Notre Dame Football: Is 10-2 Acceptable for 2024 Season?

What will be considered a successful season for Notre Dame football in 2024?

Notre Dame Head Coach Marcus Freeman talks to the team at Notre Dame spring football practice Thursday, March 7, 2024, at the Irish Athletics Center in South Bend. / GREG SWIERCZ / USA TODAY NETWORK

We're a month from the college football season starting and anticipation is clearly growing.

Media days have come and gone for the majority of conferences as the countdown to the official opening of fall camp is on.

Expectations are high at Notre Dame entering Marcus Freeman's third year as head coach. The Irish have gone a combined 19-7 over the past two seasons but appear primed to take a step and be a College Football Playoff contender in 2024.

That begs the question: what is a fair expectation for Notre Dame in 2024?

Marcus Freeman's Third Year at Notre Dame

The third season by a head coach at Notre Dame is always an incredibly important one.

Brian Kelly and Notre Dame found themselves in the BCS Championship game in his third year in 2012.

Charlie Weis went from back-to-back BCS coach to the outhouse with a lowly 3-9 mark in 2007, his third year.

Tyrone Willingham beat a pair of top-10 teams in his third year but was fired at its conclusion for going just 6-6 and getting boat-raced by USC for a third-straight season.

Lou Holtz, Dan Devine, and Ara Parseghian all won national championships in their third seasons at Notre Dame.

It's fair to say that isn't the expectation at Notre Dame entering 2024, but what exactly is?

Notre Dame's Favorable 2024 Schedule

Notre Dame's 2024 football schedule sets up like one that can make a legitimate run at a 12-0 regular season.

It also sets up to have just enough speed bumps where Notre Dame could lose three or four games as well.

Take a look at the schedule and quickly go over it in your head.

Aug. 31 - at Texas A&M
Sept. 7 - vs. Northern Illinois
Sept. 14 - at Purdue
Sept. 21 - vs. Miami (OH)
Sept. 28 - vs. Louisville
Oct. 12 - vs. Stanford
Oct. 19 - vs. Georgia Tech (Mercedes Benz Stadium)
Oct. 26 - vs. Navy (MetLife Stadium)
Nov. 9 - vs. Florida State
Nov. 16 - vs. Virginia
Nov. 23 - vs. Army (Yankee Stadium)
Nov. 30 - at USC

So what's a fair record expectation for Notre Dame?

College Football News Projects Notre Dame 2024 Record

College Football News goes through the entire schedule for the 2024 college football season and predicts the winner of every single game.

Upon doing so earlier this week, their prediction for Notre Dame in 2024: 10-2. The two losses were at the start and end of the season as they were given in road games against Texas A&M and USC.

Although a respectable year and still worthy of being in the College Football Playoff, what would the feeling around South Bend be if the Irish went 10-2 in Marcus Freeman's third season?

Notre Dame football 2024: 10-2 is not good enough

The novelty of Marcus Freeman as Notre Dame's head coach has worn off.

The increased importance on recruiting is obvious and certainly key, but big time wins need to start coming on the field instead of just in recruiting (which certainly hasn't happened of late at wide receiver).

Texas A&M and USC are two difficult places to play in college football but Notre Dame should have more talent in both of those games.

Texas A&M's defensive line is a monster and Notre Dame's offensive line has questions. Where else does Texas A&M hold an advantage though? Notre Dame having a quarterback that doesn't turn the ball over is massive in this game.

The middle of the season does a good job of avoiding big-risk letdowns or the exhaustion Notre Dame showed by the time the Louisville game came around in 2023.

Louisville's trip to Notre Dame comes after the Irish host Miami (Ohio).

Florida State may be unbeaten when it comes to Notre Dame Stadium in November, but Notre Dame will have been off the week before.

The trip to USC is always difficult, even when USC is bad and Notre Dame is very good. USC will again have a very good offense, Lincoln Riley has earned that belief, but even if USC's defense improves significantly from a year ago it still has the change to be very mid considering just how bad it was last year.

Notre Dame's 2024 Expectation

Nick's Quick Take: Unless you're fielding a team like Georgia or maybe Ohio State this year, it's simply unfair to just expect a team to go unbeaten. That said, ESPN's Football Power Index does give Notre Dame the best chance of any team nationally to run the table in the regular season.

I'm not sold that happens just because through two years we've seen Marcus Freeman's team lay several eggs on the road, and we've already discussed how Notre Dame has two very difficult road tests.

Do enough to win one of those and survive the other. Couple that with winning each home game like Notre Dame did from 2018-2020, and you're looking at an 11-1 squad that has a case for a home game in the College Football Playoff.

Get in, win a game, be competitive against a marquee team in the second round.

Yeah, that sounds plenty fair for Notre Dame football in 2024 to me.

Related:
How Ohio State coach pushed Marcus Freeman towards Notre Dame
Notre Dame football's 2024 offensive dept chart ahead of fall camp
Notre Dame football's 2024 defensive depth chart ahead of fall camp