No. 8 BYU feeling weight of challenge in hosting No. 2 Notre Dame (+predictions)

Heisman winner Ty Detmer was right 27 years ago, the week before BYU upset No. 1 Miami in Provo.

“It seems BYU is always having to prove it can play with the big boys,” Detmer said.

There it is.

And nothing has changed, before or after that quote.

A year ago, players on BYU’s roster had a chance to challenge this statement against Texas Tech and failed twice.

They remember.

Most of them decided to return for another crack at this seemingly unending BYU football anthem.

That crack will come Saturday when No. 2 Notre Dame visits No. 8 BYU — a clash of two teams left out of the College Football Playoff last year with a lot to prove.

But for the Cougars, it’s personal. If not this Saturday, when?

Hall of Famer Steve Young will be the celebrity picker on “College GameDay,” it was announced on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN.

Said Young, “I think BYU’s been always been around. But now, joining the Big 12, we’re like, we want to be in the thick of it. Just from everyone involved in BYU, the community, they want to be competitive; they want to be in the mix; we want to be a national champion.

“So I think that you’re going to see this weekend when you come out a school that has grown into some shoes that I think they’re ready to take Notre Dame on. They’re ready to do this. And you’re going to see that the school’s ready as well.”

Feeling the slight challenge is a rite of passage in Provo.

There was a lot of it before that Miami game in 1990 and a lot of it this week.

Let em know, @therriannnpic.twitter.com/5XIu9JsMSG

— mike (@heman_hyde) (@heman_hyde) October 13, 2026

For example, take the prediction by Blake Ruffino of the “Ruffino & Joe Show.” Ruffino works for 247 Sports and is a CBS Sports host. He lives in Hammon, Louisiana, deep in SEC country.

“Notre Dame’s going to win, Notre Dame’s going to cover. I have zero faith in BYU,” Blake Ruffino said.

“This is not to take away from Notre Dame. I watched a lot of BYU because of my rants. I wanted to make sure that I was right in what I felt like I was saying. This is not a good football team. They’re not. They are good based off of the opponents that they’re playing. There are tiers in this game.

“There are tiers in this league. Notre Dame’s in a different tier. Notre Dame, right now, in my humble opinion — I’m going to go ahead and say it — they’re in a different class. They’re in a different tier that I think only maybe 5 teams are in at the current moment. We don’t really talk about that.”

He continued.

“This is a bad matchup,” Ruffino said. “They’re not going to be able to run the ball. I’m making Bear Bachmeier beat me with his legs — I mean, excuse me, with his arm. I’m making him throw the ball all over the place. He’s not going to be able to do it. They’re going to get relentless pressure. I think this secondary is elite. I think he’s going to throw a pair of picks. I think this is a bad matchup. No, give me Notre Dame to win. Give me Notre Dame to cover and off go the Irish.”

Notre Dame is a 10.5-point favorite in this game.

To win, the Cougars will need to be almost flawless in execution on both sides of the ball and find a way to pressure and confuse Irish QB CJ Carr in ways nobody else has.

BYU will also need Notre Dame to make mistakes, get rattled, encounter some frustration and doubt, which is foreign to this Irish team this season.

BYU’s run game is questionable outside Bachmeier and he can’t do it all by himself. But we have seen him excel at the pass game when star running back LJ Martin has been absent, like last week in the win over Iowa State. In fact, he had a career day passing and running.

But, make no mistake.

BYU players fully understand what is at stake, what folks are saying about their chances, even on their own turf.

Look for a defensive battle. It will be surprising if this turns into a shootout with the score for both teams over 30. Both have been allowing opponents barely double-digit scores.

I’ve gone back and forth about who wins this game.

I was there in 1990 when No. 1 Miami went down in Provo. It was unpredicted, unexpected and physically, almost impossible for BYU to win with five turnovers. But it happened.

In Boulder, look for Utah to run roughshod over Colorado, a team in disarray, although the Buff defense is pretty good and could give the Ute offense more than a speed bump.

This week’s picks

• Ohio State 24, Indiana 21
• Texas 31, Florida 21
• LSU 24, Mississippi State 21
• SMU 31, Virginia 24
• Northwestern 28, Michigan State 24
• West Virginia 28, Cincinnati 24
• Kansas State 31, Kansas 24
• Alabama 27, Tennessee 24
• Missouri 34, Ole Miss 28
• Texas Tech 27, Arizona State 17
• Michigan 17, Penn State 14
• Baylor 27, TCU 24
• Kentucky 24, Oklahoma 21
• Utah 42, Colorado 14
• BYU 17, Notre Dame 14

Last week: 10-5; overall 68-23 (.747)