Why BC Will Beat Notre Dame

Note: An abbreviated version of this can be found in the Friday pick’s column.

I’m sure there were a few eye rolls when people saw this article posted on BCI or when it came across your Twitter/Facebook feed and I don’t blame you for thinking it is some sort of click bait. However, believe me when I say that I believe BC has a good shot of winning on Saturday and an even better shot of cashing a ticket for someone in Vegas catching two touchdowns.

Let me start by saying for those not familiar with me that I’m not one of those Steve Addazio apologist’s from the media and this is not an attempt to trick people into thinking that this guy is doing a great job. If anything, I’m probably the lone guy in the small “BC media” that calls him out when he gets over sensitive and does something like this, or like this.

That being said I don’t think Addazio is a total dummy and he knows that in year five he has to show better results, especially with a new AD I honestly believe that Addazio looked at the schedule before the season and knew he had to have this win and is going ALL IN on Notre Dame. Is that to say that he meant to lose to Wake last weekend? HELL NO. But all things being equal a 2-1 record with wins over NIU/Notre Dame looks a hell of a lot sexier to the average fan than a 2-1 record against NIU/Wake, and Daz knows that. That’s why we didn’t see Addazio try to jumpstart the Eagles last week like a fake punt or a trick play or something like that. I really believe Addazio is saving all of those for this weekend so he has a win to hang his hat on the rest of the year, and more importantly, for his new AD. After all it is getting a bit tiring that he still talks about the win over USC from four years ago.

Now I realize that the elephant in the room is that BC just got its doors blown in by a mediocre Wake Forest team a week ago. However, sometimes you just have to chalk things up to being an anomaly in the up and down world of college football. BC lost the turnover battle 4 to 0 to Wake and when that happens what do you expect the outcome to be? I’m banking on BC cleaning that up this weekend, which by the way isn’t exactly unprecedented under Addazio.

Think back to that USC win in 2014 and go back to a time when people still thought Pitbull was cool and Addazio was looking shredded in the ALS ice bucket challenge. I’m sure the memory is still within most BC fans as it was probably the most memorable win since the Matt Ryan era. Does anyone remember what happened the week before that big win though? Probably not so let me remind you. BC lost to Pitt 30-20 at home and looked like absolute dog poop. James Conner and company ran for 303 yards on a BC defense that ended up finishing 2^nd in the nation in rush defense that year. On offense, Tyler Murphy put up a vomit stat line of 10-for-28 for 134 yards, 1 TD and 2 INT’s which led many fans question if he was an ACC level quarterback. The week before that BC barely squeezed by an awful UMass team on the road. We all know what happened against USC though. The point of retelling this story is that it’s easy to forget that these are college kids, and sometimes they overlook opponents and don’t focus on the task at hand and instead are thinking ahead to the showdown game a week later.

Now, onto my third point and this one will focus around Notre Dame. I believe that Brian Kelly is a great front runner coach and has a good offensive mind. If things are going his way he is great at piling on and shredding UConn, Syracuse and UMass. However, when things get tight coach Kelly loses his composure and makes Addazio look like he took a Klonopin on the opposite sideline. There is a reason that Notre Dame has a record of 1-9 in its last ten games decided by eight points or less. When things get tough Kelly absolutely melts like here, or here, or here. By the way, this was Kelly after the Georgia loss last weekend. Does he seem like a guy that’s doing OK with the pressure?

Now is the time to buy low on BC. This is Addazio’s game to push all of his poker chips to the middle of the table. Next week versus Clemson is a different story though.