Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse football team will face No. 9 Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m., Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana (TV: NBC).
It’s time for our predictions. The panel includes Brent Axe, sports columnist; Chris Carlson, sports enterprise reporter; Javon Edmonds, SU football reporter and Nate Mink, managing producer for sports.
Brent Axe
Notre Dame 55, Syracuse 6
Will Syracuse cover? No
The Irish defense dismantled Pittsburgh freshman QB sensation Mason Heintschel into a pedestrian performance (16-of-33, 126 yards, 1 INT) last week at Pitt.
Enter (again) into the fray in South Bend Syracuse freshman Joe Filardi, who received this ringing endorsement from his head coach in being named starter: “I feel like Joe should go in because of being able to go down and put some points on the board (at Miami). First time we’ve had a touchdown in some weeks. It sucks saying that.”
Good luck, kid.
Chris Carlson
Notre Dame 42, Syracuse 3
Will Syracuse cover? No
Notre Dame finds itself in the middle of a debate over which two-loss football teams should make the College Football Playoff.
One of its primary competitors is another two-loss team that it lost to head-to-head in the first week of the season. That game was by three points on the road, not enough to determine which team is better given the home-field edge.
The loss was to Miami, which beat Syracuse by 28 points last week. The Fighting Irish only has games against Syracuse and Stanford remaining, which means that all it can do is accumulate style points. Expect Notre Dame to accomplish that.
Javon Edmonds
Notre Dame 44, Syracuse 3
Will Syracuse cover? No
Notre Dame is going to win this game in the trenches. But aside from that, Syracuse is going to be a casualty of war in this one. Notre Dame’s task for the final two weeks of the season is to keep its distance from Miami. To do that, the Irish will be looking to beat Syracuse worse than Miami did.
If Syracuse is going to feature another freshman-heavy rotation, Notre Dame is going to feast. There are no expectations for Syracuse in this one. The Orange should be looking for game experience in this one and hoping that its recent stretch of tough opponents better prepares it for Boston College.
Nate Mink
Notre Dame 48, Syracuse 0
Will Syracuse cover? No
Can we just skip to Boston College? Or next year?
Marcus Freeman’s teams have won on Senior Day by an average of 34.3 points against some of the ACC’s plebeian football schools. About the only positive trend line for the Orange is the margin of victory has shrunk each of the previous three years, down to 21 points against Virginia last season.
Junior running back Jeremiyah Love could be playing his final game in Notre Dame Stadium, giving the punishing tailback who’s fast enough to have had touchdown runs of 90-plus yards each of the last two seasons a shot to mint one more memorable performance.
Point spread: Notre Dame by 35.5 points
This season’s records
Chris Carlson: 8-2 straight up; 5-5 against the spread
Javon Edmonds: 8-2 straight up; 5-5 against the spread
Nate Mink: 8-2 straight up; 4-6 against the spread
Brent Axe: 6-4 straight up; 5-5 against the spread
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