NC State Game Preview: Checking the Weather Report

With all due respect to Navy and Tennessee State, the Notre Dame season begins in earnest on Saturday afternoon as the Irish travel to Raleigh, North Carolina to face the NC State Wolfpack. Seven years ago, Notre Dame played at Noon eastern in Carter-Finley Stadium in a game to be forgotten and never re-visited. We'll [...]

By |2023-09-07T19:59:28-04:00September 8th, 2023|Football|19 Comments

The Weekly Rambler: Stay Away from the Vikings

Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff. Top News Notre Dame moved up to No. 10 in the AP Poll this week. Former Notre Dame tight end Kyle Rudolph has officially retired from the NFL. He caught 482 passes and 50 touchdowns with the Vikings, Giants, and Buccaneers. Baylor quarterback Blake [...]

By |2023-09-07T10:01:35-04:00September 7th, 2023|18S Reads|11 Comments

Advanced Stats Review: Tennessee State

Notre Dame dominated Tennessee State as expected, with a a huge second quarter propelling Notre Dame to a game that reached garbage time by halftime. The Irish continued the early trend started in Dublin - crisp execution, nothing too flashy, but methodical drives for touchdowns on offense and clamping down defensively at the first signs [...]

By |2023-09-06T10:58:55-04:00September 6th, 2023|Football|6 Comments

The 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll: Colorado is Must-Watch Television

A long Labor Day weekend stretched the first full week of games out and gave us plenty to talk about now that college football is officially back. Crazy how we are just days away from Notre Dame's third game and we are now finally getting a new-look to the 18S Top 20 Poll. And, we [...]

By |2023-09-05T19:59:12-04:00September 5th, 2023|Football|21 Comments

Tennessee State Game Review: A Three Quarterback Kind of Day

Notre Dame lined up against a FCS team on Saturday in South Bend and the results were predictable. After an initial tussle of back and forth play, the Irish exploded for a copious amount of points and spent most of the 2nd half emptying the bench against Tennessee State. I have a Sunday trip to [...]

By |2023-09-03T07:29:57-04:00September 3rd, 2023|Football|19 Comments

The Little Things: Tennessee State Instant Reaction

You obviously learn nothing of significance out of games like Saturday's 56-3 win over Tennessee State. The opponent is simply not good enough to make major qualitative judgments about your own team in such contests. Knowing that, I was looking for little things. Here are a few that stood out. Sam Hartman again We don't [...]

By |2023-09-02T19:17:22-04:00September 2nd, 2023|18S Reads, Football|6 Comments

Five Wide Fullbacks: Week Zero in the Rearview Mirror

Five Wide Fullbacks returns following the opening weekend of college football which saw our beloved Fighting Irish swat away the United States Naval Academy in Ireland. This week we are tackling injury reports in college football, how USC looked in their opener, new locations for an international Notre Dame game, the hypocrisy of football and [...]

By |2023-08-29T22:30:23-04:00August 30th, 2023|18S Reads|6 Comments

Advanced Stats Review: Navy

Professional. Efficient. Clean. The opening test of the season wasn't an especially tough one, but Notre Dame still studied and passed with flying colors in a dominant win over Navy in Dublin. Sam Hartman led an near-perfect offensive attack that operated with extreme efficiency and distributed touches fairly evenly among the veteran and new faces [...]

By |2023-08-28T19:53:31-04:00August 29th, 2023|Football|12 Comments

18S Film Room: Irish’s Misdirection Play: Counter

The most prominent running play against the Midshipmen was, in my opinion, the Counter play. Counter is a gap blocking scheme play that utilizes misdirection and masses of humanity to create often devastating holes in the defensive structure. Many of Gerad Parker’s other runs  seek to create cutback lanes for the running back by maintaining [...]

By |2023-08-28T20:44:34-04:00August 29th, 2023|18S Reads, Film Room, Football|4 Comments

18S Mid Major Top Ten: Now I Become Realignment, Destroyer of Group of 5

So, that was an interesting offseason huh?  Even before the seeming dissolution of the Pac-Whatever as a power conference, I was thinking during this spring and summer about how to approach this column going into 2023. Based on seeing the title, you can see I decided to change the title from Group of 5 to [...]

By |2023-08-28T09:46:14-04:00August 28th, 2023|18S Reads, Football|1 Comment

Navy Game Review: The Shillelagh Will Now Guide Us

The good vibes continue when Notre Dame plays Navy in Ireland. On Saturday evening in Dublin, the Fighting Irish cruised to an easy 42-3 victory over the Midshipmen in a game that was never in doubt. Notre Dame scored touchdowns on their first 5 offensive drives, never punted or turned the ball over, and immediately [...]

By |2023-08-26T22:57:55-04:00August 27th, 2023|Football|36 Comments

Navy Preview: Across the Ocean Against the New Middies

Why settle into a new football season at home against a tricky but familiar opponent when you can fly all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, earn less money, and make it more difficult on all the student-athletes? For the 96th time it's Notre Dame vs. Navy. Debt status = not repaid and we lace [...]

By |2023-08-24T22:02:21-04:00August 25th, 2023|Football|13 Comments
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