Stephen A Smith dooms Notre Dame's College Football Playoff chances after NIU loss: 'It's over, right now'
Notre Dame suffered a stunning 16-14 home loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday in its second game of the season.
Even though the Fighting Irish still have 10 games left and already have a win over Texas A&M, Stephen A. Smith believes Notre Dame is done as far as making the College Football Playoff.
The ESPN personality was asked on ESPN First Take Tuesday if Notre Dame’s season is over. He bluntly declared that it already is.
“Yea it is. Let’s stop this,” Stephen A. Smith said. “Listen, their strength of schedule right now ranks 52nd among FBS schools. … We’re in mid-September. And we’re sitting here and we’re saying two things. No. 1, they’ve got to run the table. And No. 2, they’ve got to pray that USC is big-time so the season finale against USC, hopefully they’ll elevate to a top-10 team in the nation, top-5 team in the nation. And then Notre Dame beats them, after running the table, by the way. And then they’ll make the playoffs. Nah, nah.”
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As things stand, Notre Dame plays only two ranked teams the rest of the season in No. 19 Louisville in late September and No. 11 USC to close out the season in November.
Because of its strength of schedule and bad home loss, Smith believes the Irish are doomed.
“Of course I’m a fan of Marcus Freeman. I like the brother personally. I certainly don’t root against him,” Smith said. “But the facts are the facts with a schedule that is suspect.
“And now it’s ranked as the 52nd toughest schedule in the FBS, combined with games like Georgia Tech and Army on the schedule, we’ve got to look at them and say, ‘Alright, man, handle your business against Louisville, handle your business against USC.’ That is your claim to the playoffs? It ain’t happening. Hell no. I can’t see it. It’s over, right now.”
Stephen A. Smith added that he doesn’t like a trend that has happened with Marcus Freeman teams at Notre Dame.
In Freeman’s first year as head coach, the Irish lost to Marshall at home in Week 2. Later that year, they lost to an unranked Stanford team. After Saturday’s loss to NIU, Notre Dame has now lost three home games as heavy favorites under Freeman.
“I mean, when you look at the teams in the Power 4 conferences and what they bring to the table, when you look at the fact that Notre Dame, who did you say they lost to? Marshall. Randy Moss ain’t there no more. … And Stanford, which was a bad Stanford team, right? A mediocre Stanford team. And now Northern Illinois,” Smith said. “Not the Illinois Fighting Illini. Northern Illinois. Really? Come on now.
“It’s gotten to a point now where people are literally asking the question, ‘Well why are they on national television? Why are they on national television?’ I mean think about it. You’re going to start asking those questions. You’ve got some alumni members that are in posh positions in the television world, evidently, something along those lines, because nobody can figure out why the hell the Fighting Irish are on national television all the time, with that separate national television deal. You can’t be losing games like this.”