Notre Dame football: How tough is the Irish schedule in 2022?
By Brad Weiss
The Notre Dame football team opens and closes their season against tough competition, but how tough is their entire schedule in 2022?
We are officially in the middle of July, and that means the Notre Dame football team will soon start ramping up their schedule to get ready for the 2022 season. The Irish have a tough opponent right out of the gate in 2022, as they travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State, a team many feels will be a College Football Playoff contender this upcoming campaign.
The Ohio State game is just the start of a pretty tough road for the Irish, one that will see them play not only the Buckeyes but Clemson and USC, two other teams expected to be one of the best in the country this season. USC has been down as of late but got a huge hire in new head coach Lincoln Riley, who is considered one of the best young head coaches in the country.
Clemson should rebound after a tough 2021 campaign, though, like the Irish, they have question marks at quarterback. Outside of those three, Notre Dame football also has to go on the road to take on North Carolina and play what should be a tough Boston College team in 2022, so the schedule is no cupcake for sure.
However, some feel it is not one of the toughest in the country.
Notre Dame football schedule ranked outside of top 25
In his recent ranking of the top-25 schedules in college football this season, Phil Steele had the Notre Dame football team’s slate outside of the top 25 in the country. There were opponents of the Irish listed, including Ohio State, who they play in the season opener, but the Notre Dame football schedule as a whole is not seen as one of the toughest out there.
Notre Dame football has a tough road to get to the College Football Playoff, but they can make a real statement with a win in Week 1 against Ohio State. Sure, it gets easier from there until they take on Clemson, but a regular-season slate with three potential top-10 teams has to be considered one of the toughest out there this upcoming season.