Notre Dame drops to seventh in ESPN’s updated pre-season rankings… Falls behind Southern Cal

ESPN updated its college football rankings for the pre-season and dropped Notre Dame to seventh in the world rankings. The reason is that ESPN jumped Southern Cal from 12th to No. 4 in its rankings thanks to an offseason event in which it poached Trojans…sorry, recruiting a number of transfers from across the country.

ESPN is counting on USC head coach Lincoln Riley’s ability to take all of these players from all of these different teams together to form one cohesive team that will transform the Trojans from the 4-8 team they were a season ago to the College Football of the Caliber.

Of course, Notre Dame finished ahead of all the teams that the New Trojans played last season, but the world leader expects USC to make a giant leap.

Here’s what ESPN had to say about the Irish:

“It seems that all was not so rosy between former Irish coach Brian Kelly and management ahead of his unexpected departure to LSU. New coach Marcus Freeman, who was Kelly’s former defensive coordinator, could make Irish fans forget Kelly in a hurry if he manages to win this season. The Notre Dame offensive line led the interventions Joe Alt And Blake FisherHe has a chance to be one of the best in FBS. Returning the respected offensive line coach Harry Hestand won’t hurt their chances either. Tyler Buchner And Drew Ben They are putting up a very good fight for their first quarterback job, which may not be decided until late in pre-season camp. New defensive coordinator Al Golden It has some holes to fill in the front. Defensive handling Aidan Kinaina Torn the anterior cruciate ligament in the first spring exercise. The Irish quickly signed the Harvard transfer (Chris) Smith to help.” – Mark Schlabash

Notre Dame opened the season against Ohio State, which remains second in the rankings, just behind No. 1 Alabama. Rounding out the top ten is Georgia (No. 3), USC (No. 4), Texas A&M (No. 5), Utah (No. 6), North Carolina (No. 8), Michigan (No. 9) and Michigan (No. 10). ).

Texas A&M’s No. 5 ranking is kind of a scratch. Texas A&M returns fewer starters (10) from its 8-4 team in 2021 than Notre Dame (14) returns from its 11-2 squad. Notre Dame must replace its head coach, but Texas A&M has lost a prominent defensive coordinator Mike Elko And the entire defensive starting line. It will also have a quarterback fight to be settled.

ESPN predicted the Aggies will have a breakout season in 2021 as well, ranking sixth in the pre-season standings. Texas A&M didn’t live up to their end of the bargain, dropping to 8-4 despite their win over Alabama. Texas A&M lost by double digits to Arkansas and Ole Miss, also dropped a home contest to 7-6 Mississippi State and lost to LSU 6-7 in Ed Orgeron’s last game with the Tigers.

The interesting note is that Max Johnson He led LSU to that victory, but would now be in contention for the starting QB job at Texas A&M.

ESPN also had North Carolina (6-7), Iowa (7-6), USC (4-8) and Indiana (2-10) in the top 10 last year.

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