After coming away with a 24-17 victory in the “return of rivalry” game against the Michigan Wolverines, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish’s playoff stock seemed to shoot way up. According to an article on 247sports.com, ESPN’s College Football Playoff Predictor has Notre Dame with some pretty good odds to make the playoffs after their week 1 win.
The predictor currently has the Irish with a 57 percent chance to make the playoffs, 32% to get to the finals, and 13% to win the whole thing. Only defending ACC Champion Clemson Tigers and defending National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide have better odds and both of those teams have been to the playoff the past few years with Alabama having gone to all four.
So you can pretty much understand how Alabama and Clemson have such good odds at the moment, but Notre Dame’s odd come as a bit of a surprise for a couple of reasons. First, I get it helps Notre Dame beat a No. 14 team that had high expectations with their defense and that is always a good thing, wspecially when that team’s name is Michigan, but they now have the third best odds to make the four team playoff.
Now personally, as an Irish fan, I thought they would be a sleeper team for sure this season.However, I certainly did not see that only lasting one week, so to now have a greater than 50% chance to make the playoffs after one week of play is a little much. You hate to see your team get so much hype so early on as it can be dangerous.
Secondly, I mean, neither Notre Dame or Michigan even looked that great. Yeah, I know, “It was only the first game,” but that is exactly the point of this whole thing: Too much hype after just one game.
Offensively Notre Dame certainly has plenty of room for improvement. Quarterback Brandon Wimbush even said so himself. He made a few good passes early on in the game, but the rest of game just seemed to be a bunch of screen passes and not enough down the field action. Running game wise, the Irish are in a real tough spot. Not only did they have to deal with replacing Mike McGlinchey and Quenton Nelson on the offensive line, but now they also have to deal with a shortage at the running back position.
After losing Josh Adams and his 1,430 yards in 2017 to the NFL draft, Dexter Williams to a 4-game suspension, and both C.J Holmes and Deon McIntosh getting kicked off the team, the Irish turned to Jafar Armstrong. Armstrong was actually a receiver in high school, so not having anything close to an elite running back is gonna hurt a team in the long run. Although he had two touchdowns, Armstrong only gained 35 yards on 15 carries.
So long story short, yes Notre Dame got a nice victory against their (perhaps a bit overrated) rivals, but they have much to work on moving forward and the playoff hype is just a little too fucking much right now!