Notre Dame-Syracuse: Where Saturday Will Be Won

Notre Dame is riding a high defensively of late, pretty much handling both Navy and Boston College on that side of the ball over the past two weeks. This week a Syracuse team comes to Notre Dame Stadium for the Irish's senior day festivities. The first class of Charlie Weis' recruits has been through a lot in the blue and gold and would like nothing more than to walk off the field in South Bend one last time as winners and in a dominating fashion. Syracuse brings amongst the worst run defenses in the nation to Notre Dame tomorrow. So far in 2008 Syracuse has held just one team to less than four yards a carry for an entire game, and that was the vaunted Northeastern rushing attack. The game plan for Notre Dame should be very simple this coming weekend in that the Irish will pound the ball, pound it some more, and then some more after that. With Michael Floyd out, do not expect to see the Irish counting on Jimmy Clausen to win them the football game. Obviously there are still the threats ... (link)