While Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly talked up Massachusetts on Tuesday to a somewhat amusing level, Saturday's game at Notre Dame Stadium should present him with a good opportunity to get freshman quarterback Brandon Wimbush his college debut.
Kelly said UMass is "one of the best teams in the MAC," despite the Minutemen being 5-33 since joining the FBS level. UMass, in fact, is leaving the MAC after this season and has an uncertain future at the FBS level. Notre Dame, as of Tuesday afternoon, is a 29-point favorite.
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But Mark Whipple's side did come a point away from upsetting a good Temple team last weekend, and Kelly has seen how dangerous it can be for his team to overlook an opponent after a big win (like against Pitt in 2012).
"These are the games that concern me the most where everybody else thinks that they are going to be easy games," Kelly said. "This is going to be a difficult game. UMass will play very well. They have already proven that they can play with top-notch teams in Temple."
As long as Notre Dame takes UMass seriously, though, it should be able to rest its starters at some point during the second half with an eye trained toward Oct. 3's pivotal showdown with Clemson in South Carolina. That means not only making sure key players stay healthy, but it means getting Wimbush an important first taste of the college level in case he's forced into action later in the year.
Kelly said Wimbush, a four-star recruit from New Jersey, didn't play late last Saturday because there was still the threat of Georgia Tech making it a game (which they nearly did with two quick touchdowns and an onside kick recovery).
"(Wimbush) asked about four times: "I'm going in, right? I'm going in?'" Kelly said. "And just the way it was going there at the end, I didn't want to put him in a position where something crazy could happen. I'm still committed to that end, that we've got to get him in sooner than later."
Wimbush is still working through the freshman growing pains of learning the playbook, but he's an immensely talented player who has a strong arm and good mobility. In a perfect world, he could've been eased into the college level by redshirting this fall, but Malik Zaire's season-ending injury in Week 2 forced Notre Dame to alter its plans.
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If anything happens to DeShone Kizer, Wimbush will have to play. And Kelly hopes the freshman will have some experience if that worst-case scenario does arise.
"We want to get him in as soon as we can, because as I said, eventually he's going to have to get in the game," Kelly said. "So the sooner, the better."