There are several ranked matchups in Week 5 of the college football season, including No.14 Oklahoma visiting No.22 Notre Dame in South Bend. This will be a 3:30 pm ET kickoff, with coverage on NBC.
- When:
Sat., Sept. 28th, 2013 @ 3:30pm ET
- Where:
Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, IN
- Who’s Favored?
OKLA by 3.5 ~ 48.5 o/u @ BetOnline
- More Info:
The Irish used the dominating performance last season in Norman as a catalyst to eventually secure a spot in the national championship game. Actually in fact it might have been the only win on the schedule last year that legitimized this team. That was until they got beat by four touchdowns in the national championship.
Oklahoma likely hasn’t forgotten about the embarrassing loss at home. But this Sooners team is a different squad, and quite frankly not as talented as they were last season, especially at the quarterback position.
The Sooners have a tough stretch of games upcoming, including this matchup on Saturday. After that it’s games against TCU and Texas. The Sooners are probably the favorites in the Big 12 along with in-state rival Oklahoma State. But while this game doesn’t count for a division record, it is certainly big from a national perspective.
It’s been the Oklahoma defense that has stepped up this season, as they’ve allowed just nine points per game, which ranks 5th in the country.
This will be the biggest challenge for the Sooners defense so far, but Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees isn’t exactly a Heisman candidate. Rees was a second-string quarterback last season to a freshman for a reason.
Having said that, Notre Dame has been more battled tested this season than the Sooners, with games on the road against Michigan and Purdue.