Saturday’s season opener between Tennessee State and Notre Dame poses some intriguing questions for both schools.
It’s the first time Notre Dame has ever faced an HBCU school, and the Tigers inaugural visit to the South Bend campus.
Each coach is also facing some challenges. For Eddie George, beginning his third season at TSU, last year’s four win debacle was quite disappointing. The defense played respectably most of the year, but the offense, and in particular the offensive line, was dreadful. The hope is this year’s offense wil be improved, while the defense will remain formidable.
No one expects an opening game TSU victory, but if the Tigers can be competitive for all or most of the game it bodes well for the remainder of their schedule.
The Tigers are playing this season in the revamped Ohio Valley/Big South under a new agreement with the two conferences having a combined working arrangement that allows the remaining schools in both conferences to play enough games to maintain an active football schedule.
The Tigers will play six games in this new conference arrangement.
Meanwhile, Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman begins his second year as head coach under increased scrutiny. The athletic director who hired him is in his last season, and over the last few years Notre Dame has shown they are willing to can coaches before their contracts expire.
The Fighting Irish finished 9-4 last season, and there was considerable grumbling that they weren’t ever in national title consideration.
Despite being the only school that has all their home games carried on a broadcast network (NBC), Notre Dame hasn’t won a national title since 1988.
They remain the nation’s biggest independent, evidently unaffected by all the conference jumping and school switching.
But their fans want and expect the school to be in the national title hunt every season. There were lots of alumni unhappy with last season, and Freeman hasn’t gotten much of a honeymoon.
There were loud voices raised in protest among some of the Notre Dame faithful when this game was announced, notably former Irish QB turned broadcaster Brady Quinn. Quinn loudly protested the game wouldn’t help Notre Dame’s title chances, no matter the outcome.
So both schools go into the game with differing but important agendas. TSU wants a respectable showing to power it into their regular schedule, while Notre Dame wants to follow up its season opening 42-3 romp over Navy with a similar defeat of the Tigers.
It should be a most interesting game, at least for a while.
