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Brian Kelly fiercely defended how he accepted the LSU job after leaving Notre Dame football. But his prediction for the 2026 Fighting Irish now will turn heads.
Kelly sounds like he still thinks highly of his former employer. Especially in delivering new game-by-game predictions for the upcoming season.
Long story short, he sees head coach Marcus Freeman leading ND into the College Football Playoffs…with a 12-0 record.
He calls for the Wisconsin opener to be “a much more competitive game,” but calls for ND to escape with the win. Kelly feels the Rice contest becomes a Notre Dame blowout. The Big Ten challengers of Michigan State and Purdue will put up a fight, but Kelly envisions his former team grinding out victories.
But then he shared the one game ND must be careful of.
“North Carolina gets off to a good start. This could be a great game and one that you’ve got to be careful of,” Kelly said.
That Week 5 contest pits Notre Dame against six-time Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Belichick for the first time ever.
BYU out of the Big 12 rises as the next massive challenge for the Fighting Irish, but Kelly believes “Notre Dame has done a great job against the marquee teams, and I think they’ll continue to do that at BYU.”
So who can really trip up ND? Many fans and analysts point to the National Championship Game runner-up Miami doing that in Week 10.
“Everybody has penciled this game as one that Notre Dame could lose. I don’t see that happening,” Kelly said.
Notre Dame rounded out the top five of the USA Today coaches poll released on Tuesday.
Brian Kelly fiercely defended how he accepted the LSU job after leaving Notre Dame football. But his prediction for the 2026 Fighting Irish now will turn heads. Kelly sounds like he still thinks highly of his former employer. Especially in delivering new game-by-game predictions for the upcoming season.
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