Before Notre Dame opens its season on Labor Day at Louisville (94 days), before an August of preseason practices, before July is spent waiting for those delights, before June brings parsings of preview magazines … Vegas ended May with the teaser of 100 opening lines.
And in doing so Thursday, the Golden Nugget established firmly that the Irish are expected to go 10-2 this season. That should not surprise anyone. Winning one of three road trips to Georgia, Michigan and Stanford would set Notre Dame on that path. After going 22-4 in its last 26, with those losses coming to two title game-appearing teams (2017 Georgia, 2018 Clemson) and in two houses of Irish horrors (Miami and Stanford, both 2017), no longer should it be assumed Notre Dame will blow a game it absolutely should win.