ESPN's College Gameday will be in the Lone Star State for the first full weekend of the college football season, as the Notre Dame football program kicks off their 2024 season with a visit to College Station to take on the new-look Texas A&M Aggies. This matchup is one of just three during the opening weekend of the season between a pair of ranked teams, and as will be the case for essentially every matchup like this throughout the year, there will be serious College Football Playoff ramifications based on the result.

Notre Dame and Texas A&M both have legitimate College Football Playoff aspirations with the Playoff field expanding to 12 teams for the 2024 season, but according to former Heisman Trophy winner and current ESPN analyst Desmond Howard, the Irish are in prime position to be one of the twelve teams selected so long as they could score a win over A&M on Saturday night.

Getting a win in front of 100,000 fans at Kyle Field is much easier said than done, but with that said, the Aggies are by no means invincible on their home field. Texas A&M is 48-18 playing in their home stadium over the last decade.

It's possible that this visit to College Station will be ND's toughest test of the season. Home games against Louisville and Florida State will be tricky, as will road tests at Week 0 winner Georgia Tech and Irish rival USC. However, it's likely that the Irish will be favored in each of those games.

Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard (13) who is hurt, dresses and throws some pre-game passes with fellow quarterbacks Saturday, April 20, 2024, at the annual Notre Dame Blue-Gold spring football game at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend.
© MANDATORY CREDIT GREG SWIERCZ / USA TODAY NETWORK

Notre Dame opener pits new QB Riley Leonard against former coach Mike Elko

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Heading into the 2023 season, Riley Leonard was expected to end the year as one of the nation's top quarterbacks and emerge as a potential 1st round NFL Draft pick. But injuries marred the Duke QB's junior season, limiting him to just seven games for the Blue Devils. At the conclusion of the season, Leonard entered the transfer portal and just two weeks later, he announced his decision to head to Notre Dame. Leonard's former head coach at Duke, Mike Elko, was already preparing to take over for Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.

Now, Riley Leonard is just days away from making his Notre Dame debut against the man he played under for two seasons in Durham, and neither Leonard nor Mike Elko seems too interested in hyping up the matchup.

“I think it’s interesting and weird,” stated Elko, per Matt Freeman of Irish Sports Daily. “Not really something I want to do, but at the end of the day, it’s part of the game.”

“I don’t want it to be about me vs. him,” Leonard added. “Obviously, it’s going to be that way, but I’d rather it be Notre Dame vs. A&M.”

According to FanDuel Sportsbook, the Irish are 2.5 point underdogs against Texas A&M on Saturday night.