Notre Dame is entering year 10 of head coach Brian Kelly’s tenure, and the Fighting Irish will start this season off with its highest preseason ranking (No. 9) this decade. The Irish kick the season off Sept. 2 at Louisville, and the Blue & Gold Illustrated staff is ready to forecast what to expect in 2019.

We start our preseason series off with overall team predictions, which begin with the staff members making three bold predictions.

1) Notre Dame will finish 11-2 — The Fighting Irish have never had this final record, so I will go with that — although the preference would be to go 13-0 for the first time.

However, going unscathed (no losses nor ties) in back-to-back regular seasons has not occurred since Knute Rockne’s final two seasons in 1929-30. Plus, back then it was either nine- or 10-game regular seasons.