Opponent Watch: Bedeviled Edition

Each week in this space, we examine two things: Notre Dame’s strength of schedule (from USA Today‘s Sagarin rankings), and who Irish opponents are facing. For those of who want to scout future opponents, I’ll give you my recommendation for who to watch when you’re not watching Notre Dame Football.

Who To Watch

Southern Cal at Arizona State (Sat 10:30pm ET ESPN)

Southern Cal QB Cody Kessler
(Photo: AP)

Given the late kickoff, will the Sun Devils moniker be relevant? Can we get #SarkAfterDark trending on Twitter? ND fans may have horrendous flashbacks watching these two teams given last year’s outcomes, but the prospect of a second Trojan loss before the calendar flips to October has my heart all aflutter with schadenfreude. If you’ll recall, Arizona State prevailed in whatever secular schools call a Hail Mary — and gave rise to their quarterback’s rallying cry, “Bercovini, Bercovidi, Bercovici!” (The largest of hat tips to John Walters for coining that line…follow him on Twitter, at Newsweek, and at Medium Happy)

Strength-of-Schedule Rankings

Rank	Team	Record	Weekly Change
6	Stanford	2-1	+32
8	Virginia	1-2	-5
12	Texas	1-2	+13
16	Notre Dame	3-0	+21
35	Massachusetts	0-2	+25
64	Temple	3-0	-19
76	Pittsburgh	2-1	+61
79	Southern Cal	2-1	+88
102	Clemson	3-0	+33
153	Wake Forest	2-1	-1
161	Georgia Tech	2-1	+46
197	Navy	2-0	+31
214	Boston College	2-1	+13