Notre Dame football coach Marcus Freeman is off to a rough start in his first season. The Irish were convincingly defeated by Ohio State on Labor Day weekend, solidly beat at home by a team from the Eastern Division of the Sun Belt Conference (Marshall) in week two, and struggled with a middle-of-the-road Pac-12 team (California) before finally pulling away late on Saturday.
Now, with a visit to 3-0 North Carolina this Saturday, ND have the perfect opportunity to obtain a quality win, and get their season squared up at 2-2. And it’s a series with a little bit of history to it.
The odds show the Irish favored -1.5, or -110 on the money line. In other words, it’s a pick’em, anybody’s ballgame. The over/under is 60.5, and here are the rest of the FYIs for this Notre Dame football road test. Let’s preview!
Notre Dame Football at North Carolina Tar Heels
Date: Saturday, September 25
Kickoff: 2:30 CST, ABC
Venue: Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill, IN
About that history, let’s flash back to Oct 11, 2014, when the Irish were undefeated and ranked #6 in the nation. North Carolina came to South Bend and the Tar Heels entered the fourth quarter up 36-35. Then the game changed on a very controversial call. “Roughing the Snapper” was trending nationally on Twitter that day. As was Everett Golson and #UNCvsND.
Having been in the press box that day, I can tell you that everyone’s ears perked up and attention piqued when we hears that phrase “roughing the snapper.”
UNC believed that they got hosed on that call, and it’s very understandable for them to think that way. All the momentum changed after that whistle.
Go to this link to read more about that game, and that specific unique call. It’s just one of the historical quirks that comes along with Notre Dame football being a quasi-ACC team. When they play Carolina, you think of roughing the snapper. When it’s Georgia Tech, Rudy and his one play, in 1975, comes to mind. The Holy War against Boston College? The 1993 national championship getting squandered away the week after the Game of the Century.
Looking ahead to this weekend, we just don’t know what North Carolina is, and is not right now. They haven’t played anybody yet, and their defense looks extremely suspect thus far. They can certainly score points and pile up the yardage though.
Prediction: North Carolina 33, Notre Dame 30
While the Tar Heels are a massive question mark, this is one Notre Dame football team with a lot of issues to work out, on both sides of the ball.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and he co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast, part of Edge of the Crowd Network. Follow him and the website on Twitter and Instagram.