Ohio State Football: Confidence level against Notre Dame

The X-Factor – Confidence Level 4

There are a lot of factors in play that give the advantage to Notre Dame. The Irish have home-field advantage, and despite Buckeye fans, who are known for traveling well, gobbling up tickets on the secondary market, there has been a very real push by the Notre Dame faithful to keep the sea of red from washing over their beloved green for this game. I’m sure there will be a lot of Ohio State fans who will be there, but the price of this ticket eliminated a lot of Ohio State fans from making the trip.

There is definitely a revenge factor being played over in South Bend. After losing the season opener in the Horseshoe last season, all off-season, there has been a lot of beat-Ohio State talk happening in Northern, Indiana. Notre Dame has been careful about not putting bulletin board material out in public, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been talking about this game. This one has been circled on the calendar by the entire program and their fanbase. There is a very real desire to put to bed the idea that Notre Dame cannot compete on the national scale with the elite. Ohio State represents that elite to them and they want a giant piece of that pie.

Although I don’t believe this has anything to do with the outcome of a game, when a team says they are going to play in their special alternate uniform, they are hoping it brings a little more juice. Call it Irish green, call it leprechaun green, heck you can even call it puke green for all I care, but when Notre Dame breaks out the green, they are doing so with the idea that they are going to get just that little bit extra from everyone, including the fanbase, who will all be wearing their green as well.

The Ohio State football team is not new to atmospheres like this. It’s hard to beat a Penn State whiteout when it comes to atmospheres. Notre Dame is going to try on Saturday, and when you have a quarterback who is making only his fifth start and an offensive line who is still coming together with only three games of experience, I would say that the advantage goes to the other team. My X-factor confidence level is a four this week.