Notre Dame put together a complete effort to kill Syracuse's dreams, jumping out to an early lead and holding it thanks to contributions from the defense, rushing attack, and special teams. The offensive line and rushing attack allowed Notre Dame to dominate the efficiency battle, but without explosive plays the Orange threatened to pull off [...]
The Irish defense and special teams served up the perfect chance for a relaxing afternoon against UNLV, but the offense struggled to throw down the alley oops enough that starters were still playing in the closing minutes. It was a fine but unsatisfying performance, as a hot start with two punt blocks and multiple 3-and-outs [...]
Hope that the Irish had turned a corner after the 0-2 start quickly evaporated on Saturday night, as Notre Dame's horrific offensive effort led to a 2-point loss to a bad Stanford team. Drew Pyne played about as poorly as you can without throwing an interception, missing open shots at long gains, forcing passes late [...]
For a second straight week, Notre Dame played 30 minutes of dominant football only to see consistency waver and things start falling apart late. Drew Pyne put up his strongest statistical performance of the year, wisely relying on Michael Mayer to dominate the BYU defense. The Irish defense was phenomenal for the first half, then [...]
The Notre Dame offense came to life against a terrible North Carolina defense in Chapel Hill, and the defense shut down the 15th ranked offense in F+ for a large middle stretch of the game, allowing the Irish to pull away from the Heels. Drew Pyne found his rhythm, the rushing attack gashed UNC, and [...]
It was ugly early and often for Notre Dame against Cal. But with both lines finally controlling the game for solid stretches, the Irish carved out enough advantages against the Bears to pull away late. In Drew Pyne's first start the ND offense was extremely careful but moved the ball well enough with short to [...]
Sometimes when Notre Dame plays down the level of inferior competition, there are bright spots and data to brush off those concerns. The Toledo game last year is a good example - it easily could have been an embarrassing loss, and was zero fun to watch. But the Irish had higher yards per play, a [...]
Notre Dame losing by 11 points at Ohio State wasn't a total surprise, but the advanced stats from this game would have qualified as a shocker for fans before the game. Breaking down how the Irish stayed close with a draw in explosive plays, ultimately couldn't hang with the Buckeyes because of a dramatic loss [...]
Once again the 18 Stripes crew was invited to participate in the annual "Counting Down the Irish" list of top 25 preseason Notre Dame players. While the votes are tied to my name, I like to go with a "wisdom of the crowds" approach each year, opening voting to the staff and then averaging our [...]
Real football is almost here, and if you're checking in after offseason hibernation, you may wonder how the 2022 schedule is shaping up. Good news, I've done your homework for you! Below is a summary of each of Notre Dame's 12 opponents, with a recap of what the projection systems like about each, where the [...]
This offseason, we’ll be breaking down the performance of each unit – passing and rushing offense and defense – with a look ahead to 2022 and what this means for the Irish. As we move to the defense, Notre Dame struggled with big rushes allowed more last fall than any year of the Clark Lea [...]
This offseason, we’ll be breaking down the performance of each unit – passing and rushing offense and defense – with a look ahead to 2022 and what this means for the Irish. Next is the Notre Dame passing game, which was a wild ride in 2022 with Jack Coan taking time to find his footing [...]
This offseason, we’ll be breaking down the performance of each unit – passing and rushing offense and defense – with a look ahead to 2022 and what this means for the Irish. First up is the Notre Dame run game, which struggled immensely through the first half of the year despite talented running backs, then [...]
The story of Brian Kelly at Notre Dame is one of steady improvement. His success wasn't instant, with close-game struggles and a 4-5 start in Year 1 and the most frustrating possible 0-2 start in Year 2. There were dramatic swings here and there - the breakthrough in 2012 few saw coming, and the collapse [...]
Well, that escalated quickly. Late this afternoon reports surfaced that LSU was targeting Brian Kelly as their next head coach, with athletic director Scott Woodward likely to make some type of godfather offer. While the details haven't emerged, it appears he found an offer that Kelly couldn't refuse. Sources: LSU is expecting to hire Notre [...]
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