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Notre Dame Football

Mentock's 2022 Notre Dame Game Predictions

September 1, 2022
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We’re just two days out from No. 5 Notre Dame’s season opener at No. 2 Ohio State. It will be the first Irish season under head coach Marcus Freeman, and thus far projections appear to be a bit all over the place.

I’ve heard a few people suggest we’ll see an 11-1 season from Notre Dame with another College Football Playoff appearance. At the same time, others have told me they’d be happy with seven or eight wins in 2022. 

My projection falls somewhere in the middle.  


Ohio State

I’m not going to be shocked if Notre Dame pulls off the upset on Saturday. Ohio State lost twice last year to teams without an elite quarterback or a recent top-five recruiting class.

But I’m still not willing to predict an Irish win either. 

I think Tyler Buchner will be good, but CJ Stroud may be the best quarterback in college football, and that’s going to be too much to overcome on the road in game one. 

Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 21


Marshall

Assuming Notre Dame loses to Ohio State the week before, I think they’ll be extra motivated to pick up some style points against Marshall and allow backup quarterback Drew Pyne to pass the ball quite a bit in the second half, running up the score a little bit. 

Notre Dame 51, Marshall 13


California

Based on ESPN’s SP+ preseason projections, Cal should have one of the top defenses in 2022 but their defense should fall in the bottom 10 in the FBS. This will allow the Golden Bears to hang with the Irish for a quarter or two, but by the end of the game, I expect a two-touchdown victory for the Notre Dame.

Notre Dame 27, Cal 10


North Carolina

Even with quarterback Sam Howell off to the NFL, North Carolina is equipped with plenty of offensive talent. Wide receiver Josh Downs has blazing speed and could be a late first-round draft pick in 2023. 

New starting quarterback Drake Maye looked solid in his debut in week zero. Now, I understand that came against Florida A&M, but he did what you’d expected a competent former top-100 quarterback prospect to do against an FCS team. He completed 78.4 percent of his passes for 294 yards and five touchdowns.

With that said, I still expected Notre Dame to beat North Carolina in a high-scoring, back-and-forth contest. 

Notre Dame 42, North Carolina 38


BYU

I know it’s trendy to pick BYU to upset the Irish, but I'm going to still pick a loss anyway. It’s not that I think the Cougars are better than the Irish. But they’re a complete team, and I expect Marcus Freeman to drop one game he shouldn’t lose in his first season as a head coach. 

BYU is also one of the most experienced teams in the country, with 88 percent of its production returning from last season.

BYU 31, Notre Dame 27


Stanford

Stanford should be much improved this season with 88 percent of its 2021 production returning this season. Now, that could mean they go from 3-9 to a six- or seven-win season, but I think they’ll give Notre Dame more of a game than they have in the last several years.

Notre Dame 27, Stanford 20


UNLV

To be honest, I don’t know much about UNLV other than that the Rebels finished 2-10 last season and project as the worst team the Irish will face in 2022. I expect Notre Dame to put a lot of points on the board early, with UNLV scoring a couple of touchdowns in the final quarter. 

Notre Dame 45, UNLV 17


Syracuse

I think this will be Syracuse’s first season above .500 since they went 10-3 in 2018. Garrett Shrader is the incumbent starter at quarterback. They should be able to hang with Notre Dame for the first half or so, before the Notre Dame offense steps on the gas in the third quarter and pulls away for good. 

Notre Dame 38, Syracuse 21


Clemson

We’ll see how Clemson opens the season on Monday against Georgia Tech, but I’ve not convinced their offensive woes from a year ago are fixed. 

They could, however, have perhaps the best defense in college football in 2022, at least per ESPN’s SP+ projections. But their new DC, the inexperienced Wes Goodwin, has a lot to prove. 

My prediction is that Notre Dame defeats Clemson at home again, even though the Irish produce their lowest scoring game of the season.

Notre Dame 17, Clemson 14


Navy

At times, playing Navy can be tricky, but we saw how a Freeman lead defense can shut down the triple option last season when Notre Dame defeated the Midshipmen 34-6 at home. The results in 2022 will be similar, but Navy will at least score in the double digits. 

Notre Dame 38, Navy 10


Boston College

This game was some extra juice to it after Phil Jurkovec’s recent comments to Boston.com. My prediction may seem foolish, but I could see Notre Dame hammering the Eagles here, even with former Irish tight end coach John McNulty as the offensive coordinator. 

Notre Dame 35, Boston College 10


USC

We’ll see if I’m wrong, but I don’t have much confidence that USC will fix its issues on the offensive and defensive lines and suddenly be a top-10 team again, even if Andrew Vorhees plays like an All-American at left guard.

I’m guessing the Trojans be improved and win seven or eight games this year, but the Irish will overwhelm them in the trenches and pull off an easy victory to wrap up the regular season.

Notre Dame 42, USC 24

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