Notre Dame Football: Predicting Every Remaining Game on the Schedule

After giving away victories to South Florida and Michigan, Notre Dame is finally starting to look like the team people thought they would be coming into the season.

The turnovers are down, the points are up and the defense has held three teams to 13 points or less.

That said, we still don’t have as many answers for this team as we’d like because they haven’t played the most challenging schedule.

So what is the outlook for the remaining games on the Irish’s schedule? Here’s a prediction for how the rest of the season will go.

USC

In one of the greatest and most storied rivalries in all of college football, Notre Dame plays USC in South Bend under the lights for the first time in 21 years.

The Trojans are 5-1 after defeating Cal 30-9 on Thursday, but they have failed to impress in many of those games, losing to their only ranked opponent in Arizona State by 21 and escaping 1-5 Arizona with a seven-point win. They also should have beaten the Bears by a lot more than they did.

Teams can either come out flat or play with a renewed vigor coming off of a bye week, but with a rivalry like this in a night game, I’ll take Notre Dame to make a statement in this game.

Navy

Notre Dame beat Air Force 59-33 last week and Air Force beat Navy.

Unless the Irish have a letdown week after an emotional win against USC, don’t expect them to lose this game.

Wake Forest

The Demon Deacons are 5-1 right now with their one loss coming in overtime without their starting quarterback. They also beat Florida State 35-30 last week.

But it’s hard to figure out how good this team really is because the Seminoles seemed to play without any fire, turning the ball over five times.

Until proven otherwise, Notre Dame should win this game, even if it’s on the road.

Maryland

The Terrapins looked impressive on Labor Day against Miami but have failed to do anything of substance after that and are now 2-3 with an embarrassing 38-7 loss to Temple.

Their rush defense is really bad, allowing about 200 yards per game on the ground alone.

If the Irish don’t turn the ball over repeatedly, this should be another win.

Boston College

Boston College may be the worst team in the ACC this year. They lost to Duke and their only win has come against Massachusetts.

The Eagles lost All-ACC running back Montel Harris for the season and he was really the team's only source of offense.

If Notre Dame doesn’t win this game, Brian Kelly should be fired.

Stanford

Far and away the biggest game on the schedule, Stanford hosts Notre Dame in the regular-season finale.

The biggest thing with the Cardinal at the moment is how we don’t know anything about them. They lost one of their best defenders in Shayne Skov for the year, and their opponents have a combined record of 10-19.

Andrew Luck is an amazing quarterback, but he can’t do it by himself. Stanford bested the Irish in South Bend last year, but Notre Dame has to be considered at least a small favorite until the Cardinal prove they can defeat a good team.