Texas Longhorns at #11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Saturday, September 5, 2015, 7:30 pm Eastern, TV: NBC
Notre Dame Stadium – South Bend, Indiana
Opening Line: Notre Dame -8 1/2
Current Line: Notre Dame -8 1/2
Opening Total: 54 1/2
Current Total: 49
Opening Money Line: Notre Dame -390 / Texas +270
Current Money Line: Notre Dame -350 / Texas +290
Texas and Notre Dame are two of college football’s blue blood programs. The two schools are second and third in total wins in NCAA history behind only Michigan. They play for the 11th time in history Saturday at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame leads the series 8-2 against Texas. The Fighting Irish have won four straight games in the series including the last meeting in 1995. The last Texas win came in the 1969 Cotton Bowl. Notre Dame will complete the home and home in Austin next year.
Last season, long time coach Mack Brown retired, and Texas brought in Charlie Strong from Louisville. While the future it bright it was not a good debut season for Strong as Texas went 6-6 and barely squeaked into a bowl. The season was marred by blowout losses to BYU, Kansas State, Baylor, TCU, and Arkansas in the Texas Bowl all by 21 points or more. The loss to former conference rival Arkansas was especially humiliating, as the Razorbacks held the Longhorns to 59 total yards on offense in a 31-7 rout. Victories over mediocre West Virginia and Oklahoma State were the only wins over teams with winning records and both finished 7-6.
Notre Dame is coached by Brian Kelly. Last year, Notre Dame started off the season 6-0 but would go 1-5 in the second half of the season. The second half of the season included narrow losses to Florida State, Northwestern, and Louisville by a total of 10 points. Notre Dame was also blown out by Arizona State and USC. The only win in the second half was against Navy. The Fighting Irish ended a four game losing streak by upsetting LSU 31-28 in the Music City Bowl.
Texas was 7-6 ATS and the total was 4-9 last year. Notre Dame was 6-7 ATS and the total was 8-5.
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Texas was #110 in total offense at 337 yards per game and #106 in scoring at 21.4 points per game out of 128 FBS teams. The Longhorns averaged 200 passing and 137 rushing yards. The Longhorns were #88 or worse in both categories. Texas was -3 in turnovers. On defense, Texas allowed 349 yards per game including 184 passing and 164 rushing yards. Texas allowed 24 points per game. The Longhorns were #31 or better in points allowed, pass defense and total defense.
Quarterback Tyrone Swoopes kept his starting job despite tough competition from redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard. Swoopes, a junior, started all but the season opener last year after David Ash had to end his career after the first game because of concussions. Last season, Swoopes completed 58.3% of his passes for 2,409 yards with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and also rushed for 262 yards on 108 carries with 4 touchdowns. Heard could see some snaps though.
Last year’s leading rusher Malcolm Brown is now with the St. Louis Rams. He rushed for 708 yards and 6 touchdowns, and also had 16 catches. Senior Johnathan Gray does return after rushing for 637 yards on 147 carries with 7 touchdowns and also had 20 catches for 122 yards. Redshirt freshman Donald “Duke” Catalon will get a lot of carries and so will D’onta Foreman who averaged 4.9 yards a carry last year in limited action.
The Longhorns must replace their top two receivers. John Harris is now with the Philadelphia Eagles after making 68 catches for 1,051 yards and 7 touchdowns. Jaxon Shipley is now with the Arizona Cardinals after making 59 grabs for 577 yards and a touchdown. Marcus Johnson is the most proven returning receiver after making 27 catches for 313 yards and a touchdown. Armanti Foreman had 10 catches for 188 yards and 2 touchdowns last year as a freshman. Daje Johnson, Lorenzo Joe, Jacorey Warrick and Dorian Leonard will also be in the mix at receiver. Tight ends Geoff Swain and M.J. McFarland are both gone after combining for 21 catches and 3 touchdowns. Andrew Beck and Blake Whitely were supposed to split time at tight end, but Whiteley is out for the season with a torn ACL.
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Notre Dame averaged 445 yards per game on offense, including 286 passing and 160 rushing yards. The Fighting Irish averaged 33 points per game. Notre Dame was in the top 40 nationally in total offense, passing, and scoring. However, the Irish had far too many turnovers with 26. Last year, Notre Dame gave up 404 yards per game on defense including 233 passing and 171 rushing yards. The Fighting Irish allowed 29 points a game. Those numbers were slightly below average as Notre Dame ranked between 73 and 84 in all four categories out of 128 teams. In the first five games of the season, Notre Dame gave up 60 points total. However, it was no surprise that when the defense went in the tank (allowing 319 points in the last 8 games) so did Notre Dame’s record.
Quarterback Everett Golson was supposed to be back for his senior year but he decided to transfer to Florida State in May. Golson threw for 3,445 yards with 29 touchdowns and 14 interceptions, and also rushed for 283 yards on 114 carries with 8 touchdowns. Golson was going to compete with junior Malik Zaire for the starting job, mainly because of all the interceptions Golson threw. Zaire split time with Golson in the last two games against USC and LSU. Zaire threw for 266 yards with a touchdown, and also rushed for 187 yards on 33 carries with 2 touchdowns. Zaire will be the full time starter.
Junior running back Tarean Folston returns after rushing for 889 yards on 175 carries with 6 touchdowns, along with 18 catches for 190 yards and a touchdown. Junior Greg Bryant is also back after he had 54 carries for 289 yards and 3 touchdowns, along with 5 catches. He will be suspended for the first four games for violating team rules. Zaire will also get a lot of carries as he had 33 last year in basically two games.
Receiver William Fuller is back for his junior season after making 76 catches for 1,094 yards with 15 touchdowns. Chris Brown is also back after making 39 catches for 548 yards and a touchdown. Corey Robinson (son of NBA Hall-of-Famer David) had 40 catches for 539 yards and 5 touchdowns. C.J. Prosise had 29 catches for 516 yards and 2 touchdowns, and also rushed for 126 yards and a touchdown. He is probable with a hip injury. Amir Carlisle had 23 catches for 309 yards and 3 touchdowns. Tight end Ben Koyack is now with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Sophomore Durham Smythe should get plenty of targets as the new starting tight end. He is probable with a hamstring injury.
Texas is 4-1 ATS in road games, 2-5 in non-conference games, 1-4-1 against independent teams, and 1-4 on grass.
Notre Dame is 1-4 ATS at home, in non-conference games and on grass, and 1-5 overall.
Both teams look to improve after disappointing 2015 seasons. Notre Dame is a better team though, and I think they win at home by a comfortable margin.
