their quarterback is alone on offense, with his half of relevant, non-blowout, playing experience. Notre Dame should win big 45-17.