Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff Hopes: Why Their Dark Horse Status Could Shake Up the Race

Who would’ve thought? Notre Dame, fresh off a thrilling run to last season’s national title game, stumbling out of the gate with an 0-2 record. It’s got college football fans scratching their heads and wondering if the Irish ship is sinking early this year. But hold on a sec—before you hit the panic button on Marcus Freeman and his squad, consider this: despite the rough start and growing pains with a rookie quarterback at the helm, there are solid reasons to believe that Notre Dame’s still got what it takes to claw their way back into playoff contention. Sure, the losses sting, but with an elite roster and a favorable schedule ahead, could this rough patch be just the wake-up call they need? Let’s dig into why the Irish might be far from out of the fight. LEARN MORE

One of the biggest surprises of the college football season so far is the fall of Notre Dame football. The Irish are off to an 0-2 start after a pair of narrow losses to open the season, and now their College Football Playoff hopes are slim just one season after making a run all the way to the national title game.

Despite the early-season slide, however, there is reason to believe that Marcus Freeman and company can still right the ship and get back into the CFP discussion. While it has been a bit rocky so far with a freshman quarterback and a lot of new parts thanks to some of the departures from last season, Notre Dame has still shown that it has what it takes to run the table.

There are two big reasons why the Irish will be okay and will still be right in the CFP discussion when December rolls around.

This is still an elite roster

Despite the 0-2 record and some of the sloppiness through two weeks, Notre Dame still clearly has a roster that can compete with some of the best teams in the country. Miami and Texas A&M are both ranked in the top 10 in the AP poll this week and both could very well make it into the College Football Playoff, and the Irish were within a play or two of beating them both.

Carr is still getting his feet underneath him, but it’s pretty clear at this point that he has what it takes to at least be a quality starting quarterback as a freshman. Notre Dame can still lean on its elite running back duo of Jeremiyah Love and Jadrian Price, and it returns three receivers who all contributed last season.

Defensively, the pass rush is probably what has suffered most from the attrition, but Bryce Young is still a playmaker and is off to a very good start to the season. The secondary can also stand to make some more plays, but Freeman always gets that side of the ball playing better and better as the season goes on.

Despite those problems on defense and the inexperience of Carr, which is going away by the week, Notre Dame was still right there with two of the best teams in college football, and was a few dumb penalties and a contested catch from a blocking tight end away from beating Texas A&M anyway. That should give it a lot of confidence moving forward.

Notre Dame’s schedule is very favorable

The silver lining of such a difficult start to the season is that Notre Dame has already played its two toughest games, at least on paper. The Irish will be big favorites in the rest of their games and should roll through most of them if they are healthy and playing at anything close to the level that they have shown over the first two weeks.

Freeman and company get a free trip into the win column with a game against Purdue on Saturday before a tricky road test against Arkansas and star quarterback Taylen Green, who has been on a tear to start the season.

If Notre Dame gets through that game, it should be smooth sailing from there. NC State looks good, but that game will be in South Bend at the beginning of October. Boise State looks underwhelming and isn’t nearly the challenge that it appeared to be at the start of the season. USC cracked the top 25 this week, but Notre Dame gets the Trojans at home as well.

Make no mistake, there is zero margin for error here. If Notre Dame finishes anything worse than 10-2, it is out of the CFP. However, with this schedule, it’s easy to see the Irish running the table and getting into the 12-team field.

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