The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are mere hours away from kicking off their 2018 campaign for a National Championship with one of their biggest tests of the year, the Michigan Wolverines. With that being said today we take a look at three keys to an Irish victory.

Send Pressure

The first step for the Irish to pull off the victory is to send pressure into the Michigan backfield early and often. For the last two seasons, the Wolverine offensive line has been a consistent Achilles heel for Jim Harbaugh and Michigan. Harbaugh attempted to fix this, hiring former Ohio State offensive line coach Ed Warinner to work some magic.

”Our offensive line will be one strength of our offense this year,” sophomore center Cesar Ruiz told The Blade. “You’ll see.”

“If you were out there watching practice, you could tell the offensive line has improved so much,” Ruiz continued. “It’s just a great thing to watch and you can just feel it. We’ll run different things, different plays, and we get a lot of things done that we couldn’t do before. We’re doing a lot of things better now.”

Practice is one thing but game action against a foe of Notre Dame’s caliber is another. Michigan was 111th in the country in sacks allowed per game last year and must prove their improvement in front of National eyes.

Force Turnovers

Tying into the previous key of sending pressure, Notre Dame will need to force a few turnovers throughout the evening. Michigan will send Shea Patterson, an Ole Miss transfer, out to lead the offense against a stout Irish defense. Rattling Patterson could cause the Wolverines to fall apart early.

The junior started 10 games for Ole Miss over two seasons, throwing 23 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. He also held a record of 3-4 as a starter in 2017, with blowout losses to the likes of Alabama, Auburn, and LSU.

Michigan offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton does not seem to be worried though.

“I think Shea has shown in big games over the course of his short career that he can make plays,” Hamilton said Wednesday in an interview with The Detriot News. ”Not that the other quarterbacks can’t make plays, but he offers just an ability to make the on-schedule play and the off-schedule play and we’re excited about having that element in our offense.”

Find Offensive Rhythm Early

Finally, Notre Dame must find a rhythm on offense early. The Irish sent a good chunk of their offensive unit to the NFL last season, not to mention the minor quarterback controversy that began during the Citrus Bowl.

Coach Brian Kelly told media members last week that Brandon Wimbush will be the starter against Michigan even after Ian Book led the team to a comeback victory against LSU.

Kelly went on to say, “I want to win the game and I know I’ve got two winners. Brandon knows, Ian knows that both of them can help this football team win. They’re much more about the team winning and whatever we have to do to win. This is if somebody needs to go in and help the team cause it’s a fluid situation. I’m just saying there’s not going to be egos involved in it.”

With the seeming uncertainty at quarterback mixed with guaranteed new faces in the backfield and along the offensive line, Notre Dame cannot afford to fall behind early. Michigan has one of the top defensive units in the entire nation and will not give up points easily. Falling behind early could force the Irish to become too one-dimensional, a recipe for disaster.

Notre Dame 17, Michigan 14