The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Arizona State Sun Devils will do battle on Saturday night in Arlington where head coach Brian Kelly and company will try to rebound from their 32-21 loss to Oklahoma last week as they play a Pac-12 opponent for the first time this year.
The team just played two straight home game after travelling to play Michigan and Purdue and now they will face off against an improved Sun Devils team from last season. Arizona State is ranked number 22 in the nation while the Irish are out of the top rankings and the team now is playing their second straight ranked opponent. The Irish started the season with a win over Temple and then lost to number 17 Michigan in a great game at the Big House and then the team won two straight games against Purdue and Michigan State before losing to Oklahoma and now they will try and get the defense better against Arizona State.
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The Irish have a tough back stretch on the schedule, as they are playing against the USC Trojans before the two service academies in Air Force and Navy and those could be disrupted by the government shutdown. Notre Dame will finish the season with two of three games on the road, as they will play at Pitt before coming home to host BYU. The team then finishes the season against number five Stanford, a team that many have picked to go to the national championship from the Pac-12.
Arizona State is coming off of a crazy win over USC that saw then put up over 60 points and that was a nice rebound from the loss against Stanford on the road, which saw the Cardinal win 42-28. Arizona State has one of the best passing offenses in the nation and they are averaging over 400 yards per game, including over 350 per game in the air. The team is ranked seventh in the nation in passing yards per game and their scoring offense has been fantastic, averaging over 40 points per game.
The team will play the Irish before heading home to host Colorado and then the team has a tough game against the ranked Washington Huskies. The team has three road games over the next four weeks and they will play Washington State and Utah back to back before hosting Oregon State and then they will travel for a huge game against UCLA in Cali that could have big Pac-12 implications. The team will finish the season with a rivalry game against Arizona, one of the best traditions in college football.
Check here for the NBC live coverage of the Notre Dame game.
