Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME ahead of Notre Dame in the Nov. 4 College Football Playoff poll had one scheduled this season, from No. 1 Mississippi State playing Tennessee- Martin, to The Citadel visiting Florida State and Jacksonville State at Michi- gan State. Second, only Rice and Navy on this year's schedule are not in the "Power Five" conferences. But Rice did win 10 games last year as the Conference USA champ, and Navy has been to a bowl game 10 of the last 11 years. Finally, the week-after-week grind also wears players out since there is never an adversary that allows the Irish to relax. "The one thing that you have to un- derstand is the amount of plays that our guys have to play, "Kelly said. "When you play Navy, you have to play four quarters. Those are the best and brightest. Those are the most com- mitted. They never quit, and you have to play those guys for four quarters. "That eats up a lot of plays. For ex- ample, [senior tight end] Ben Koyack has played the most snaps of anybody on our team [636]. If you compare that to ... opponents that are ranked ahead of us, they're playing somewhere near 450 snaps. Our guys are playing a very rugged schedule." At the start of November, the Col- lege Football Playoff selection commit- tee respectfully disagreed. ✦ 2015 AND 2016 SCHEDULES There might not be a regular-season game the next two seasons in which Notre Dame isn't the favorite, although road games at Texas and USC in 2016 to begin and end the season could swing moods. Will the College Football Playoff selection committee consider those schedules to be strong enough? 2015 Date Opponent Sept. 5 Texas Sept. 12 at Virginia Sept. 19 Georgia Tech Sept. 26 Massachusetts Oct. 3 at Clemson Oct. 10 Navy Oct. 17 USC Oct. 31 at Temple^ Nov. 7 at Pittsburgh Nov. 14 Wake Forest Nov. 21 vs. Boston College* Nov. 28 at Stanford ^ at Lincoln Financial Services Field in Philadelphia; * Shamrock Series at Fenway Park in Boston 2016 Date Opponent Sept. 3 at Texas Sept. 10 Nevada Sept. 17 Michigan State Sept. 24 Duke Oct. 1 vs. Syracuse# Oct. 8 at North Carolina State Oct. 15 Stanford Oct. 29 Miami Nov. 5 vs. Navy@ Nov. 12 vs. Army% Nov. 19 Virginia Tech Nov. 26 USC # at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; @ Location TBD; % Shamrock Series at Alamodome in San Antonio