NFL
By: Greg Rector
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team has plenty of experience on both sides of the football heading into the 2023 CFB season. They will have 146 games of experience on their offense and 149 games played on their defense. The Fighting Irish must not have letdowns they suffered early on last season.
Notre Dame Offense
The most experienced player on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish this season will be quarterback Sam Hartman. Hartman was with Wake Forest last season and brings plenty of experience under the gun. He will be protected by Joe Alt the huge tackle I have rated as my 4th player overall in the next draft cycle. So keeping Hardman on his feet shouldn’t be an issue for Notre Dame.
My question for Notre Dame heading into the season is will they finally move the ball downfield more often than they have been in recent seasons where they used their tight ends and slot receivers? I believe head coach Marcus Freeman made a wise decision in getting his new offensive coordinator Gerard Parker. It will be interesting to see if Notre Dame actually leaves behind a tired old system.
Junior wide receiver Deon Colzie should be the main target for Sam Hartman passes along with two sophomores with Tobias Merriweather and Jayden Thomas also getting plenty of opportunities.
The running game long a staple of Notre Dame football is in the hands of Audric Estime a junior and he’s backed up senior Devyn Ford. The ground game will still be the feature of course so both backs must contribute significantly.
As I said earlier it will be interesting to see if Notre Dame throws the ball more often.
Notre Dame Defense
The Notre Dame defense will feature two main transfer players the first one being Javonte Jean-Baptiste as a defensive end and the other key transfer will be corner Thomas Harper who will be used as the inside cornerback. Jean-Baptiste comes from Ohio State so he will be motivated to have a great game against the Buckeyes when they face Notre Dame during the season. Harper meanwhile-comes from Oklahoma State and he best be ready to play some defense, unlike his time with the more wide-open games he played in the Big 12.
The rest of the defense for Notre Dame is talented and has six other graduate students starting for them.
The Schedule for Notre Dame Football
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish schedule is as usual a pretty tough one. Although this season they play their main rivals the USC Trojans at home along with the return visit by the Ohio State Buckeyes this season also at home this is still a tough schedule but I have Notre Dame winning 10 games this season thanks to the new offense and great recruiting class. I don’t see Notre Dame as a National Title team. Just more of the same where the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football is a solid team.
The key thing going forward for the Fighting Irish is to continue to grow under Marcus Freeman and I believe they will be just fine under Freeman who has been a godsend for Notre Dame in my opinion.
| Regular Season | |||||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | TV | TICKETS | |||
| Sat, Aug 26 | 12:30 PM |
NBC
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| Sat, Sep 2 | 1:30 PM |
NBC
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| Sat, Sep 9 | 10:00 AM |
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| Sat, Sep 16 | 12:30 PM |
Peacock
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| Sat, Sep 23 | 5:30 PM |
NBC
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| Sat, Sep 30 | TBD | ||||||
| Sat, Oct 7 | TBD | ||||||
| Sat, Oct 14 | 5:30 PM |
NBC
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| Sat, Oct 28 | 1:30 PM |
NBC
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| Sat, Nov 4 | TBD |
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| Sat, Nov 18 | 1:30 PM |
NBC
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| Sat, Nov 25 | |||||||
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