Heather Dinich makes the case for why Notre Dame will win a College Football Playoff game in 2024

Notre Dame has yet to win a playoff game in the College Football Playoff era. However, ESPN insider Heather Dinich expects that to change this fall. Dinich is high on the Fighting Irish heading into the 2024 season.

She joined SportsCenter Monday afternoon and shared why she expects Notre Dame to win a CFP game come December.

“This year will be different because in the third season under Marcus Freeman, they have done an excellent job with recruiting, with using the transfer portal, starting with quarterback Riley Leonard,” Dinich said.

Riley Leonard transferred to Notre Dame this offseason after spending three seasons at Duke. The dual-threat quarterback had an excellent year in 2022 as the Blue Devils won nine games, before getting off to a strong start in 2023 but then dealing with injuries.

Leonard helped Duke get off to a 4-0 start last year with a win over Clemson, before getting injured late in a tough loss to Notre Dame. He attempted to play in two games after that but wasn’t the same.

However, he should be fully healthy for the 2024 season, which is good news for the Irish. Notre Dame has plenty of playmakers around him, including sophomore Jaden Greathouse and Clemson transfer Beaux Collins. As Dinich pointed out, Notre Dame should also be really good on the defensive side of the ball.

“He’s got a lot of talent around him. And they return nine of 11 starters on a defense that ranked No. 7 in the country last year in scoring defense,” Dinich said.

She added that Notre Dame also has several future pros on its roster.

“And that talent – just how loaded is this roster – 11 projected draft picks in 2025. The only other teams in the country that have more are Georgia and Ohio State,” Dinich said. “So this is a team that can really have a special season under Marcus Freeman. But they’ve gotta keep Riley Leonard healthy.”

Notre Dame is coming off of a 10-3 season in Year 2 under Marcus Freeman. The Fighting Irish should have a good idea of how good they’re going to be in 2024 early on this season as Freeman’s squad opens the year against Texas A&M on Aug. 31.

The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m. and will be played in South Bend. Even if Notre Dame goes undefeated, the Irish can only be ranked as high as No. 5 in the final College Football Playoff rankings. The top four seeds will go to conference champions.