About Eric Murtaugh

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So far Eric Murtaugh has created 1660 blog entries.

Thrown Into Chaos: A Wild Week in South Bend

My head has been spinning. On Sunday afternoon I was shocked, surprised, and then distraught. What the hell just happened? Wait, Notre Dame didn't even make the playoffs? Remember the Vegas odds!?? The expected trip to Norman?? The Irish should skip the bowl game now, it'll be a shell of a football team participating in [...]

By |2025-12-11T07:48:33-05:00December 11th, 2025|Football|22 Comments

Four Simple Ways to Make the Best 16-Team Playoff

Well, this article now has a different flavor since Notre Dame got left out of the 2025 College Football Playoffs. We were already supposed to know about the future of the College Football Playoff back on December 1st but disagreements about the format and proposals between the brokers involved led to a deadline extension. Now [...]

By |2025-12-09T14:16:19-05:00December 9th, 2025|Football|14 Comments

Postseason Pain: It Was Always About Alabama, Not Miami

It wasn't expected but always lurking in the background in the lead up to the final College Football Playoff Committee Rankings this Sunday afternoon. Notre Dame could have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the last moment. That's exactly what transpired as the Irish get left out of the 12-team playoff in favor [...]

By |2025-12-07T16:17:00-05:00December 7th, 2025|Football|33 Comments

2025 College Football Week 15 Picks: Fight, Raiders, Fight

Notre Dame will learn its fate for the playoffs in just a couple more days. But first, the cabal of television partners disguised as conference mates need to play their league championship games to provide more clarity to the 2025 season. The final CFP selection show will take place on Sunday, December 7th beginning at [...]

By |2025-12-04T08:57:26-05:00December 4th, 2025|Football|9 Comments

Notre Dame Recruiting 2026 Early Signing Day: The Launch Pad

In the past, Notre Dame had lightly knocked on the door to a breakthrough recruiting class. Maybe a couple taps one year, or a solid early tap or two that never came good. As the 2025 regular season has concluded, the Fighting Irish have finally put together something within shouting distance of the best recruiting [...]

By |2025-12-02T11:01:21-05:00December 2nd, 2025|Recruiting|29 Comments

The 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll: Okay, They’re No. 1 Now

Just a few more games remain until Notre Dame finds out if their 10-2 record with 10 straight wins is enough to make the playoffs. The way things have shaken out lately it's going to make Irish fans sweat until the very end. That is, unless we receive some blessings during conference championship weekend. Here's [...]

By |2025-12-01T07:39:41-05:00December 1st, 2025|Football|2 Comments

2025 College Football Week 14 Picks: Goodbye to the Regular Season

It leaves a bad taste in your mouth when it's the regular season finale and a weekend full of great rivalry games only for Notre Dame to face a 4-7 Stanford team with an interim head coach. That this game kicks off at 10:30 PM ET is even more insane. As you'll see below, the [...]

By |2025-11-25T20:03:03-05:00November 26th, 2025|Football|1 Comment

The 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll: Ducks Move into Position

An expected quiet weekend unfolded exactly like that, very little chaos happened over the past few days which isn't great news for Notre Dame but also not the end of the world, either. So this won't be a very interesting set of rankings, and I don't expect the College Football Playoff committee to have a [...]

By |2025-11-24T08:00:46-05:00November 24th, 2025|Football|4 Comments

Syracuse Game Preview: The Peanut Butter-Free Scouting Report

A Syracuse team coming off a 10-win season with Notre Dame transfer Steve Angeli at quarterback returning to South Bend on Senior Day looked like it was going to be a spicy matchup back in August. Fast forward a few months and things have changed to the point where Notre Dame is simply trying to [...]

By |2025-11-20T14:52:48-05:00November 21st, 2025|Football|11 Comments

2025 College Football Week 13 Picks: The Quiet Before the Storm

We have a couple certified bangers coming up but week 13 is largely the "play a FCS or super easy opponent before the rivalry regular season finale" portion of the season. Notre Dame is also on an active bye week, yes let's call it that, as massive favorites over a depressed Syracuse team. It's not [...]

By |2025-11-19T08:26:11-05:00November 19th, 2025|Football|2 Comments

The 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll: Alabama Falters at Home

Notre Dame took care of business this past weekend with a smackdown inside Acrisure Stadium (among the top 5 worst named stadiums in North American sports no doubt) against Pittsburgh. That was the most important part of week 12. Across the rest of the country, things didn't quite break in Notre Dame's favor. Even with [...]

By |2025-11-17T09:33:21-05:00November 17th, 2025|Football|9 Comments

Pittsburgh Game Review: They’re Still Trying to Convert on 3rd Down

In a battle of freshmen quarterbacks Notre Dame's defense provided a loud statement to the rest of the country that they're ready to keep this momentum past the regular season and into the playoffs. Even with an uneven performance for the Irish offense the game at Pittsburgh was never close. Eight straight wins for Notre [...]

By |2025-11-16T10:52:30-05:00November 16th, 2025|Football|22 Comments
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