OFD Reacts Results: Your Take On Saturday’s BYU Game, Vegas Vacations & Next Year’s QB

Welcome to our latest edition of OFD Reacts, a four pack of questions looking at the present and future of Notre Dame football.

Before we dive into the results, I remind you that this post is made possible by DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation. (If you’ve been tailing my podcast picks, I’m sorry for all the money you’ve lost.)

Our first question is the same as it ever was: What is your confidence level, heading into this Shamrock Series match, of the direction of the Notre Dame football program?

Before the UNC game, 48 percent of you said you were “somewhat confident” in the direction of the program. The doubt is dropping and we’re feeling good again (for now).

That enthusiasm has carried over into this game. Seventy-eight percent of those who responded to the survey say Notre Dame will beat BYU in the desert on Saturday, with 65 percent predicting another nail-biter. (As of this writing, the Irish are 3 ¹⁄₂ point favorites on DraftKings.)

If you’ve listened to the One Foot Down podcast, you know Joshua has been adamant about playing college football games on college campuses. With that as our backdrop, we asked: What do you think of the Shamrock Series game, which has been played near-annually since 2011 at a neutral-site venue?

Sixty-four percent of respondents said they don’t mind a neutral site game, although 17 percent didn’t want it in at a professional stadium like Allegiant. Eight percent would have rather paid the exit fee — at an amount not disclosed by the two private universities — to end this arrangement.

With Drew Pyne taking the reins under center for 1 ¹⁄₂ games so far, it felt appropriate to start a baseline for this question: Which of these talented quarterbacks do you believe will start for the Irish against Navy in the opening game of the 2023 season?

Forty percent of you said Buchner will be back, while Pyne was close behind with 36 percent. Four percent of you embraced our nonsense idea to come out in the leprecat formation with Audric Estime getting the direct snap. There’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.