Louisville vs. Notre Dame Prediction: Can Jack Plummer, Louisville Get Off to a Hot Start Against the Irish?
Louisville vs. Notre Dame prediction and pick ahead of Saturday's game. Notre Dame is in the middle of a brutal stretch of games. Can Louisville catch the Irish looking ahead toward their matchup with USC?
Joey Ruiz - October 7, 2023, 9:24 AM EDT
3 minLouisville vs. Notre Dame Prediction: Can Jack Plummer, Louisville Get Off to a Hot Start Against the Irish?
Notre Dame has one of the toughest schedules in the country this season and it gets no easier this week because they have to go on the road now to face 25th-ranked Louisville who is 5-0 on the season. Can Notre Dame outclass the Cardinals and grab another ranked win? Let’s break it down.
Louisville vs. Notre Dame Date, Time and Where to Watch
- Date: October 7, 2023
- Time: 7:30 pm ET
- Where to Watch: ABC
Louisville vs. Notre Dame Prediction
Notre Dame has been involved in back-to-back late fourth-quarter thrillers as we saw them lose on the last play of the game against Ohio State a few weeks ago and defeat Duke in a similar fashion.
Notre Dame’s defense shined again in this matchup against Riley Leonard and an explosive Duke offense. The fighting Irish took a 10-0 lead into the locker room but their offense stalled for much of the 2H as they were only able to put up a field goal until they notched the game-winning score in the final seconds.
This Notre Dame team is already one of the more tested teams in the entire country as I do not think a single team has played a harder schedule than them to this point. As mentioned earlier, things do not get easier for them tonight or this week as they have to go on the road to face Louisville, who has looked very good in most of their games this season, but did not dazzle in their mid-week game against NC State last week.
In that game, it was one of a few standalone games on primetime TV so everyone was watching and everyone pretty much had their bets on Louisville as they were coming off a drumming of Boston College and NC State had not looked very good to that point.
Louisville’s offense faced the toughest test of their season against NC State, and Louisville went into the locker room at halftime scoreless but then came back in the second half to win the game 13-10. A win is a win in college football but this was very unimpressive and QB Jack Plummer looked uninterested.
The Notre Dame defense that he and the Louisville offense are about to face is 10 times better than NC State, and they will need to improve their game dramatically if they are going to hang with the Irish in this one.
While Plummer and the Louisville offense did not run very smoothly at all last week, I do think they are due for some positive regression and are catching Notre Dame in the worst possible spot. Notre Dame has had two grueling games in a row against Ohio State, and then Duke, and now this game against Louisville is sandwiched right in between a look-ahead spot against USC and Caleb Williams and Company.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tougher four-game stretch in college football and I do think this is a spot where Louisville comes out strong in the first half and takes advantage of the Notre Dame team, who may be running out of gas a little bit, as we saw them doing in their second half against Duke where they struggle to score until the final minute of the game. We saw Notre Dame come out a bit sluggish against Ohio State and turned it on late, they then turned that second-half momentum into a strong first half against Duke, but then turned it off a bit in the second half as they let Duke take the lead.
This game is Louisville‘s Super Bowl of the season and I think they’re going to come out buzzing in the first half of this game and should take advantage of a Notre Dame team who has to be a little gassed after two hard fought and emotional games against some top-ranked teams. I do think Notre Dame‘s talent and class will prevail in the end as I see them winning this game, but this is the perfect spot for Louisville to come out strong in the first half and I very much think the Cardinals could take a lead into the second half. With that being said, I am rolling with Louisville 1H +3.5 at -108 for 1.5 units as one of my most confident college football plays of the day as I see Louisville playing extremely well in the first half of this game against a tired, beatten up and emotionally drained Notre Dame squad.
Louisville vs. Notre Dame Pick
- PICK: Louisville 1H +3.5 (-108) Click here to see which sportsbook has the best odds for this pick
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