We had to wait until championship weekend this year to get a college football playoff scenario possibility matrix that had a manageable number of boxes. Notre Dame has been out of it since week 3 (sad trombone), but hey, we can still have fun! Now that we finally have some clarity, we'll take a look at [...]
Who has the stomach to dig into an Irish football post-mortem after watching the abysmal funerary procession that was the 2016 season? Well, fortunately (?) for all you fans out there, we here at 18 Stripes have stomachs made of cast iron and intestinal fortitude of the type that inspires legends, so we're up to [...]
Press conference updates for Brian Kelly and other coaches are great grist for team reporters. When you're winning, everything is good. Your coach who storms out of a press conference or singles out a couple of players on a fateful play or tears apart a coordinator at the end of a blowout win is a [...]
Brian Kelly, either with or without direction from above, sent a seismic shock through this season when he dismissed Brian VanGorder as defensive coordinator just four games in. I agree with the move - it was either now or a slow, agonizing death march to the same point in December - but still, tossing a [...]
Perk up, Irish fans - come tomorrow, you'll see some top recruiting visitors for Stanford weekend. Michigan State weekend was the first big recruiting event of the season; despite the narrow, frustrating loss to the Spartans, the weekend was very productive. On the strength of their visits, Notre Dame picked up a commitment from top 300 [...]
If you follow Notre Dame football closely, or even too closely, just like we do, you're probably aware that the Irish have always struggled with defensive line recruiting, especially with landing elite talent on the line. Since 2000, only two 247 Composite five-star defensive linemen have donned an Irish jersey*: Victor Abiamiri (#29 overall/0.9861 rating) and [...]
The Michigan State game featured all the same maddening themes that have driven Irish fans to (more) drink over the last couple of years - defensive breakdowns, missed tackles, mindless penalties, inconsistent urgency... You get the idea. A fan base that was restless after the season-opening overtime loss to Texas and mollified only marginally by [...]
Proving that he is in a better state of mind regarding the Irish program than many of its fans, Donovan Jeter announced his commitment to Notre Dame this morning. Jeter is Notre Dame's 18th commitment from the class of 2017. The 247 Composite ranks the 6'4"/255-pounder as the #276 overall player and #12 strong-side defensive end in his [...]
Every year, one or two home games become marquee recruiting events; this year, there will be a very impressive list of recruiting visitors for Michigan State weekend, making it arguably the premier recruiting event of the 2016 season for the Irish. The visitor list has steadily grown over the last few weeks with elite names from [...]
The Cincinnati Bengals claimed Keivarae Russell off waivers today, per the official team Twitter account: NEWS- #Bengals make the following roster moves: -Claim DB KeiVarae Russell -Waive OG Trey Hopkins — Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 15, 2016 The Bengals' first-round pick this year, corner William Jackson III, is out until at least November with a [...]
Here's a hot take for you: Red zone touchdown rate is overrated. It's often used as a measure of how successful a team is on either offense or defense; it's often considered, especially by many fans, to be a good predictor of how "elite" that side of the ball is for a team or of [...]
Because we were definitely roasted on Sunday night... Much has been made about two things head coach Brian Kelly "said" in yesterday's post-Texas press conference (more on why that's in quotes in a moment). We're sticking with the quarterback rotation! Brian VanGorder got a vote of confidence! AUUUUGGHHHH!!! Right? Well, as our favorite mascot-headed ESPN [...]
The 2016 Notre Dame defense is missing some multi-year stalwarts from last year's team. It's a bit more difficult to be as bullish as we were for the offense review yesterday, but take heart folks, there's still hope. Honest. We'll take a look at each new starter and what the future might hold for his [...]
The 2016 Notre Dame offense depth chart shows quite a bit of turnover and a bit of shuffling versus the 2015 depth chart. Some very big names have moved on, without a clear answer to how their production will be replaced; some other names have moved around or will be relied on more this year than in years [...]
As you no doubt have noticed from visiting us over the years, few things get us going quite as much as talking football, especially when that talk includes Notre Dame. I checked in with Steve Bortstein at KQCL 1340 AM in New Mexico (@Fox1340AM / sports1340.iheart.com) last year to do a preview of the Notre [...]
Recent Comments