3 Reasons Why Texas Will Beat Notre Dame

The Texas Longhorns will make the trip to South Bend to face the No. 11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in their season opener on Saturday, and they have all the ingredients to pull the upset. Here are three reasons why they will do just that:

3) Notre Dame's lackluster defense

The Irish's defense ranked 75th against the pass and 72nd against the rush last year (out of 125 teams), and they're counting on progression from the 10 returning starters to help them improve. However, that's not necessarily a good thing since they know what to expect from most of those guys.

They struggled defending and tackling in space, and with Texas' switch to a spread offense, they have a great chance to have success against the Irish.

2) Tyrone Swoopes' improvement

Tyrone Swoopes threw four interceptions in a 48-10 loss to TCU to close the regular season, along with passing for just 57 yards in a loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl, but still won the starting job this offseason by severely outplaying redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard. Reports indicate that Swoopes is much more comfortable in the spread, which has made his reads easier and allows him to take more advantage of his athletic ability.

1) Longhorns defense vs. Malik Zaire

Zaire will be making his second career start and is still largely unproven under center. Texas' defense won't make his life any easier as they return six starters from a defense that ranked in the top 25 last year and should be even better in the second year under head coach Charlie Strong.

Notre Dame's offense will have some growing pains early in the season, and the Longhorns plan to take advantage.

Follow our Texas Longhorns team page for all the latest Texas football news and rumors!