The Anti-Preview: #11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS North Carolina Tar Heels

For 14 years I have provided the most irrelevant game preview for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish — but I’ve also provide the most relevant fan preview for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (don’t @ me).

SO LFG!

At 6-1, there is this huge sense of disappointment surrounding and penetrating the Irish fanbase. Without question, Notre Dame has not played up to the level that we have come to expect over the last 4 years — and yet they are 6-1 with their last victory being a double digit win over rival USC. It’s not HOW we wanted it, but it’s not far from where many of us thought they would be at this point in the season.

The injury to Kyle Hamilton just adds more (much more) fuel for the injury fire in South Bend this season. The Irish have had a hard time staying healthy, and that’s never good. HOWEVR... it has allowed for some younger talent to get some experience for the future — and ND is still 6-1.

According to DraftKings Sportbook, the Irish are 3.5 point favorites this weekend against the North Carolina Tar Heels with an over/under of 62.5. Both numbers seem a bit low this week. *Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for details.

North Carolina Tar Heels

At 4-3, UNC hasn’t lived up to anyone’s expectations this season. While myself (and the OFD Podcast crew) were never high or overly worried about the Heels — I didn’t quite expect this level of mediocre record. In the very first game of the season, UNC lost to Virginia Tech 17-10, and somehow people were surprised that a mid-tier team that lost its best skill position players and returned all five of its “not good” offensive linemen, weren’t an offensive juggernaut out of the gate.

They are exactly what I thought they would be (but with a worse record). Sam Howell is still a very dangerous passer and runner (494 yards) but he’s been running for his life. The Heels are still averaging about 35 points per game, but also giving up close to 30 on defense.

UNC has played two common opponents as the Irish so far this season in VT and Florida State. The Heels lost both of those games, but although Notre Dame won their games against those teams — they weren’t impressive victories.

What should you be drinking?

It’s time to Zombie this shit up son! Well, zombie it up and rub that apple ass-whooping in UNC’s face.

Subway Domer One Foot Crack

• One part Apple Cider or Apple Juice
• One part Rum

Mix together in a large water bottle, apple cider jug, cup, keg- whatever. Mix and drink yo! The type of rum is almost inconsequential. Captain Morgan is always a solid choice, but Bacardi does make a Big Apple rum that works quite well too. It just doesn’t matter.

You’ll be getting wasted with ease.

What should you be eating?

Fried Sausage and Apples

This dish is one of the pure classics when it comes to the Anti-Preview cuisine. Sausage and Fried Apples. There are many, many ways to make this succulent plate of heaven, but I’m going to show you how I make it best.

• 3 lbs. of Eckrich skinless Sausage
• 5 Apples (get a good baking kind)
• Butter
• 3 shots of Jack Daniels
• 1/4 cup of Brown Sugar

Put some butter in a big pan. Lots of butter. Slice up your apples and put them in the pan. Now take a shot of Jack Daniels and put it down your throat. Take the other two shots and the brown sugar and put it in the pan. Fry it all up for about 5 minutes on high. Slice your sausage up in threes and put it in the pan for 5 minutes while stir-frying it all. Take the contents of that pan and put in a crock pot. Heat on low for 2 hours. Serve. Send all thank-yous to my email.

What should you be wearing?

Look y’all... it’s basically Halloween weekend, and in some towns across America, this Saturday is Trick-or-Treating (which is the absolute worst). So, in that spirit, get your costume game on. If you want to wear that sexy pirate costume (ladies and gentlemen) go right ahead, but it’s going to be cold AF in a lot of places. Good luck with that.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

3 reasons to hate North Carolina

• Every basketball reason that has ever existed.
• The amount of undue respect this team got in the preseason. It was really, really gross.
• That there were articles suggesting that Brian Kelly needs to get on Mack Brown’s level — that’s UNC Mack Brown’s level. GTFO

At the end of the night...

There’s a worry out there that without Kyle Hamilton, Notre Dame will be unable to stop Sam Howell from throwing all over the yard. There’s also an overconfidence out there that D.J. Brown will dominate UNC like he did last year in place of Hamilton. To be fair... I really could see it going either way. The real difference in the game will be Notre Dame’s pass rush and the havoc it will create with sacks and creating turnovers. UNC won’t be able to handle that kind of pressure. On the flipside, I think Notre Dame’s offense (while not extraordinary) turned a corner against USC last week, and will be able to move the ball with ease. I like the Irish to take out the southerners in a cold night game inside Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame 38, North Carolina 27

Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images