Rival Views: Irish or Sooners the bigger disappointment?

Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney don’t always see eye to eye. In this edition of Rival Views, the two debate which team has been the bigger disappointment so far this season, Oklahoma or Notre Dame.

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I’m going to go with the Sooners because I truly expected them to make a run toward the College Football Playoff again this season. With the best defense in the Big 12, a Heisman candidate at quarterback and two amazing running backs, I figured there was no way they would be out of the national title hunt after three weeks even with Houston and Ohio State on the early schedule.

But here we are, week three in the books and the Sooners are done. The Ohio State game was make or break when it comes to their playoff hopes and once again their defense was exposed and the offensive not nearly as explosive as expected. The result was a 45-24 beatdown two games after a 10-point loss to Houston. Baker Mayfield continues to force the football and is getting sacked regularly, the running game gets rolling here and there but never seems to take over the game and while the defense may still be among the best in the Big 12, it has been pushed around and not very physical.

The Sooners aren’t in the national top 50 in rushing, Oklahoma is outside the top 80 nationally when it comes to team defense and they are giving up more than 30 points per game. They are losing the battles in the trenches on both sides of the ball, much more than expected, and tackling hasn’t been good.

Bob Stoops took his team to the playoff last year, recruiting has been off the hook and the momentum was all there for the taking for the Sooners. Yet they have regressed, and regressed quite a bit it seems, this season.

Notre Dame was a top-10 preseason team and there was talk about the Irish having a chance to go to the College Football Playoff. Unless something drastic happens, that dream is finished after getting beaten 36-28 by Michigan State on Saturday night.

Notre Dame’s defense looks completely lost as the Irish gave up more than 500 yards of offense to the Spartans, which doesn’t exactly have a high-powered offense. Michigan State had far fewer total yards (361) in an unimpressive season-opening win against Furman.

Frustrations clearly boiled over on the sidelines when coach Brian Kelly was shown questioning defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder and then saying something else to another coach. After the game Kelly supported VanGorder again, but there’s absolutely something not right on defense.

Notre Dame’s defense ranks No. 102 nationally giving up 439.3 yards per outing. That’s hard to believe. The Irish lost a lot of key components from last season’s defense but no one expected them to be this bad.

The schedule gets much lighter in late September and early October and there is still a lot to play for, but the College Football Playoff looks to be no longer a possibility and there’s no doubt frustrations are evident with this kind of start for such a proud football program.