Who will win? Experts make predictions for Ohio State vs. Notre Dame
The Ohio State football team will face Notre Dame to start the 2022 season college football season and few early September matchups are as anticipated as this one.
Ohio State enters ranked No.2 in the country while the Fighting Irish are No.5. It's the only matchup between two top-five teams on the schedule for Week 1.
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The Buckeyes enter as a 17.5 point favorite over Notre Dame, who will try to beat OSU on a day when the 2002 national championship team will be honored in Ohio Stadium, which is celebrating its 100th season.
But who will win the matchup on Saturday? Here's who the experts picked.
Bill Rabinowitz
Ohio State beat writer
The Columbus Dispatch
Ohio State 45, Notre Dame 24
The Buckeyes haven't played well in some recent marquee home non-conference games, but they match up well against the Irish. It's simply hard to envision a Notre Dame offense with a first-time starter at quarterback scoring enough to win, especially if the OSU defense is as improved as advertised.
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Joey Kaufman
Ohio State beat writer
The Columbus Dispatch
Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 21
A matchup of college football’s bluest of blue bloods, both of them ranked in the top-five of the preseason polls, would seemingly have the makings for a game with the potential to go down to the wire. But don’t expect a nail biter in the fourth quarter. The Irish, with only a half-dozen healthy scholarship wide receivers, lack the firepower to keep pace with an offense that was the highest-scoring in the country last fall and brought back its most central pieces, led by a Heisman Trophy favorite quarterback. Consider too that the Horseshoe might be a difficult training ground for Marcus Freeman, a first-time head coach, and Ohio State should prevail by a couple of touchdowns.
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Rob Oller
Sports columnist
The Columbus Dispatch
Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 17
This top-five showdown lives up to the hype - for about a quarter and a half. After that, the TV booth will be forced to begin telling players' life stories to fill the time. Ohio State simply has too much offensive firepower for the Fighting Irish to handle. If this were last season's OSU defense, it might be a different story, but the Buckeyes will be better on that side of the ball. Not the homecoming ND coach Marcus Freeman was hoping for in the Shoe.
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Colin Gay
Real-time reporter
The Columbus Dispatch
Ohio State 38, Notre Dame 17
With all eyes on Ohio Stadium Saturday night, Ohio State will begin to show a clear distinction between the No. 2 and the No. 5 spots in the AP poll. Without many of its starters, the Notre Dame offense will be a good training ground for the Buckeyes' new-look defense under Jim Knowles, while the Buckeyes' offense will pick up where it left off in Pasadena, California. This game won't feel close for first-year head coach Marcus Freeman.
Mike Berardino
Notre Dame beat writer
South Bend Tribune
Ohio State 35, Notre Dame 30
The Buckeyes will prove to be more vulnerable than the oddsmakers thought with that outrageous 17.5-point spread, but they just have too many weapons, especially at the skill positions, for the Irish to complete the upset bid. If Notre Dame is to join Oregon (2021) and Oklahoma (2017) as the only visiting teams to win at Ohio Stadium since the start of 2016, first-time starting quarterback Tyler Buchner will have to match C.J. Stroud laser for laser. On this night, even with tight end Michael Mayer going off, that’s too much to ask.
2022 Ohio State Buckeyes football schedule
Week 1: Ohio State vs. Notre Dame, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 3, in Columbus, Ohio
Week 2: Ohio State vs. Arkansas State, Sept. 10, in Columbus, Ohio
Week 6:Ohio State vs. Michigan State, Oct. 8, East Lansing, Mich.
Week 8:Ohio State vs. Penn State, Oct. 29, State College, Pa.
Week 11: Ohio State vs. Maryland, Nov. 19, College Park, MD.
Week 12: Ohio State vs. Michigan, at noon Nov. 26, Columbus, Ohio
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State vs. Notre Dame predictions from Dispatch sports writers
