Notre Dame at Wake Forest Preview

            It’s a battle between 5-3 teams Saturday night when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish head to North Carolina to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The Demon Deacons hit the zenith of their season after they beat Florida State and moved to 4-1 on the season.  Since then they have snapped back to reality and lost two games, one to Virginia Tech and one to North Carolina. The Deacons have a pretty good offensive passing attack, one that ranks 29^th in the country. Their rushing game ranks 106^th though. The rest of their team leaves a lot to be desired, especially the defense. That defense ranks 55^th in the country in terms of yards given up so the Irish should have no problem moving the ball.

Keys to the Game

Offensive line- Notre Dame’s offensive line was dominant last week against Navy, and has been a solid unit all season long. This line has only given up five sacks all season. #1 LSU has given up seven sacks, # Alabama has given up eight, #3 Oklahoma State has given up 10, and #4 Stanford has given up four. Obviously the Irish offensive line is one of the best in the country, and even I will admit that has been the base for all of Notre Dame’s success. All those big runs by Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood started with the offensive line getting good blocks. All those deep passes by Tommy Rees were created because he had enough time to throw. I am giving credit to the big boys in the trenches that never get the credit they deserve.

Here are the offensive linemen on Notre Dame’s roster: Braxton Cave*, Mike Golic Jr., Bruce Heggie, Conor Hanratty, Andrew Nuss, Trevor Robinson*, Chris Watt*, Brad Carrico, Nick Martin, Matt Tansey, Lane Clelland, Taylor Dever*, Matt Hegarty, Christian Lombard, Dennis Mahoney, Zack Martin*, Tate Nichols, and Jordan Prestwood.

*- starters

Pass defense- As I noted in the intro, Wake Forest’s strength is their passing attack. That means it will be up to cornerbacks Gary Gray and Robert Blanton and safeties Harrison Smith, Jamoris Slaughter, and Zeke Motta to stop that attack. Deacons’ quarterback Tanner Smith has a 141.1 on the season and has thrown for 14 touchdowns. Look for Smith to go to his best receiver, Chris Givens.

Special Teams- Notre Dame’s kick return team has been pretty good so far. Return man George Atkinson III has scored two touchdowns on kick offs. While that unit is performing well, the punt return team has been awful all season. In the beginning of the season the biggest problem was punt returners fumbling the ball. Now the biggest problem is the lack of yards they’re getting on return. Notre Dame ranks near the bottom of teams’ net return average and I cannot recount one time when we had a punt return for at least 20 yards. If the Irish expect to be a Top 25 team they have to perform better on special teams.

      This game is very winnable for the Irish. They are a much more talented team that has depth at all positions. If they just go out and play the way they did against Navy than they should have no problem getting their 6^th win of the season.

Predicted score: Notre Dame-35, Wake Forest-14

      For all of you non-Irish fans, be sure to catch #1 LSU at #2 Alabama at 8 p.m. Saturday night. This is the first regular season #1 vs. #2 matchup in years and has been hyped up for almost a month. Whoever wins this will have an easy road to the BCS National Championship. It should be an incredible matchup between great teams, players, and coaches. I’m picking Bama to win 20-17.