2017 Notre Dame Football: A Season of Ice and Fire

The Takes of Ice and Fire

Trying to jazz things up and put a different spin on the “Season Preview” type of article. I am going to breakdown the offense, defense, and Special teams for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish......(real original)....but do so in a way that highlights Hot (levels of heat may very) and Cold (more like bore-a-phil) takes. Please leave your hot and cold takes in the comments section! #falliscoming

Special Teams

Cold Take: The special teams unit will have 4+ touchdowns this year due C.J. Sanders and hopefully some blocking schemes pulled up by new Coordinator Brian Polian.....who I will repeat....was parent trapped at birth with Brian Kelly

(trying not to make a Cersei/Jamie jokes....gross)

Hot Take: Notre Dames Kicking unit will be on the cover of Sports Illustrated this year after sinking 3 game winning kicks in the first 6 weeks of the season. The trio of John Shannon, Justin Yoon, and Montgomery VanGorder will be Electric.

Defense

Cold Take: Nyles Morgan will be top 10 in the Nation in Tackles and will significantly increased his TFLs (Elko’s MLB had 20 TFLs last year FYI). The immediate impact of Mike Elkos simplified scheme will dramatically improve the play of the D line, and in turn free up the Linebackers to make run through tackles.

Hot Take: Drue Tranquill will be the MVP of Notre Dame’s team this year. He is in a position where he will be able to make plays, but not be hindered by coverage woes. I think we will see him have multiple multi-sack games and 5+ forced fumbles off the edge. He will absolutely excel in his role at Rover, and be a critical piece of the Elko’s new and improved scheme. Hopefully we will see many slo motion perfect moments a la Georgia tech 2015:

Offense

Cold Take: Josh Adams will be the premiere back in the Irish Offense and eclipse the 1,000+ yard mark for the first time in his career. Though some sites have deemed that this is his “break out” year.....pshh-He had nearly 900 yards as a Freshman and was hampered by a tweaked hammy this year (and still managed 933 yards). I think the other backs will be a compliment to Adams, as opposed to the RB by committee.

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

Hot Take: My boy Chris Finke will be a top 3 WR on the team (emphasis on WR-excludes Alize Mack). EQ has been deemed THE Man-and he undoubtedly is. However, the number 2 and 3 spots are anyones to take at this point. Finke is much more freakishly athletic than people think-and no one is giving him the real chance. That is why, like Jon Snow - he will emerge unexpectedly and be one of the go to guys from Brandon Wimbush- especially as the season progresses.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Bonus

The team is going to be looking jacked all around after a season of being #builtbybalis. Just check out Gendry’s transformation: