Notre Dame football: PFF low on the Irish heading into 2022 season
By Brad Weiss
The Notre Dame football team is widely considered a legitimate CFP contender, but Pro Football Focus does not seem to agree with that assessment.
With a lot of the spring practices coming to an end around college football, and the Notre Dame football team days away from their Blue-Gold Game, early top-25 2022 rankings will be coming out. A lot of the rosters for the 2022 season are taking shape, and where there is still some talent left in the transfer portal, most teams are done crafting their rosters for this Fall.
The spring has been solid for the Irish, who have battled through some injuries at key places but have brought the competition every time they have stepped onto the field. Under new head coach Marcus Freeman, there is a different feel to this program, and many feel he is going to lead them to new heights.
However, there are also a ton of question marks heading into next season, as the team has yet to name a starting quarterback, and there are depth issues at some key spots. Still, this is a team loaded with potential NFL talent, and many feel they will be one of the last teams standing when all is said and done.
While many are high on the Irish, some are not.
Notre Dame football ranked outside of the top-10
In their recent, ‘way-too-early’ 2022 top-25 rankings, Pro Football Focus goes into detail about their top-10 teams, before laying out the final 15. Unfortunately for the Irish, they are ranked outside of the top-10, falling to No. 11 overall, which is a bit of a shocker.
To make it even more shocking are the teams ranked ahead of the Irish, including Wake Forest, the USC Trojans, and even Oklahoma without Lincoln Riley at the helm. Notre Dame football takes on both USC and Ohio State, who is ranked No. 2 overall in this ranking, so they will have more than a few chances to prove PFF wrong this upcoming season.
Of course, these kinds of rankings mean absolutely nothing in the middle of April, as we have not even gotten to the Blue-Gold Game yet. The Irish will be a top-10 team when all is said and done, and if they can upset Ohio State in the season opener, they have a real good chance of going undefeated in Marcus Freeman’s first season at the helm.