About Eric Murtaugh

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So far Eric Murtaugh has created 1652 blog entries.

The 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll: Who’s to Blame?

I was at my in-laws this past Sunday afternoon having lunch to celebrate my father-in-law's 73rd birthday. As the kids sat down to eat first I was standing in the doorway from the dining room into the living room watching the ESPN unveiling of the final college football rankings. It dragged on and on. Finally, [...]

By |2023-12-05T22:24:39-05:00December 6th, 2023|Football|80 Comments

2023 Bowl Season: Notre Dame to Face Oregon State in the Sun Bowl

After a banner day for the ACC in which undefeated Florida State got snubbed from the playoffs and the league scrambled for several hours to fill their bowl slots, the Fighting Irish finally landed in El Paso for the post-season. It'll be Notre Dame vs. Oregon State in the legendary Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. [...]

By |2023-12-03T18:42:10-05:00December 3rd, 2023|Football|61 Comments

Open Portal: Ranking Notre Dame Football’s Transfer Needs (So Far)

The NCAA transfer portal for college football opens up this Monday, December 4th and will remain open all the way through Tuesday, January 2nd. As a reminder, graduate transfers are allowed to enter the transfer portal at any time while players who have their head coach fired or leave the program have a 30-day window [...]

By |2023-12-03T09:12:53-05:00December 3rd, 2023|Football|8 Comments

A Stupidly Early Look at the New 2024 ACC Football Conference

Our weeks-long wait until the bowl game is upon us. For this blog, it's the first step towards pivoting towards off-season content. As I searched for some ideas I got to wondering what the ACC is going to look like in a transformative season for college football in 2024. That's normal, right? Who isn't thinking [...]

By |2023-11-29T10:22:09-05:00November 29th, 2023|Football|58 Comments

The 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll: Auburn Left Shaken & Stirred

The regular season is over (except Army-Navy of course) and now we await the concluding championship weekend before the last 4-team playoff, accompanied by the weird bowl system, finishes off this 2023 campaign. Here's the latest 18S Top 20 Poll. 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll RANK TEAM RECORD NEXT 1 Georgia 12-0 vs. Alabama [...]

By |2023-11-27T10:33:56-05:00November 27th, 2023|Football|59 Comments

The Weekly Rambler: The Most Targeted Targeting

Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff. Top News Audric Estime was not named a Doak Walker finalist WTF? The latest College Football Playoff rankings feature a top 4 of Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan with Washington now ahead of Florida State. Notre Dame lands in at no. 18 this week. Florida [...]

By |2023-11-22T09:11:18-05:00November 22nd, 2023|18S Reads|23 Comments

Wake Forest Game Review: A Satisfying Blowout

Notre Dame came into this Saturday's game against Wake Forest as heavy favorites on Senior Day and after a brief struggle to find momentum eventually put things in cruise control for an easy victory. Back-to-back seasons of at least 8 wins: clinched for Marcus Freeman. The Irish put together a very solid day on offense [...]

By |2023-11-18T22:48:49-05:00November 18th, 2023|Football|45 Comments

Wake Forest Game Preview: Anyone Talking About This?

The tradition of ACC continues with another visit from Wake Forest, feel the excitement emanating from this article. At one point, this looked like an interesting matchup as Sam Hartman faces his old team but the recent struggles by both the Irish and Demon Deacons put a bit of a downer on this Senior Day [...]

By |2023-11-16T22:39:36-05:00November 17th, 2023|Football|8 Comments

The 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll: Making Your Own Adversity

Week 11 of the college football season brought us a near upset for Virginia, the top Dawgs asserting their dominance, Miami dropping their 4th ACC game, Washington holding serve at home, and much more including Michigan's loathing redemption tour exiting Happy Valley without a loss. As always, you can't depend on Penn State to pull [...]

By |2023-11-14T09:53:21-05:00November 14th, 2023|Football|16 Comments

A Quick Pre-Hall of Fame Update for Irish Football

Back in 2019 I embarked on an off-season journey to create a Notre Dame Hall of Fame Pyramid. You can see the results of that effort HERE for a refresher. A couple of years later we inducted Ian Book (16th best quarterback), Chase Claypool (14th best wide receiver), Cole Kmet (10th best tight end), Liam [...]

By |2023-11-13T09:10:07-05:00November 13th, 2023|18S Reads|6 Comments
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