Went to dinner with an ND grad recently, and was surprised to hear how unbeat he was about the upcoming season. Something about a feathery schedule and the growth of a young Irish squad. Too lazy to actually look into this, and stunned that a 3-9 team could turn it around so quickly, we got Intern Parris on the scene. We do promise, though, not to write too often about Tuna Jr.’s team this season. [Of note: Looks like they’ve got a new AD: John B. “Jack” Swarbrick, an ND grad.]

Ah, Notre Dame. Those two words immediately conjure up images of Rudy, Touchdown Jesus and blowout losses in bowl games (and your favorite Catholic priest joke). Last season must have felt like an epic tragedy (as did this); for the rest of us, it was like making love to a super model. We never wanted it to end.

After taking over the program, Charlie Weis has had two seasons of nine wins or more, but it was last year’s 3-9 run—with two wins coming against Stanford and Duke—that had Notre Dame fans aghast. Last season the Domers endured the struggles that any team would when faced with starting underclassmen at quarterback, running back and on the offensive line. That should not be an issue this time around.

According to Rivals.com, Notre Dame will start 17 upperclassmen this season—including eight seniors and a sophomore QB Jimmy Clausen—and should look drastically different than a year ago. The Chuckster is coming off of three consecutive top-8 finishes in recruiting, which should produce someone who can get the ball into the end zone. Last year Notre Dame tied for 117th in offense, averaging only 16.4 points per game. It was enough to perhaps prompt Weis to go back to spying on his opponents.

While last year’s schedule was daunting, the same cannot be said for this year’s joke of a slate. Notre Dame has six games in which they should triumph —San Diego State, Stanford, UNC, Washington, Navy and Syracuse—meaning all they have to do is beat a bad Michigan team, Purdue at home and a rebuilding Boston College squad to reach nine wins and a trip to a BCS game (fine; maybe that last part was a stretch).

As much I would like to see Weis and his gigantic ego take another hit, I am afraid that Notre Dame should be poised for a seven-to-nine win season. They have the schedule and the experience to make a run which, sadly for us, means that ESPN will trot out bumbling Lou Holtz to offer us up some gold.

I like Notre Dame to finish 8-4 with losses to Michigan State, Purdue, Pittsburgh and USC, giving Lou Holtz a chance to be the first person to campaign for a four-loss team to be crowned national champs.

[Ed. Just for kicks, we’ve added the highlights from USC-Notre Dame in Oct. 2005. Awesome game.]