Notre Dame Football's 2009 Schedule: No Easier than 2008

Hope is a good thing. You can't live without it. Last year's resounding bowl win over Hawaii gave Notre Dame fans hope going into the 2009 season.

It gave them the kind of hope that makes one forget that this team is coming into the new season winning just four of their last fifteen games against teams from BCS conferences.

It gave them the kind of hope that makes one forget that they haven't had a top ten finish in over ten years and, in those ten years, they've seen four head coaches (Baer coached one game).

It gave people like Bleacher Report's own Ryan Williams the belief that, when talking about the '09 schedule, he wrote in a recent article, "The schedule is set up for at least ten wins."

A lot of people have been echoing Williams' sentiments. They say the schedule is easy.

This couldn't be further from the truth, and going into the '09 season, the schedule is not any different than it was last year. We all know what happened last year.

Last year the preseason prognosticators had two ranked teams on ND's schedule, USC and Michigan. This year those same prognosticators have ranked two teams—USC and Pitt.

Nine of the teams they played last year are on this year's schedule. Most are expected to be about the same quality. Michigan will be better. Pitt and Stanford will be a little better than they were last season.

Washington can't get any worse. Navy will not be as good this year.

The Irish lose three teams from last year's schedule—San Diego St., No. Carolina and Syracuse—and replace them with UConn, Nevada and Washington St.

North Carolina might have been expected to be a littler better than UConn is expected to be this year. Nevada is expected to be a little better than San Diego State was expected to be last year.

Washington State is, and Syracuse was expected to be weak.

I can't see a real difference in the degree of difficulty in both schedules, as seen prior to the start of each season.

As for what these teams are going to become—that's anyone's guess.

Let's forget last year and get back to the hope that ND fans are feeling—the hope that any fan feels prior to the coming season.

It's easy to say that the schedule is going to be easy, but it is not.  If this team has any idea of not playing each game as if it was a championship game, they will not do well.

USC is, as usual, a top five team. They have to reload at quarterback and linebacker, but presently, the winning streak over the Irish is at seven games.

Michigan, a team that last year broke a 41 year streak of going to a bowl, is going to be much better. You can count on it! In Rich Rodriguez's first year at West Virginia he went 3-8. He went 9-4 in his second year.

Don't forget where the game is going to be played—it's at Michigan.

On the road at Pittsburgh will be a tough game, and if Jimmy Clausen can keep the momentum going from the game with Hawaii, this will be a classic battle of Pitt's defense, one of the nation's best, against the passing attack of ND.

Michigan St. has to replace a quarterback and a top running back, but they have won the last seven of ten from the Irish, and have shown they are a good road team.  They've won their last six road games in this series.

Boston College loses two great defensive tackles and has to break in a quarterback.  They have four starters on the offensive line returning, and until ND snaps their current six game winning streak, any game against the Eagles will be tough.

Stanford's an interesting team that is going to be better than last year. In fact, Jim Harbough has been improving them ever since he arrived, and this game will be at Stanford.

They bring back an 1100 yard running back and their quarterback. This is a game where Clausan should rack up the statistics because Stanford's defense in suspect. But, just remember, Harbough's team beat USC in '07.

Purdue returns four starters on the offensive line and has won three of the last five home games in this series. Their defense needs help.

UConn has to replace four first day picks in this year's NFL draft, including workhorse running back Donald Brown. The UConn defense will be solid, and they have coach Randy Edsill, who always seems to keep them in ball games.

Nevada has Colin Kaerbernich. Who is he? He's a 6'6", 215 lb. gunslinging quarterback who was the Player of the Year in the WAC last season.

Navy has gone to six straight bowl games and they beat ND two years ago. This is the year that the streak might come to an end. They only return four starters on offense.

Washington and Washington St. were two of the worst teams in all of college football last year. Washington went winless and Washington St. won two games.

This schedule will, by no means, be easy, and if it sets itself up for anything, it will be a lot of tough games.