I believe it was the last time ND played on the Friday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 27, 1981- ironically to the date this year) - it was against an up & coming Miami Hurricanes team led by a grizzled coach named Howard Schnellenberger and soph. QB Jim Kelly. The Canes clobbered ND 37 - 15! Obviously, hope I'm wrong, but I see some eerie similarities; Mac Brown = Schnellenbeger; Sam Howell = Jim Kelly; Friday, 11/27/1981 = Friday, 11/27/2020.....then layer on top of this Kelly is overdue for his annual "ND Don't Show Up Game." The only thing that may go in our favor is Faust isn't the coach!!! My advice, take UNC +3.5
Notre Dame looked pathetic that night. Was also at the 1985 blowout in the Orange Bowl, Faust's last game
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That's not to say, Im not worried, road game, holiday weekend, slim 3.5 favorite but this is a great ND team you're comparing to a losing season, 5-6 ND team with an overmatched coach..
If you're searching for an ominous comparison, I find 11/28/64, Thanks giving weekend, a 9-0 ND team heading to LA to face a mediocre USC team, much more comparable..
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We need to run it down their throats from the start.
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BC after Clemson had trap written all over it, but we survived. Looking down the road, Wake concerns me because they put half -a-hun on UNC and it is away and sandwiched before, hopefully, the conference championship. We've heard a lot about our injuries, enough said. What is UNC's personnel situation? So much has been said about how this will be a scoring derby that it may have caught our D's attention. So I'll go out on a limb and say we will get a consistent 4 Q effort from our D Friday, and we'll be OK.
But I think this team is a playoff caliber team and, therefore, will take care of business. If they don't, then we aren't as close as we thought.
ND could lose this game and still be deserving of the playoffs. Better teams than this ND team have lost to lessor opponents before. That’s college football.
But losing to UNC definitely takes the destiny out of your own hands.
Unfortunately, this is not a typical year. There are going to be more than 4 undefeated teams in America at the end of the season. We will need an undefeated regular season to be in the Playoff. A lose in the ACC tourney will be the only acceptable lose to the CFP committee. (the only possible caveat is if we beat Clemson again, but if you lose to UNC... that is a stretch)
Possible Undefeated Teams:
OSU
Alabama
BYU
Cincinnati
Pac12 ?
1. Again, this is college football. Any team could lose on a given Saturday.
OSU could have lost this weekend as 21 point favorites.
I don’t think you’d ever consider BYU and Cincy as shoes in to be undefeated.
Bama still has to play Florida and a rival.
2. If UNC wins out, they’ll ranked in the top 10 team. This could be a very “good” loss.
3. What’s to say the committee doesn’t view ND with two wins over Clemson and it’s only loss on the road to a top 10 team as more deserving than undefeated OSU?
Obviously you want to win Friday, but there is a lot of football left to be played.
Pitt was 5-4 at the time.
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Haven't the bye weeks typically coincided with mid terms? I don't think that's an issue this year due to the altered CoVID schedule.
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Penn State still has finals coming up in two weeks for examole...of course, they no longer have to worry about football...so there's that.