Gameday is here! I’ve got my official 2011 Notre Dame Football shirt on and my Notre Dame Stadium cup. I’m ready! Are you?
The #16 Fighting Irish kick off the 2011 campaign against the University of Southern Florida Bulls. The Bulls finished last season 8-5 with wins over Miami and Clemson. This season they have what is expected to be a pretty stout defense. Their offensive leader is quarterback B.J. Daniels who is fast and hard to bring down.
Keys to winning the game
Stop B.J. Daniels: He is the key to USF’s offense and if he can be stopped or even slowed down than that will give Notre Dame a decisive advantage. The Bulls probably have more than just one outstanding offensive player but I have no idea who it would be. This also means Irish linebacker, Manti T'eo, needs to show the same skills and athleticism he's had the best two seasons.
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| Manti Te'o, wearing the pink lei, during the players' walk to the stadium last year. |
Get the offense rolling: As I stated earlier, USF brings in a pretty good defense. The Irish need to get into a balanced rhythm and make sure quarterback Dayne Crist gets settled in. There are plenty of options on offense so moving the ball shouldn’t be too big of a challenge.
Start strong: This kinda correlates to the previous point. This is the first game of the season. Everybody will be anxious to get out there and make a big play. It’s important to not let the Bulls think they have any chance of winning. The Bulls head coach, Skip Holtz, knows a little something about Notre Dame Stadium and I’m sure he wants to win there. If Notre Dame can out to a two or three touchdown lead they should be able to control the rest of the game.
Notice there isn’t a lot of factual stuff up there. That’s because everything anybody is predicting is just assumptions. Nobody has played any games; nobody knows how anybody will play. That’s the beauty (or the beast) of week one in college football.
Kick-off is at 3:30 pm EST on NBC.
GO IRISH!
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