Notre Dame plays Navy, and Miami plays North Carolina this weekend. Those are the schools both teams want to talk about and focus on. However, the media is far more interested in the game in two weeks, when the Hurricanes and the Irish meet for the second year in a row, this time in South Bend.
The coaches have already said they want to focus on the team in front of them. That was never clearer than earlier this week, when Canes head coach Mario Cristobal addressed the media at his weekly press conference. A reporter began asking about the game against the Fighting Irish. He couched the question as wondering whether the Hurricanes were looking ahead. Cristobal would have none of it.
"No, I'm making sure that they don’t look ahead to Notre Dame," he said. "Yes. No, making sure that that's not a trap game type. Okay. You can see I'm armed and ready to So, I'm sorry. What was your question?"
After apologizing for the interruption, Cristobal let the reporter finish the question about North Carolina, then addressed the importance of the message this week.
Notre Dame football must avoid looking past Navy while Miami prepares for North Carolina
"We just watched North Carolina at the line of scrimmage, beating up everybody they play," he said. "It's easy to see and if anyone that doesn't recognize that chooses to be blind. We play in this conference, you know, and conference play in general is playoff football."
Cristobal went on to explain that North Carolina has improved quite a bit in Bill Belichick’s second year. That’s one big advantage that Miami has over Notre Dame as the November 7 game looms. The Irish will certainly talk a big game about not looking past Navy. Still, with the Golden Domers 30-point favorites, it’ll be hard to treat the Midshipmen as tough, or even in the same league, as Miami.
Their most recent loss to BYU adds another degree of difficulty. Notre Dame has handled business when they’ve played teams viewed as a rung below them. That includes the Tar Heels. Of course, North Carolina was also the first team to really put fear in the hearts of the Fighting Irish.
Focus will be hard to come by for Notre Dame on Saturday, but they’ll have to find a way. For Miami, the Tar Heels are a good enough team (not to mention a conference foe) that it will be much easier to put the November 7 showdown in the back of their minds.
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