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Opponent Watch: Mark Richt Has Lost Control of Scheduling

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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

Miami at Appalachian State (Sat 12:00 PM ET ESPN)

coachslappyanimatedns4.gif

Are we due for another MSU self-destruct incident?

You’re reading that correctly — the Hurricanes have to navigate the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and play a game in the friendly confines of Boone, North Carolina. The only question is whether the Mountaineers field a bigger home crowd (capacity: 23,000) than Miami usually draws at their home stadium.

App State gave Tennessee a run in Week 1, eventually succumbing in overtime on the road. However, you should expect a rowdy crowd this week. Irish fans should hope for a Miami victory for schedule strength (although, as you can see below, what schedule strength?), but college football fans will be cheering for an upset.

Other note: With Notre Dame’s late kickoff, you’ll want to flip over to ABC following the conclusion of our game to catch the end of USC / Stanford. Let’s hope you’ll be able to watch the 4th quarter of that game with another satisfying victory over Mike Dantonio under our collective belts (yes, disrespect intended).

Strength-of-Schedule Rankings

Last week, ND opponents went 5-4. On the year, opponents have a combined record of 16-6 (72.7%) with an average schedule strength of 97.

Rank

Team

Record

Weekly Change
3 Southern Cal 1-1 -2
31 Stanford 1-0 +31
35 Notre Dame 1-1 -11
53 Nevada 1-1 +96
56 Texas 2-0 -26
57 Virginia Tech 1-1 +94
81 Syracuse 1-1 +81
89 NC State 1-1 +38
94 Army 2-0 -14
173 Navy 2-0 -9
177 Duke 1-1 +8
199 Michigan State 1-0 -31
218 Miami 2-0 -13

Upcoming Opponents

  • Virginia Tech vs Boston College (Sat 3:30 PM ET ESPNU)
  • Syracuse vs South Florida (Sat 3:30 PM ET ACC Network)
  • NC State vs Old Dominion (Sat 6:00 PM ET ACC Network)
  • Army at UTEP (Sat 7:00 PM ET)
  • Navy at Tulane (Sat 7:00 PM ET ESPN3)
  • Southern Cal at Stanford (Sat 8:00 PM ET ABC)
  • Duke at Northwestern (Sat 8:00 PM ET Big Ten Network)

Past Opponents

  • Nevada vs Buffalo (Sat 9:00 PM ET Camp Channel)
  • Texas at California (Sat 10:30 PM ET ESPN)
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