Paul Finebaum puts Notre Dame on upset alert against Texas A&M, cites Kyle Field crowd noise

Paul Finebaum is putting the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on upset alert as they travel to Kyle Field to take on the Texas A&M Aggies in their opener on Saturday.

During an appearance on Get Up on Friday, Finebaum cited the crowd filled with raucous Aggies fans as a reason why the Fighting Irish might falter against Texas A&M, believing Notre Dame could struggle in their Week 1 clash.

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“Notre Dame, they’re a top 10 team, and I’m not just playing to the crowd a thousand miles from where I sit, because I think that it’s exactly what Desmond [Howard] said, that’s one of the fiercest environments in all of college football,” Finebaum stated, regarding a team on upset alert in Week 1. “I’ve seen average A&M teams beat great teams, including Nick Saban two years ago. I think it could very well happen again tomorrow night.”

Desmond Howard, who also joined Get Up with Finebaum, named the crowd as his biggest factor for Saturday’s game, and it’s evident he convinced his colleague enough to be worried about Notre Dame’s chances.

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“The most important factor when you come to Kyle Field is, how can you handle crowd noise? I mean, this is probably one of the top three loudest stadiums in all of college football,” Howard stated. “Notre Dame comes in here with two young offensive tackles, the right tackle and left tackle. So, now you’re concerned, are these guys going to have false starts? Are they going to be slow off the ball? They have a very mobile quarterback that they got from Duke in Riley Leonard, but you know, the Aggies are going to come after him for four quarters.

“So, make sure you watch the battle in the trenches. Let’s see if Notre Dame can, what we call like, hold their water, if they can be poised and that the crowd noise does not get to them.”

Even with a loss though, Finebaum doesn’t believe Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff chances will be dashed though: “They are not, and the reason is their schedule is pretty light,” Finebaum added. “Even with a loss at Kyle Field, I think, (it) would mostly be forgotten about by this committee when they meet in early December. They have many more opportunities to make up for an early season loss.”

It remains to be seen if Texas A&M or Notre Dame kicks their season off with a win, but the real victor is the fans, as the clash between the Aggies and the Fighting Irish is a tremendous way to kickoff the 2024 campaign, that’s for sure.