Notre Dame can bask in the glow of a beatdown of Arkansas on Saturday for now, but the Fighting Irish saw its strength of schedule drop, too, less than an hour after the 56-13 rout of the Razorbacks.
The Fighting Irish have only one ranked team, No. 21 USC (4-1), left on the regular season schedule, and the Trojans may not come to South Bend as a ranked team after Saturday’s 34-32 loss to No. 23 Illinois (4-1). While the Illini field ranked team at the moment, Illinois also got blasted 63-10 by No. 11 Indiana the week before in a historically lopsided top-25 game.
USC also hosts No. 19 Michigan (3-1) the week before the Notre Dame game, and that could leave the Trojans at 4-2 and possibly out of the top-25 going into South Bend. The Trojans haven’t fared well against traditional Big Ten teams since joining the conference last year, with a 3-5 record.
USC lost to Michigan 27-24 last year when the Wolverines were in transition at quarterback and head coach. This year’s Wolverines squad has a stronger offense , amid 35 points per game, and the defense is as strong and physical as ever, amid 17.8 points per game allowed.
Notre Dame at least has plenty of teams with winning records on the remaining schedule, including a 3-0 Navy team. However, the Irish’s lack of a higher-ranked top-25 team and close losses to No. 2 Miami and a No. 9 Texas A&M won’t help in the playoff committee’s eyes.
Historic Day For Notre Dame QB
In 1994, Ron Powlus was the most-hyped Notre Dame quarterback recruit in years, and he played big in his debut against Northwestern with four touchdown passes â a freshman record.
Fast forward to Saturday, Irish freshman quarterback C.J. Carr matched that total as he threw for 354 yards and four touchdowns on 20-30 passing. Carr threw touchdown passes of 23 yards to Will Pauling, 34 yards to Jeremiyah Love, and 35 yards to Jadarian Price.
Going into Saturday’s game, Carr had 737 yards passing and five touchdowns versus two interceptions, and he completed 66.2% of his passes. The Saline, Michigan, native served took a redshirt year last year and served as the backup to Riley Leonard.
Jeremiyah Love Dominates in First Half
Love put together as good of a first half as anyone could have asked for with four touchdowns on Saturday against the Razorbacks.
He had two rushing touchdowns amid 57 yards on 14 attempts. Love also had two touchdown receptions, amid his seven receptions for 34 yards.
The Missouri native is considered a first-round NFL Draft prospect, and he could become the first Irish running back to get selected that high since 1993 when Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis went to the Los Angeles Rams. Love had a standout sophomore season for the Irish last year as a sophomore, where he ran for 1,125 yards and 17 touchdowns, plus 28 receptions for 237 yards and two scores. Going into Saturday, Love had 284 yards and three touchdowns on the ground and eight catches for 79 yards and a score.
He was far from the only dominant skill player on the field against the Razorbacks. Irish running back Jadarian Price had a team-high 86 rushing yards and a touchdown, amid 13 attempts, in addition to his 35-yard touchdown catch. Wide receiver Jordan Faison had a team-best seven receptions for 89 yards, and wide receiver Malachi Fields had three catches for 72 yards.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Notre Dame Gets Bad News After Win Over Arkansas appeared first on Heavy Sports.