Insider trusts Utah's QB situation over Riley Leonard-less Notre Dame

A fan had made a bold prediction to CFB analyst Josh Pate about Utah and Notre Dame on social media. The analyst featured it on a recent installment of his “College Football Show.” The fan predicted the Utes to win the Big 12 and the Fighting Irish to win the national championship.

Pate gave his view on the possibility of the two predictions becoming a reality, adopting the Parlay calculator with the odds of FanDuel. The analyst was more confident in the idea of Utah winning the Big 12 title than Notre Dame claiming the national championship.

“We are able to enter it into the parlay calculator,” Pate said (Timestamp: 1:40). “And the odds on both of those hitting, Utah wins the Big 12 – Notre Dame wins it all, would be about the same odds as Virginia winning the ACC. So, that's a 9.75 at least … I still think this has better odds than Virginia winning the ACC.”

“Devon Dampier (is the) quarterback now. For the first time in the better part of 20 years, Utah has a new quarterback, and he was the quarterback of New Mexico last year. 2,800 through the air and over 1,100 on the ground. Do I hear a dual threat in Salt Lake City? So hey, it's the Big 12.”

“Utah's got the fifth-best odds to win the conference. Irrelevant. I don't care if they've got the worst odds. That's being in a good position in the Big 12, historically … Notre Dame winning the whole thing with a first-year starter at quarterback is a stretch. I'm just going to tell you, that's a stretch. I'm going to call that one a 9.75.”

Utah obviously has a chance to challenge for the Big 12 title as the conference continues to remain the most balanced in the Power 4 in terms of competition. However, Notre Dame has lost a host of senior players, making the possibility of challenging for the national title more difficult.

Notre Dame's star QB Riley Leonard is now in the NFL. So it will be difficult for them to stay in the mix without an experienced quarterback.

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How Utah and Notre Dame performed last season

Utah had an awful outing in the Big 12 last season after being projected to win the conference championship during the offseason. The Utes’ first season in the conference didn't go as expected, as they finished with a 5-7 record, marking their first losing season since 2013.

Notre Dame, on the flip side, had a successful season in 2024. The Fighting Irish suffered an early setback as they lost to Northern Illinois in South Bend in Week 2 of last season. However, they rebuilt momentum as they went undefeated from then to appear in the national championship game.