College Football 2011 Preview: Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule

The college football 2011 preseason preview has begun as teams will be getting ready for their gridiron battles soon. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish schedule starts September 3rd as the blue and gold look to build upon last season's success. Will a successful season equate to a BCS bowl game in 2011-12?

First up on the 2011 Notre Dame schedule will be South Florida, providing a home game for Coach Brian Kelly and his squad to show their talents. They'll face Michigan, Michigan State, Pittsburgh, Purdue and Air Force in the weeks after that, before getting a break on the open date week of October 15th.

From there, Notre Dame gets two home contests, one against USC and other against Navy. They'll travel to Wake Forest for November 5th and then return home for games against Maryland and Boston on November 12th and 19th. The Fighting Irish wrap up their season November 26th playing at Stanford, with fans hoping they have a good ranking by then and can hopefully get a BCS bowl game.

A report at ESPN notes that Notre Dame is one of several teams who could prosper this upcoming 2011 college football season, depending on how their defense holds up. Coach Brian Kelly will have Notre Dame for his sophomore year, and with 17 returning starters, they will look to improve upon last season's 8-5 record. The team defeated Miami in the Sun Bowl at the conclusion of the 2010 season, and will hope to answer the challenges of 2011. Tradition is longstanding at the university, so they'll have to really step it up on the field to appease those die-hard fans!

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