Reviewing Notre Dame's cruise-control victory against the closer Miami: it's nice to have an offense whose floor includes often putting up nearly 50 points and rushing for 300 yards, and why there's a few reasons for caution before getting too optimistic about this Irish defense. The basics In a game that was never in doubt [...]
When the post-game conversation centers around how high the performance ranked in the Brian Kelly era and debating the significance of a +3 turnover margin and garbage time yards, things went pretty well. Below we'll take a look at the advanced stats from Notre Dame's wire-to-wire win over Michigan State. The basics The “First Take”-style [...]
Breaking down the classic "beat an opponent by 29 points, yet inspire a crisis of confidence in your fanbase" win over Boston College. What does Notre Dame's offensive identity look like through three games, and how might the Irish evolve if the passing game doesn't improve*? *It might just improve The Basics Saturday’s game was [...]
Recapping Notre Dame's tough loss to Georgia with an review of the advanced stats. In a fairly even contest, where did the Irish come up short? Bear with me for a quick trip into an alternate universe… Notre Dame finally reversed their streak of losses in close games, gutting out a tough 22-20 win over [...]
Recapping Notre Dame –Temple with advanced stats: a dominant rushing performance, some questions in the passing game, and an improving defense that showed flashes but needs more consistency. Introduction If you’ve been with us a few years, you’ll notice a few tweaks and changes for 2017. I’ll introduce them as they arrive, but as always [...]
It's time to break out the advanced stats again, taking a glance at the few things that went right and the many things that went wrong in 2016 and predicting how they'll change this season. Last year I broke out each of Bill Connelly's Five Factors into it's own posts, but procrastination has led to [...]
If you’ve missed it last week, it’s a great chance to catch up on the annual preseason rankings of the top 25 Notre Dame football players over at Inside the Irish. You can see the consensus ranking that includes our ballot and Douglas Farmer’s astute commentary over there, but if you’ve read this far, you [...]
As fall practice begins, it’s getting closer and closer to prediction time for all of your favorite writers. And for Notre Dame in 2017, that means that every one-line prognostication will devote a few words to Brian Kelly’s future. “Notre Dame: 9-3 with an improved defense under Mike Elko, cooling Brian Kelly’s hot seat.” Or [...]
If you've been with us a while, you may remember the inaugural ranking of Notre Dame away games in 2015. While I won't give myself too much credit, the top three games listed (Clemson, Stanford, UVA) were incredible games, even though they featured two Irish losses and the season-ending injury to Malik Zaire. Looking back [...]
Every season the coaching carousel seems to escalate the craziness, and 2016-2017 was no exception. Two gigantic openings were filled at LSU and Texas, and several hot commodities like PJ Fleck, Willie Taggart, and Matt Rhule made jumps to Power 5 conferences. Excluding Brian Kelly, who would certainly make this list if he weren't already [...]
Raise your hand if you’ve read an article this offseason citing a team’s points per game, yards per game, or NCAA ranks using those measures. The vast majority of reviews and previews, right? This is all kinds of bad, and needs to change. Do not accept these numbers at face value. Take those rankings using [...]
Another one possession loss and blown lead for the Irish in 2016. What do all these one possession losses mean for the team's future, and why is the offense always stalling out in the second half? Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here. This week we'll review what went wrong in the second half against the [...]
Previewing a Senior Day showdown between Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. The Hokies are very good defensively, but are cracks starting to emerge? Can the Irish keep their long-shot bowl hopes alive? If looking for additional information on the statistics and terms used here, great starting points are Football Studyhall’s Advanced Stats Glossary, Bill Connelly’s Five Factors, [...]
A rare stress-free win for Notre Dame in 2016 reviewed using the Five Factors that lead to success in football. The Irish keep small hopes for bowl eligibility alive for another week. Confused? Check out the advanced-stats glossary here. Garbage time returns for only the third time this season! The first half was meaningful, the second [...]
The team with the better offense played more aggressively and won the game. That should be Notre Dame, but instead Will Worth and Navy executed their gameplan to perfection, while the Irish defense floundered. Settling for field goals has fans feeling like Jack Swarbrick is settling with Brian Kelly as head coach. Confused? Check out [...]
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