Gotta get the predictions up before the opener...

It’s always is difficult to use game by game predictions as a means of predicting a team’s final record. Looking at the Irish slate one game at a time, I think the majority of the country would pick Notre Dame to win every game head to head except for USC. The problem is that the odds that Notre Dame beats all 11 other opponents this year are probably a lot lower than the certainty of these head to head predictions might indicate.

Last year, my game by game predictions had Notre Dame finishing 8-4, but if I could have done a different format, they would have looked more like this:

SDSU: 1-0

Stanford, Washington, Navy, Syracuse: 3-1

Michigan, MSU, Purdue, UNC, Pitt, BCU: 3-3

USC: 0-1

This prediction, which is what I threw around with my classmates last year but didn’t post on the blog, put the Irish at a more reasonable 7-5 because it included some sort of inconsistency factor that I feel should be present for a team with a couple question marks. Everyone knew that Notre Dame had more talent than the bottom 5 team on the schedule last season, but Division 1 football is tough, and stringing together five wins against teams your supposed to beat can be a challenge for a team with a lot of inexperience.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreet said acknowledged last week that while many people are talking about Notre Dame’s soft schedule, there are a few games in addition to USC that could cause some problems, namely @ Michigan, MSU, and @ Pitt. If the Irish had a one game season against any of these three opponents, I would bet Blue and Gold every time, but I think this is the group of teams that combine to put at least one loss on the board.

Nevada, Washington, and WSU: 3-0

Purdue, Navy, UConn, Stanford: 4-0

Michigan, MSU, BCU, and Pitt: 3-1

USC: 0-1

So employing the grouping method, here’s my prediction for how Notre Dame is going to get to ten wins this year, starting with a close game against Nevada tomorrow. Go Irish!