Prediction Time for the '08 Fightin' Irish

I have talked quite a bit in the previous posts about my prediction. Well, here it is. I have made a few predictions below, one for each bullet point. At season's end we will check up and see how I did. Each week I will have a game preview and prediction that will not change the below. Here goes . . .

• The Irish go 7-5, with game predictions as follows:                                                       
• Wins (7) over San Diego St, Purdue, Stanford, Washington, Pittsburgh, Navy, and Syracuse.                                                                                                                                  
• Losses (5) to Michigan, Michigan St, North Carolina, Boston College, and USC.                      
• The Irish home record finishes at 5-1, while the road record is just 2-4. This is not a very safe split given the Irish home record last season (1-5, 2-4 on the road). The new grass at Notre Dame stadium is faster, which should help our team feel more comfortable and use our new found speed. Individual game predictions with more detail will come each week and are subject to change, but these are the predictions I will be judged by at the end of the season.
• At season's end, the one unit that will be seen as "most successful" and adding the most to the Irish season will be the Irish defense, particularly the linebackers coached by Jon Tenuta. Every unit will be improved, and the special teams field goal unit will be a close second.
• The Irish will face off against an old but very short lived rival, the Miami Hurricanes, in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in North Carolina. Both teams will have finished 7-5, and the bowl game will prompt a home and home between the Canes and the Irish in the years 2013 and 2014.
• Jimmy Clausen will throw 20 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. The progress made will be substantial, and the hype for his junior season will begin with a great bowl game where he throws 3 TDs and leads the Irish to a  . . .
• Win over Miami in the aforementioned bowl game, 31-24. Jimmy has his best game of the year, starting the hype for his Jr. season in 2009.
• Offensive line only gives up 30 sacks, a nearly 50% improvement over the prior year. The sack improvement alone vaults ND's rushing yardage to very respectable levels, not to mention the 3 good RBs that the Irish have . . .
• Sophomores Robert Hughes and Armando Allen each finish with 800 yards rushing, while junior James Aldridge gets 400. Hughes and Allen each have 6 TDs, while Alridge gets 5. The Florida speedster Armando Allen is the most improved, and hits two runs for over 60 yards.
• Freshman Wide Receiver Michael Floyd combines with Duval Kamara to form a tough WR tandem for the next 3 years. Floyd ends up with 35 catches, while Kamara paces the Irish WRs with 55. Both earn some form of All-America, whether it be Freshman All America for Floyd, or some obscure third team mention for Kamara (sophomore).

That's about as many specific predictions as I can make (8). I would love to see 6 of my 8 predictions come true, with obviously the 2 I get wrong being missed on the not optimistic enough side. We'll see, but I'm cautiously hopeful that we can return to respectability.