I've seen a lot of "is Notre Dame us and we are Miami in 2003;" i.e., a lunch pail, tough as nails team that was given no shot and will land some haymakers and shock the world?
There is a tiny chance, but here's where I think all that fails:
- I see some saying that OSU was not Miami's equal in 2003. Did you watch the game? Sure, we didn't have the same offensive weapons, not by a mile, but we dominated them in the trenches on defense. Dominated. Miami hung tough, be we whooped on them and they didn't know what hit them and that game should have been well, well over due to some blatantly missed calls before the big pass interference late. I do not see ND being able to come out and physically dominate the way that we did in that game. Also, while we only had 5 NFL picks in 2003, we had 14 in 2004 and MoC, Nugent and Dustin Fox, who also all started against Miami were drafted in 2005. That team was LOADED (and Miami had 8 drafted in 2003 and 9 in 2004 - more 1st rounders, but the talent separation was not what people thought it was). ND is talented, but not to the same level as the 2002 Buckeyes were -- people just didn't fully know it yet.
2. We might now be showing the level of dominance that is comparable to 2002 Miami, but we aren't coming in nearly the same. That team hadn't barely been challenged for two years and was expected to punish us. Yes, we may be expected to pummel ND, but we should be coming in with a much bigger edge/chip on our shoulder than Miami ever had.
3. At the end of the day, we were the tougher, more physical team against Miami. We might lose to ND, but I will be absolutely gobsmacked if it is because ND can come out and bully us the way that we bullied Miami in that game.
