Will Irish eyes be smiling at the end of Saturday night?
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For the first time since opening weekend of the 2004 season, Notre Dame heads to Provo, Utah this Saturday night.
Notre Dame has taken on BYU nine times all-time, with six of those coming in South Bend, one in Las Vegas, and the 1993 and 2004 games in Provo.
When Notre Dame heads to BYU on Saturday night it will be greeted with as perfect of conditions as possible for the top ten showdown.
Notre Dame vs BYU Weather Forecast
You really couldn't draw up a better weather forecast for Saturday night's showdown if you tried.
As of early afternoon Wednesday, The Weather Channel calls for a high of 70-degrees during the day, with a low at night of 42-degrees.
Yes, the temperature will drop, but the game will kickoff almost exactly an hour before sunset, so the low during the game shouldn't get anywhere near that 42-degrees, even though it should get cooler than any Notre Dame game has yet this season.
Altitude of LaVell Edwards Stadium
More than just the weather, Notre Dame has to battle against the long travel west to Provo, as well as the altitude once it gets there.
At 4,685 feet above sea level, LaVell Edwards Stadium has the sixth-highest elevation in FBS.
In case you're wondering, War Memorial Stadium of Wyoming is the highest at 7,205 feet while Falcon Stadium at Air Force is second at 6,726 feet.
Folsom Field (Colorado), University Stadium (New Mexico), and Canvas Stadium (Colorado State) round out the top-five.
For what it's worth, Notre Dame's current strength and conditioning coach Loren Landow previously worked in the same role for the Denver Broncos and ran Landow Performance, his own training facility that was operated in Centennial, Colorado, so he's had plenty of experience in dealing with altitude.
Nick Shepkowski's Quick Thoughts
Weather won't be an issue for either squad, which means gameplans won't have to be changed.
Will Leonard Moore be able to go for Notre Dame after suffering a concussion two weeks ago at North Carolina?
That ends up being a huge part of this game.
Urban Meyer mentioned this week that his plan of attack would be to come out in a hurryup if he's BYU.
Say BYU does that exact thing, it's unlikely going to be able to both throw and run out of the gate. If it's to have success in the passing game, it'll be harder to happen if Moore is on the field than not.
I'm not worried about the weather or the altitude which is nice, but if Moore is able to go might be worth more than anything else regarding the point spread, which currently sits around 10.
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Published
Managing Editor for Notre Dame On SI. Started covering Chicago sports teams for WSCR the Score, and over the years worked with CBS Radio, Audacy, NBC Sports, and FOX Sports as a contributor before running the Notre Dame wire site for USA TODAY.