Notre Dame needs to play to its strengths in Week 1 vs. Texas A&M

Notre Dame will begin their season with a huge game in Week 1, as they’re traveling to College Station to face Texas A&M on Aug. 31.

How can the Fighting Irish do enough to secure a win and start their season off with a huge victory over the Aggies? Irish insider Tyler Horka elaborated on how Marcus Freeman’s squad can start 1-0 on the latest episode of On3 Roundtable.

“Yeah, play to your strengths,” Horka responded, regarding what specifically he’d like to see from Notre Dame in this matchup that might give him more confidence about the team moving forward throughout this season. “You just mentioned it right there, there’s really no reason that Texas A&M, while I mentioned Mike Elko being a really good coach, and I think he’s going to do a lot of really good things there, he’s a defensive minded head coach, and Jimbo Fisher was just fired, and he’s an offensive minded head coach, and quite simply, Texas A&M wasn’t getting it done on that side of the ball in the Fisher era, not to the level that people thought, you know, all the money that he got, you know, I don’t think he lived up to that, and Texas A&M lived up to that. So, that being said, there’s really no reason that Texas A&M should be able to move the ball on the defense that was top five in the country last year.

“Returning all those starters, as you mentioned, Al Golden is in his third year as a defensive coordinator, that matters, and Notre Dame’s really leaning into that. Being able to say, ‘Hey, we’ve been in the same system for three years. We’re going to be as good at it this year than we were in any of the previous two seasons.’ So, there’s a lot to like on that side of the ball. And I think that’s the biggest thing for Notre Dame, is just not to let Texas A&M kind of run all over you, throw all over you, just walk all over you. That shouldn’t be the case.

“I do think, with all of these weapons that Notre Dame has, and Mike Denbrock coming in to lead them, there might be some struggle on the offensive side of the ball early. You know, you’re going to have to get used to some of these differences, and some of these different players being the ones that you lean on. So, we might not see the best of Notre Dame’s offense until October or November, but you should probably see a consistent Notre Dame defense from the very start of the season. I think that’s what they’re going to lean on. Again, they would have no trouble winning a 14-10, 21-14 type of ballgame. They won some of those last season. If they did it again in Week 1 in 2024, the Irish would be completely fine with that.”

Alas, it’ll be up to Notre Dame to secure the win, but it’s tough to argue with Tyler Horka’s logic. The Fighting Irish certainly need the victory more than Texas A&M, and they’ll be battling like their season is on the line in Week 1.