Notre Dame Football: Virginia Tech matchup a trap game for the Irish?
By Brad Weiss
The Notre Dame Football team will look to make it back to the College Football Playoff this season, but there are some tough games ahead of them.
During the 2020 college football season, the Notre Dame Football team was able to navigate the regular season unscathed. Thanks to an incredible roster of talent, 14 of which made it to the NFL as either a draft pick or an undrafted free agent, the Irish punched their ticket to a second College Football Playoff in three years.
In 2021, key players will have to be replaced, but based on what we saw this spring, you have to be excited about the current group of players. They have talent on both sides of the ball, including some who should be preseason All-Americans, so do not expect the Irish to fall off a cliff, as some media members have stated.
Looking at their schedule, they will have to head to Florida State to open up the slate, but after that, they do not play in another team’s stadium until their matchup against Virginia Tech. That could lead to a fast start to the season for the Irish.
Could Virginia Tech be a trap game for the 2021 Notre Dame Football team?
In a recent piece by 247Sports, Riley Gates laid out ten potential trap games for the 2021 college football season. Within their top-10 was the Irish’s trip to Blacksburg, VA to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies, a game scheduled to take place on October 9.
Gates bases this being a trap game due to the fact it is right before their bye week, and they take on the hated USC Trojans after the bye. That is certainly a reason for a team to look past another program, especially one they should be better than in 2021, but you have to believe Brian Kelly will have them ready to go.
Later in the piece, Gates explains that the Irish could be a trap game for North Carolina, who Notre Dame beat soundly inside their own building last season. The Tar Heels have to travel to South Bend in 2021, and by the time they play on October 30, we should have a good idea of which program is a contender this season, and which is a pretender.