The Notre Dame Fighting Irish, ranked 11th in the country, open their season at home tonight in College Football action when they take on the Texas Longhorns. The game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on NBC. Currently the college football odds for the game have the Fighting Irish favored by more than a touchdown in this one.
Brian Kelly is on record about this year being his most talented Notre Dame team. While that may be true, opening the season against the Texas Longhorns, even at home, is going to be a tough task. These teams rank second and third all-time in career victories in college football, the tradition is certainly rich and it will be a fantastic opportunity to see them on the same field.
As hyped as Notre Dame is coming into this season opener, it seems Charlie Strong will have some things up his sleeves when it comes to slowing down the Irish. Texas was not terrible defensively last season and they bring back five starters on that unit, which gave up right around 24 points per game. The secondary is experienced, which should be critical against Malik Zaire and the Irish offense tonight.
The problem for Texas was the offense, the Horns scored just 21.4 points per game (106th nationally). They do bring back six starters from last season, but Horn fans are hoping they have gotten better in the off-season and fall camp. Texas won't be able to go score for score tonight with the Irish, making drives important with Tyrone Swoopes calling the shots.
Notre Dame's defense gave up at least 31 points in their final eight regular season games, going just 2-6. If the Irish play defense like that again this season they'll not live up to the vaunted preseason ranking. The Irish bring back 10 guys from last year's defense that will once again see time this season, but are they going to be any better? For the year they gave up almost 30 points a game, allowing opponents to average more than 400 yards of total offense.
Texas is going to be methodical, they want to run the football with Johnathan Gray and keep this low-scoring. If they do, the Horns will have a shot.
Free Pick: Texas plus the points
Oakland Raiders: 2015 NFL Free Picks & Betting Odds
Vegas betting expert Steve Fezzik doesn’t expect the bad situation in Oakland to get much better this season. This AFC West team may have some improvements in terms of personnel, but Jack Del Rio is the latest in a carousel of ever-changing mediocre coaches, and Fezzik doesn’t expect he is the guy to turn this team around. He also thinks people are overstating Derek Carr’s abilities at quarterback, as he may do well in the fourth quarter, but his numbers are padded with garbage time performance.
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