On Saturday, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish will take on the Boston College Eagles at Alumni Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:30 pm and will air on ABC.
Notre Dame moved up in the rankings after taking down top tanked Clemson. The Fighting Irish are ranked second, just behind Alabama, and in front of Ohio State.
Boston College is having a decent year. They aren’t a perennial powerhouse program like Notre Dame, but they have had some success this season. At 5-3, their only losses came to teams who were ranked at the time.
Fighting Irish Remain Undefeated?
Notre Dame has moved past Clemson, their most formidable opponent of the season, but they could meet the Tigers again in the ACC Championship game.
The only asterisk involved in their win against Clemson was that the Tigers were without their starting quarterback, Trevor Lawrence. The future top pick in the NFL Draft did not play because of a previous positive COVID-19 test.
After Notre Dame won in overtime, fans and pundits alike wonder if the result would be different with Lawrence on the field. If the ACC Championship lines up, we may get to find out.
Either way, the Fighting Irish have the inside route to the championship game. Losing to any of their remaining regular season opponents would be heartbreaking but wouldn’t necessarily end their title hopes. However, Boston College went toe-to-toe with Clemson, so Notre Dame will have to be careful in this one.
Can Boston College Pull the Upset?
Boston College has been hanging in there with good teams, except for the Virginia Tech game. The Eagles only lost to North Carolina by four and Clemson by six. The outlier was them getting blown out by the Hokies, 40-14.
They have received consistent play from the quarterback position. Phil Jurkovec has thrown for over 2,000 yards, including 15 touchdowns and only four interceptions. Keeping the turnovers down will be essential for a win in this one.
Zay Flowers has been Jurkovec’s favorite target, catching six touchdowns passes so far this season. They might need to connect for a couple of scores to beat the Fighting Irish.
Prediction
This could act as a trap game for Notre Dame. If the Irish are too excited about their win at Clemson and look past the Eagles, they could get beat. Boston College has already proven they could keep it close with Clemson, who was also without Lawrence at quarterback in that game.
The spread is set at Notre Dame (-13.5), and I believe the Irish will cover. It seems that the offense was clicking against Clemson, and they will bring that into this game.
No looking past this game to the college football playoff. Ian Book will lead the offense and continue the hot streak from last week.
The over/under sits at 50, which I believe will go over. After Notre Dame gets out to a good lead, there will be some late scores for the Eagles that cause the over to hit.
The bets here are Notre Dame -13.5 and the over.