No. 17 Notre Dame hosts Rice on Saturday. How will things play out?

How Rice can win: South Bend forecasts call for an 82-degree day with an 80 percent chance of rain. We all remember the last time it rained heavily during a Notre Dame opener, right? A slick track wouldn't hurt the Owls' chances to slow down what should be a more up-tempo Irish attack, especially on the stadium's new FieldTurf. Nor would a complete Irish implosion, a la 2011. New quarterback Driphus Jackson will have to be sharp, and it will help a lot if top target Jordan Taylor (foot) is at full strength.

How Notre Dame can win: Rice won 10 games last season so the Irish need to do more than just show up. This may be the easiest game on their schedule, but it will be encouraging if Everett Golson can keep the tempo at a fast pace, run some zone-read effectively and distribute the ball to his plethora of young, talented receivers. It will be interesting to see what kind of pressure the defense can get up front, given the talent it said goodbye to in Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt.

Breakout player: It has to be Golson, right? The key to the Brian Kelly offense is finally back -- bigger, stronger and smarter than ever. With a young defense working under a new coordinator, the onus will be on the offense to produce in ways it hasn't in the past four years. All of that starts with Golson.

Prediction: Notre Dame 38, Rice 14