Urban Meyer expresses concern for Notre Dame ahead of matchup with Duke

Notre Dame lost a heartbreaker to Ohio State this past Saturday as the Irish came up one play short of securing a huge victory. Unfortunately for the Irish, they don’t have any time to feel sorry for themselves. Up next, Notre Dame plays another ranked team in Duke, and this time the game is on the road.

Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer joined On3’s Tim May recently and shared that he is worried about Notre Dame going into this matchup.

Meyer believes it’s possible the loss to Ohio State could end up beating Notre Dame twice.

“Here’s my thoughts… and Brady Quinn and I talk about this all the time – Notre Dame is so unique,” Meyer said. “When I coached there… every time you break it down like, ‘1, 2, 3 team.’ A lot of times, when I was there with Lou Holtz, it was ‘1, 2, 3 national champs.’ And reality is when you lose one game, certainly when you lose two, that’s gone.”

Urban Meyer was an assistant at Notre Dame from 1996-2000 and said that South Bend is different from any other place he coached.

Notre Dame isn’t in a conference the way that the majority of FBS schools are, so the Irish have fewer goals to play for.

If a team from the Big Ten, SEC, etc. drops a game, it still has a chance to get to the conference championship game and potentially win a conference title. At Notre Dame, that’s not a possibility.

“At Ohio State, you get a lot of rings when you win championships and all of that. At Notre Dame, you don’t get it. You get a bowl ring. … You don’t have that conference,” Meyer said. “At Ohio State, if you lose a game, you’re still in a street fight to go to the Big Ten Championship game, to the Rose Bowl. At Notre Dame, the players, the fans, the mindset is boom or bust. And if they lose, I worry about the mindset.”

Meyer added that he believes Duke is in a good position to pull off the upset. The Blue Devils enter the matchup 4-0 and with a win over a talented Clemson team already.

Duke has one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Riley Leonard and an excellent head coach in Mike Elko. This isn’t a good team for Notre Dame to play coming off of a heartbreaking loss, according to Meyer.

“That’s where coach Freeman and his staff and his leadership on his team, they’ve gotta be phenomenal. Because right now they’re an injured animal,” Meyer said. “They’re going into this game against a very well-coached… I think that coach at Duke, my gosh is he doing a great job. I don’t know what the point spread is, but watch that game closely.”