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At Texas: An Attention-Getter For Notre Dame's Opener

Notre Dame isn't projected to breeze past Texas in 2016 the way it did last year. (Photo By Bill Panzica)

An unwritten rule for opening games in college football, specifically for “name” schools, is to schedule a relative breather to ease into the campaign.

In recent years, Notre Dame has followed that model by opening at home with San Diego State (2008), Nevada (2009), Purdue (2010), South Florida (2011) — which turned into a nightmare —Temple (2013) and Rice (2014). Even the trip to Ireland in 2012 versus Navy resulted in a 50-10 cakewalk.

In 2016, college football is taking a significant turn by diving into the deep waters from the start rather than wading in easily. The opening day weekend includes Alabama-USC, Clemson-Auburn, Oklahoma-Houston, Florida State-Ole Miss (Labor Day, in Orlando), LSU-Wisconsin, UCLA-Texas A&M, Georgia-North Carolina and Arizona-BYU.

The Sunday night slot on Sept. 4 will be a solo feature with Notre Dame-Texas in Austin.

Based on the 38-3 Fighting Irish romp versus the Longhorns in last year’s opener, Texas might still be perceived by some in construction mode after 7-6 and 5-7 seasons under now third-year head coach Charlie Strong. However, because it is such a crucial validation game for Strong & Co., in its home venue, Texas will be amped to put on a much better display than it did a year ago (similar to Notre Dame versus USC last year after the Irish were pasted 49-14 a year earlier).

The Longhorns exhibited last season how previous results have no bearing on the next performance. The week after getting slaughtered at home 50-7 by TCU, the focused and determined Texas team handed Playoff-bound Oklahoma its lone regular season loss. It also pulled off a surprise win at Baylor to cap its season. Sometimes it’s the Jekyll-and-Hyde teams that can be the most fearsome — part of why Notre Dame is for now only a 4.5-point favorite at Texas.

“We've got our football team's attention in camp,” said Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly. “They know who they are playing against… they know every day counts. You have to be prepared when you step on the field against Texas. That's the positive end of it.”

There are at least three reasons why this has potential danger written all over it for Kelly’s troops and why it is an attention grabber:

• It is the first time Notre Dame is opening a season at the other team’s on-campus site since 2006. In that night game at Georgia Tech, the No. 2-ranked Irish rallied from a 10-0 deficit to eke out a 14-10 win (thereby dropping to No. 4).

The atmosphere in football-mad Texas is bound to be even more intense and hostile than in Atlanta 10 years ago. Notre Dame also has generally struggled the past decade in its initial road trip to an on-campus site, including rallying to a 34-27 win at Virginia last year with 12 seconds left.

• Per BradPowersSports.com: “Notre Dame is 0-8 straight up the last three years in true road games (neutral sites don’t count) when they are favored by less than a TD or underdog.”

The eight defeats were to Michigan (41-30), Pitt (28-21) and Stanford (27-20) in 2013; Florida State (31-27), Arizona State (55-31) and USC (49-14) in 2014; and Clemson (24-22) and Stanford (38-36) in 2015.

The good news is the Irish should be appreciably deeper and better than in 2013-14, while Texas is not top-10 timber like most of the aforementioned eight opponents were.

• Texas will be pointing to state pride and not dropping to 0-5 versus the Irish in Austin, most recently the 27-24 victory in 1996 on a Jim Sanson field goal as time expired. The past has no bearing on any present game, but it can provide some extra juice to any contest.

However, Kelly believes it should inspire his own team as well.

“Whether or not you're playing a lesser opponent, whether that helps you or not the next week, it's hard to say,” Kelly said. “I know this: our guys have been excited about this opportunity, because they know it's a challenge. Our guys come here because of the challenges. I don't think that they would be quite as excited if it was a no-name that they were playing.

“…They want the bright lights. They want the national televised games. I think if you polled our kids, they would rather be playing Texas.”

And if the Irish are to become Playoff contenders, a formidable test right out of the gate hasn’t hurt three of their last four national champions.

The 1988 Irish squeaked by Michigan (19-17), which would win the Big Ten, the Rose Bowl and finish in the Top 5. The 1977 champs had to rally in the fourth quarter on the road to defeat defending national champ Pitt (19-9). And the 1966 national champs used a late touchdown to secure a hard fought 26-14 win over eventual Rose Bowl champ Purdue.

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