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Newsstand: Why Joel Klatt has Notre Dame projected to make College Football Playoff

IMG_9992by: Tyler Horka6 hours agotbhorka
Marcus Freeman
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman. (Mike Miller/Blue & Gold)

Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt hasn’t given up on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Not yet.

Klatt projected the 12-team College Football Playoff on Wednesday, and the only two-loss team he has in the field is the Irish. His explanation is simple; he believes the Irish will be 10-2 by the end of the regular season, and he doesn’t think they’re going to have much trouble getting there.

“I think that they’re going to kill people the rest of the year with a really potent offense and maybe one of the best quarterbacks in the country,” Klatt said.

Klatt called redshirt freshman CJ Carr one of the three best signal callers in America along with Oregon’s Dante Moore and Alabama’s Ty Simpson. Klatt also said the Irish won’t be penalized too harshly in the eyes of the CFP committee for losses to Miami and Texas A&M, two of the current top five to six teams in the country.

Here is Klatt’s projected playoff bracket:

Byes
1. Ohio State
2. Miami
3. Oregon
4. Texas

First Round
12. South Florida at 5. Texas Tech
9. Penn State at 8. Alabama
11. Notre Dame at 6. Ole Miss
10. Georgia at 7. Texas A&M

Notre Dame social media posts of the day

CJ Carr. 354 yards.

A longtime Notre Dame hockey assistant coach is leaving the program.

Fighting Irish defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio is up for a high honor.

Fighting Irish quote of the day

“I’ve not seen the biggest improvement since game one. Don’t get me wrong, that South Florida game, the tackling was ugly. It’s looked better, but I’m not going to sit here and say they’ve solved their problems, because they haven’t.”

— Boise State beat writer Shaun Goodwin on the Broncos’ start to the season

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