Notre Dame schedule

Kind schedule should make Irish even better

Put away the tea leaves and tarot cards. Set aside those horoscopes.

If you want to know whether Notre Dame will be competitive this fall, you need look no further than the calendar.

It all starts with the well-known even-numbered rule. For each of the last six years, the Irish have yo-yo'd between winning and losing, finishing above .500 in the even-numbered years and below .500 in the odd-numbered years.

So the 2004 Irish are in line for their customary upswing after last year's disappointing 5-7 record.

"Coming off the season we had last year, we know we're a lot better than that," junior defensive end Justin Tuck said. "We're real hungry this year--you can tell from the look in people's eyes. People want to get back on the field. . . . We want to disregard last year, put it in the past."

Not that the past is ever that far off at Notre Dame. Since Ara Parseghian arrived on campus in 1964, Irish coaches have been divided into two distinct categories--champions and everybody else.

Parseghian, his successor Dan Devine and Lou Holtz all won national championships in their third year. Gerry Faust and Bob Davie didn't.

Irish coach Tyrone Willingham is entering his third season in South Bend. Can he vault himself into the Parseghian group, or will he remain lumped with Faust and Davie?

While national championship hopes may be a bit heavy to shift onto the shoulders of sophomore quarterback Brady Quinn, the calendar favors the Irish in one other way--by keeping them home through much of the early going.

Yes, the Irish play two of their first three games on the road, but their toughest game of the first month will be at Notre Dame Stadium, Sept. 11 against Michigan.

The Wolverines are likely to be tough for the Irish, but they should begin the season with victories at Brigham Young and, if this is a hex-free year, at Michigan State. After that, Notre Dame doesn't play at another school's home field until Nov. 6, when it takes on Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.

Notre Dame does have a couple of tough games between Michigan State and Tennessee. But it should also have several easy contests.

Washington, which Notre Dame plays host to Sept. 25, struggled last season. And with little returning experience at quarterback, the Huskies don't seem likely to be much better in 2004. Plus, in the last 19 games in which Washington scored fewer than 30 points, the Huskies came away with just four victories. Notre Dame's defense should be capable of keeping the Huskies under 30.

The Irish also should beat Stanford on Oct. 9. And while the Irish will leave Notre Dame Stadium once in October, it will be to play a neutral-site game in East Rutherford, N.J., against Navy, an annual opponent that has not beaten the Irish since John F. Kennedy was in the White House.

Notre Dame will face always-tough Purdue before Stanford and nemesis Boston College after Navy. But those games take place in October, which until last season had been a good month for the Irish.

Between 1998 and 2002, Notre Dame lost just one game in October, going 19-1 before falling to 1-2 last year.

If they can reclaim their October magic and play up to their capabilities, the Irish could enter November's matchup at Tennessee with a 6-2 record.

"Anytime you have a chance to play at home, most coaches will tell you that you have to play extremely well," Willingham said. "Hopefully being at home, having that kind of success, catapults you to a very good position as you get into the November part of the season."

Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune