CBS Analysts Split on Notre Dame’s 8.5 Over/Under for 2019

You know it’s the off-season when you have analysts debating teams’ over/under projections.  With more than a month until fall camp begins, CBS had two of their analysts breakdown Notre Dame’s over/under win total of 8.5 and surprise, surprise they disagreed with one going so far as to say that there are “at least” four losses on Notre Dame’s schedule.

Here’s a link to the full video of the two “experts” breaking it down.  I tried embedding the video itself but WordPress didn’t seem to like their embed code just as much as I didn’t like one of their takes.

Bryant McFadden says to “book it” he sees “at least four losses” on the Notre Dame schedule.  On the surface, his rationale at least makes some sense – for someone who only looked at the players that Notre Dame lost to the NFL.  Yes, Notre Dame lost a lot of talent to the NFL, but he this biggest losses came at linebacker – a position that he didn’t even mention.

What McFadden also seems to not realize is that Notre Dame’s offensive line is projected to be MUCH better than it was a year ago and while they did lose their top receiver, almost the entire receiving corps other than Miles Boykin in back.  To anyone who has done any research on the Notre Dame roster for 2019, it’s impossible to argue that receiver is not another position that will be improved this fall.

Ironically, McFadden also pointed to Michigan as one of those “guaranteed” losses seemingly unaware that they lost just as much, if not more defensive firepower than Notre Dame did in the 2019 NFL Draft.  Devin Bush, Rashan Gary, Chase Winovich, and David Long were the cornerstones of Michigan’s defense just like Jerry Tillery, Drue Tranquill, Tevon Coney, and Julian Love were the cornerstones of Notre Dame’s in 2018.

Even the guy who took the over is chalking up the Michigan game as a loss for Notre Dame.  Just like last year the Michigan hype machine is in high gear even though the Wolverines have been an underachieving program under Jim Harbaugh.

Reminder: Michigan got its doors BLOWN OFF in both of their last two games last year while surrendering over 100 points in two games.  Then they lost a number of players from that “stout” defense.  Why the national media wants to just assume that they will beat Notre Dame this fall is as silly as their manufactured narrative of Michigan somehow being better than Notre Dame last prior before to the end of year meltdown even though they LOST to Notre Dame.

Outside of Michigan, of the teams that McFadden mentioned as teams that could be Notre Dame this fall, he mentions multiple teams that Notre Dame beat handily last year who aren’t necessarily expected to be markedly improved this year like Virginia Tech and Stanford.  He also mentioned Virginia who is one of everyone’s pre-season darlings.

With the offensive firepower Notre Dame has combined with what figures to be one of the nation’s best pass rushes, an over/under of 8.5 seems like a pretty easy bet for the over.