Notre Dame A Consensus Top 10 Team For Preseason Publications
Blue & Gold Illustrated is preparing to launch into its month-long preview of the 2019 season. We kick things off by taking a look at how the preseason magazines view the Fighting Irish.
Let’s start by looking at the preseason rankings:
Notre Dame is ranked No. 9 according to three of the four major preseason magazines (Athlon Sports, Lindy’s Sports, Phil Steele) and No. 7 according to Street & Smith’s magazine.
Both Street & Smith’s and Phil Steele predict that Notre Dame will play in the Orange Bowl, with Street & Smith’s predicting the opponent to be Florida while Phil Steele has the Irish playing Miami (Fla.). Athlon Sports predicts Notre Dame to return to the Cotton Bowl, where they would face UCF.
Five different Notre Dame opponents were also ranked in the Top 25 by at least one publication.
Georgia is ranked No. 3 by Street & Smith, Lindy’s and Athlon, and No. 4 by Phil Steele. Michigan is ranked No. 3 by Phil Steele, No. 4 by Athlon, No. 5 by Lindy’s and No. 11 by Street & Smith’s. Stanford s ranked No. 22 by Phil Steele, Lindy’s and Street & Smith’s. Virginia is ranked No. 25 by Athlon and Street & Smith’s while Virginia Tech is ranked No. 25 by Phil Steele.
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
Three different Notre Dame players earned preseason All-American honors by one of the publications or Sporting News.
Senior right guard Tommy Kraemer earned first-team honors by Street & Smith’s and Sporting News. He earned second team honors by Phil Steele.
Senior safety Alohi Gilman earned first-team honors by Athlon, second team honors by Sporting News and third-team honors from Phil Steele.
Senior defensive end Julian Okwara earned second-team marks from Lindy’s, third-team honors from Athlon and fourth-team honors from Phil Steele. Okwara and senior left tackle Liam Eichenberg were first-round NFL Draft picks in the mock draft from Dane Brugler at The Athletic.
OTHER NOTES
Phil Steele, Lindy’s and Athlon all rank position groups across the country. Notre Dame had a number of different position groups in the Top 10 by the various publications.
The Irish defensive line is ranked No. 6 nationally according to Lindy’s and No. 10 by Athlon.
Notre Dame’s offensive line is ranked No. 8 by Phil Steele.
The defensive backs are ranked No. 6 by Lindy’s and No. 8 by Phil Steele.
The wide receivers check in at No. 10 by Lindy’s.
Lindy’s ranks top players at each position. Notre Dame also had a number of players crack the rankings. Here is that list:
Tommy Kraemer – No. 5 OG
Julian Okwara – No. 6 DE
Alohi Gilman – No. 6 S
Troy Pride Jr. – No. 8 CB
Ian Book – No. 16 QB
Book is ranked as the No. 10 Heisman Trophy candidate by Lindy’s and No. 12 by Athlon.
An interesting comment regarding Notre Dame came from Athlon, who placed the Irish in the list of teams on the decline. They wrote this about that decision:
“Consider this more of a regression-to-the-mean than actual decline. Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish were probably more “top-15 good” than “Playoff-good” last season, and they could very well hit that level again in 2019. But trips to Georgia, Michigan and Stanford will make a repeat run to 12-0 awfully difficult.
“The Irish could be as good as they were last season but go about 9-3 instead.”
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