Week 3: Notre Dame vs California 9/17/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Cal Golden Bears do battle Saturday in week 3 college football action from Notre Dame Stadium.

The Cal Golden Bears will look to build on their 2-0 start after a 20-14 win over UNLV last time out. Jack Plummer’s thrown for 546 yards, 4 touchdowns and a pair of interceptions on 68.9% passing while Jaydn Ott’s rushed for 156 yards and a TD. Jeremiah Hunter leads the Golden Bears with 11 catches for 157 yards and J. Michael Sturdivant has 10 grabs for 104 yards this season. On defense, Jackson Sirmon leads the Golden Bears with 17 total tackles while Xavier Carlton has a team-high 2.5 sacks and the Golden Bears as a unit have 3 interceptions this season.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will try to rebound from their 0-2 start after a 26-21 loss to Marshall last time out. Tyler Buchner has thrown for 378 yards and a pair of interceptions on 56% passing while also leading the Irish in rushing with 62 yards on the ground. Michael Mayer leads the Irish in receiving with 13 catches for 135 yards while Lorenzo Styles has 123 receiving yards. On defense, Jack Kiser has a team-high 15 total tackles with 7 solo tackles and a sack while Howard Cross III has 14 total tackles with a sack as well.

Cal is 16-7 ATS in their last 23 road games and 5-0-1 ATS in their last 6 games following an ATS loss while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record. Notre Dame is 11-5 ATS in their last 16 games against a team with a winning record and 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games overall while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 home games against a team with a winning road record.

I get the reasoning for backing either side here, because Notre Dame’s been terrible, but they are the better team and Cal didn’t really do anything special against UNLV either in their win. Instead, I’m going to side with the under. I don’t expect Cal to suddenly get their offense rolling out of nowhere against a ticked off Irish unit, but Notre Dame’s offense hasn’t been very good either. I think this is another offensive struggle for both sides and I look for the under to hit.