The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Rice are playing live on NBC to start the season on Saturday and the football game is from Notre Dame Stadium and is streaming live online from the NBC Sports Network on the NBCSN Live Extra website and the game opens at 3:30 pm ET as Brian Kelly tries to get his team back to the national championship and they come in ranked in the top 25.
Notre Dame comes into the season after going 9-4 last year and they have Everett Golson back after his issues last year and now he comes back to take over and that could be big for the team. The Irish were 1-3 against the top 25 last season and now they have the chance to be a factor in things and they have a tough schedule coming up after this start, including a matchup with Michigan. The Wolverines got off to a big start to the season against App State and now they will play against the Irish.
Last year Tommy Rees had a solid season and now the team opens with a number of games at home and at neutral locations and the team is also playing the ACC heavy schedule. Notre Dame plays against Purdue after the matchup with the Wolverines and then the team has Stanford and they are ranked at number 11 and that team is expected to be very good again. North Carolina comes into the season ranked and that continues the tough stretch ahead of the biggest matchup of the season.
Notre Dame has Jameis Winston and the national champion Florida State Seminoles the next week and that will be on the road and they could come into that game undefeated. That matchup with FSU starts a stretch of three games in a row on the road and those include Navy and Arizona State, who also comes into the season ranked. Northwestern is also on the schedule with Louisville and the final game of the season is USC and that will be on the road and there is a chance that the Trojans are very good this season.
Rice hasn't won a game against a ranked team in over 10 years and the Irish come in against the Conference USA champions looking to get a win to start the season right. Eilar Hardy and four other players are off the field for academic issues and Golson comes back after he dealt with those issues last season and the Irish are hoping that some of those players that are starters can come back and Golson is expected to have a big year coming back. Golson had 18 touchdowns two years ago to go along with nearly 3,000 passing yards and 300 rushing yards and the receivers will have to adjust back to him after playing with Rees.
Check here for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Rice NBC Live coverage.
