A long road to hoe.

With 1/4^th of the season already in the books the 2016 season has taken a different path that most of us had hoped for.  College football playoffs, gone, a 10 win season doubtful at best and a major bowl appearance on life support what does the 2016 season hold now for the Irish.  Let’s look at the rest of the schedule and re-evaluate.

9/24 Duke.  At 1-2 the Irish should still beat and beat convincingly the Blue Devils to make it to .500 on the season.

10/1 Syracuse.  Another 1-2 and very possibly a 1-3 team when they meet in the Meadowlands should help the Irish move back to a winning record at 3-2.  Most of us thought Notre Dame would/could be 5-0 at this point.

10/8 NC State.  This match up could be tougher than originally thought when the Irish travel to Raleigh in October.  I would still pick them to win. 

10/15 Stanford.  I saw this as a pick’em game before the season started now, well let’s just say the Irish will be 4-3 after the Cardinal.

10/29 Miami.  Anther preseason win pick here but now that the Hurricanes are 3-0 and ranked #15 I might reconsider but for the fact those wins are over a FCS team and two borderline FBS teams this still should be a victory for the Irish.  A loss however would be devastating on many levels.

11/5 Navy.  The Midshipmen are always pose concern for Notre Dame.  I’d like to predict and Irish win here but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

11/12 Army.  Even though he Black Knights are currently undefeated at 3-0 we should be confident on Her Loyal Sons being victorious.

11/19 Virginia Tech.  Let’s pencil this in as a win.

11-26 USC.  Taking the Alabama shacking out of the picture  it’s still early to tell what kind of team the Trojans are, they did respectable against Stanford only losing 27-10.

So obviously the best Notre Dame can finish is 10—2, however lets be a little more realistic.   At this point a very good (regular) season would be 9-3 and a good season is 8-4.  A 7-5 season is disappointing and anything .500 or below is devastating.