Notre Dame football: Week 5 results that affect the Fighting Irish

Some Week 5 college football results that have an effect on Notre Dame football

It’s now been a few weeks since the Notre Dame football team dominated USF, but it’s certainly felt longer. With that being said, there were still important results for Notre Dame’s season going forward. Week 5 was one of upsets and exposing some major flaws on major teams, like Oklahoma.

Here are some results that Notre Dame fans should be aware of:

TCU 33 Texas 31

Texas is not back.

Texas, in the past decade, is what casual fans think Notre Dame is – a once great, consistently overrated program, who lives in the past.

Still, Sam Ehlinger is an excellent quarterback and the Longhorns could hang their hat on his explosive play, unless Gary Patterson is coaching the opposing defense.

TCU harassed Texas in a sloppy, penalty-filled game, and the Longhorns fumbled on the goal line to lose. This, after a disastrous defensive performance against Texas Tech, has effectively eliminated Texas from the College Football Playoff.

Add in Oklahoma’s second loss of the season, and the Big 12 performing awfully in their out of conference games, and Oklahoma State has become their best hope to make the CFP as a conference.

That’s good news for Notre Dame. The Big 12 is onto its dying breath for Playoff contention, which opens the door for the Irish to make the College Football Playoff-even if Clemson makes it from the ACC.

North Carolina 26 Boston College 22

Notre Dame has to deal with both North Carolina and Boston College later this season, and there was already a lot of intrigue with both of those games. A lot of people think the Tar Heels are a threat to make the conference championship game over the Irish. Meanwhile, former Notre Dame backup Phil Jurkovec is now starting for Boston College.

This game raised a lot more questions about both teams, though.

Albeit, coming off a long break due to COVID-19 issues, North Carolina has not looked like the power they were expected to be. They played one good quarter against Syracuse and now they struggled with a Boston College team who has beaten a bad Duke team and survived Texas State out of the Sun Belt. However, they have flashed massive improvements from last season already.

Clemson 41 Virginia 23

No one realistically expects anyone but Clemson to win the ACC. After all, it’s been since 2014 since anyone, but the Tigers, win the ACC. Most teams can’t even play a competitive game against them. So, it stood out when Virginia was able to hang around with Clemson-for a half.

Talent won out, but is Clemson human this season? Did Virginia give a blueprint on how to slow down their high-powered offense? It’s hard to say for sure, but it’s a happy sight for Irish eyes.

Florida State 41 Jacksonville State 24

Notre Dame’s next opponent, Florida State, has been an absolute mess for a few seasons now, but 2020 is even worse. The program has major culture issues, a first-year staff, an incompetent offensive line, and an unhappy fanbase. Well, they were down 21-7 in the late second quarter against Jacksonville State.

Now, obviously, they turned it around in the second half, but Notre Dame really should be licking its chops to get back to action against a team that isn’t physically or mentally there.