Three ACC Foes Get Bye Prior To The Notre Dame Game In 2020
Three of Notre Dame’s six 2020 Atlantic Coast Conference opponents will have byes the week before playing the Fighting Irish.
The ACC released its composite schedules for the coming year on Wednesday morning.
The most notable is the showdown with unanimous preseason “Way Too Early” No. 1 selection Clemson on Nov. 7. Last year three of the five ACC teams had a bye prior to facing head coach Brian Kelly’s team, and a fourth (Louisville) was the season opener on Labor Day.
Here is the 2020 schedule, with the six teams from the ACC in bold and the 2019 record in parentheses:
Aug. 29: vs. Navy (11-2) — at Dublin, Ireland
Sept. 12 Arkansas (2-10)
Sept. 19 Western Michigan (7-6)
Sept. 26 vs. Wake Forest (8-5) — at Charlotte, N.C. The Demon Deacons host FCS foe Villanova the week prior.
Oct. 3 Wisconsin (10-4) — at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
Oct. 10 Stanford (4-8)
Oct. 17 at Pittsburgh (8-5) — The Panthers have a bye Oct. 10. They almost won at Notre Dame in 2018 before falling 19-14.
Oct. 31 Duke (5-7) —The Blue Devils have a bye Oct. 24 — but so does Notre Dame.
Nov. 7 Clemson (14-1) —The Tigers, who have won 35 consecutive regular season contests (including ACC Playoff) have a bye Oct. 31, and are projected to be 8-0 coming into the contest.
Nov. 14 at Georgia Tech (3-9) — Under second-year head coach Geoff Collins, the Yellow Jackets host Duke the week prior.
Nov. 21 Louisville (8-5) — Another second-year head coach in Scott Satterfield, who had a strong debut season after inheriting a 2-10 team, will see his Cardinals host Wake Forest prior to Notre Dame’s Senior Day.
Nov. 28 at USC (8-5)
The 2019 Notre Dame football schedule was “The Year Of The Bye” among its opposition.
Seven Fighting Irish foes had a bye the week before playing Notre Dame, most notably each of the first four in November, three of them in the ACC: Virginia Tech (Nov. 2), at Duke (Nov. 9), Navy (Nov. 16) and Boston College (Nov. 23).
It proved to be no big deal as the Irish won all seven contests, most of them quite handily.
However, Notre Dame did end up losing 45-14 at Michigan when the Irish had their own bye while the Wolverines that same week played a grueling contest at Penn State.
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