Preston Zinter

He had a touchdown in their season opener.

And then a name that Notre Dame fans are probably a little familiar with, tight end number nine, Preston Zinter.

He's a former Notre Dame linebacker, transferred away this offseason, and he was a very good special teams player for the Irish when he was there, but just couldn't crack the linebacker rotation with all the talent ahead of him.

But I think he was clearly playing the wrong position.

That's why Rice is interesting.

It's probably the only reason Rice is interesting outside of Preston Zinter.

So, um, yeah, I don't know.

That's, you know, you mentioned it.

And so he's, like, a kind of an interesting bellwether for me this weekend is, like, is a Don Shuler trying to knock somebody out of the game against Rice, or is he just, like, "I kinda wanna just recover myself." 'Cause, like, that's, not to make this all about a Don Shuler, but, like, I think how he plays as a, especially a two-time captain, might be indicative of, like, whether Notre Dame's gonna bring it or not.

Fair.

I forgot Preston Zinter was on Rice.

Um, there's a story there if anyone would ever go on the record with it.

They looked to the portal, brought in 20 new guys to help fill some of those roles.

One of those, former Notre Dame linebacker Preston Zinter, who's now playing tight end for them.

But head coach Scott Abel.

Is it Scott Abel? Scott Abel? Abel?

But if a team has to pass for 400 or 500 yards against its Notre Dame defense, and specifically the best secondary in the country, I don't think that game plan is going to work out super well.

You know, I'm not too concerned about Bodie Cajon at Boston College, Preston Zinter at Rice, or KK Smith at Michigan State.

And then if you look at the other guys on the list, I'm not expecting Notre Dame to face Scrapp Richardson at Auburn.

But hey, they'll face him next year.

I think the Irish are going to start out a little slow after this short week, but then they remember they are Notre Dame, and Rice is on the other side of the field.

If you held a draft... between these two teams, Notre Dame and Rice, to assemble a 105-man roster, you would probably select close to 105 Notre Dame players before taking a single Rice player, even though they have Preston Zinter on that team, who I like.

I think he's a good player.

I'm sure Notre Dame would have liked to have him back.

But again, there's only 105 spots in the roster.

Preston Zinter could start for Rice at tight end.

He played linebacker and never even cracked it too deep at Notre Dame.

So I like Notre Dame by 40-plus in this game.