Notre Dame could very well end up having the very best offense in the nation this year. People like to hate on them, because they are Notre Dame, but Charlie Weis proved he is a good coach last year, they only lost 2 games last year, and they really only have 4 tough games this year. Notre Dame is going to be a very good team.
One thing that makes them have a strong chance at being contenders, is their most likely opportunity for a loss, is in their first 3 games, when they play at Georgia Tech, and then host Penn State & Michigan on back-to-back weeks.
after that they play, at Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford, UCLA, at Navy, North Carolina, at Air Force & Army, that should be 8 wins for Notre Dame right there, if their offense plays the way it should, none of those teams will be able to stay in the game with the Irish, no matter how bad Notre Dame's defense is.
Then that leaves Notre Dame with 1 game left, at USC, which at this point, it is hard to say how good USC will be at that point next season, so it is hard to say how that game should go. Right now Notre Dame looks like they should be better.
If this was any other team, with the same players, same coaches, same schedule, the team would be getting the same type of hype. I really think Notre Dame goes 9-3 in their worst case scenario for this year, and have a very good chance to go, 11-1 or 12-0.
