It's also very illustrative of the special treatment ND receives in the media that they would be such a popular pick to turn things around, when such consensus is usually unprecedented. I've never seen a 3-9 dog, coming off a seasons worth of blowout losses, and losing their top players, EVER predicted to go bowling the following year. Not once, ever.
No one predicts Syracuse, UAB, Iowa State or Buffalo to go from 3 to 10 wins. Yet, with ND, it's a fait accompli. You can talk about sure wins against Stanford, San Diego State, ect., but what have they proven to show they even belong on the same field as
MSU, Purdue or BC...games the pundits now call "swing games"? Even Michigan, another media darling, is getting very little respect, and they have a proven, loaded defense returning. And people wonder why ND is so despised nationally
