Notre Dame vs. Florida State Preview

My biggest concern in this game is the amount of public tickets coming in on Notre Dame.  I originally wanted to take Notre Dame here, but I have too many question marks, and this is going to be an insane environment for Florida State.  This is a game changing game for this program especially if they win.  Mike Norvell knows this and I don’t expect Notre Dame to be able to run away with the game.  My other concern is the fact that Notre Dame has 4 new starters on the offensive line and have to go on the road in a hostile environment.  Note that the OL will be fine in time as they got an All-american transfer from Marshall in Cain Madden, and a 5* freshman at LT in Blake Fisher has two new comers.  Jack Coan, the transfer from Wisconsin is the new QB, and he’s not the same type of player that Ian Book was.  Book would use his feet quite a bit in this offense, and that won’t happen with Coan who does not have any receiving threats on the outside.  TE Michael Mayer, and Kyren Williams at RB are top players at the position in the country so I can see Notre Dame’s offense doing just fine, but it’s unknown against a Florida State team that brings in so many transfers.

Florida State brings in a slew of P5 transfers along the defensive line, but I’m not overly optimistic about that.  It never seems to work as I mentioned with my fading of Houston yesterday when we took Texas Tech as our dog of the week.  Florida State also hasn’t named a starting QB, and both QB’s offer different styles of play.  I think overall FSU’s offense might struggle, because I don’t think they have fixed their OL issues entirely, and Notre Dame’s defensive line that has guys with 3 years of playing experience.  This is another game that would be great to bet live if to feel the game out and my biggest questions for both teams is how they will do in the trenches tonight.  I still think Notre Dame has the significant advantage, but will it show up where there will be significant crowd noise.