There's an old Arabic proverb to the effect that a good lie can walk from Baghdad to Constantinople while the truth is still looking for its sandals. We're going to diverge from our usual coachspeak angle to address some of the rumors and innuendo that have been flying around lately. These haven't come out of the press [...]
Now, we get to the good stuff. Part II of this series looked at potential coaches ranked 16th through 30th and today we zero in on the top 15 overall during the final Part III. Part I: An Intro (CLICK HERE) Part II: Coaches #30-16 (CLICK HERE) Odds are the coach(es) you desire will be [...]
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 [...]
Today, the Top 30 countdown begins for The List of potential new Notre Dame head coaches. As of right now, Notre Dame is still being led by Brian Kelly and all indications are that he will be back for 2017 while being squarely on the hot seat during his 8th season in South Bend. If [...]
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 [...]
Here's a recap of today's 2016 finale against USC: The Trojans were held to a field goal. Josh Adams had a long run that led to a QB sneak touchdown. Notre Dame was winning! Ronald Jones ran for a 51-yard touchdown. Notre Dame was no longer winning. Suddenly, lots of punts were traded. Yoon missed [...]
Notre Dame isn't looking for a head coach right now. At least, the job isn't open. However, the speculation over the next head man in South Bend is already thousands (millions?) of page views deep. Today, I am beginning a set of 3 articles that will rate the candidates to someday coach the Fighting Irish. [...]
If you haven't checked in on USC for a while you may have remembered their brutal defeat at the hands of Alabama in their opener, or their offensive drought against Stanford, or their close but still 3rd loss in their first 4 games on the road at Utah. In September it looked like Clay Helton [...]
Much has been said about the playcalling in the second half of the game, specifically how Brian Kelly either called a particularly bad second half or failed to adjust to Virginia Tech’s adjustments. In this post I will attempt to investigate several of these assertions and see which have merit. Methodology I have often found [...]
It's about that time for some deep thoughts on the future of Notre Dame football. Ideally, I wanted to wait until the end of the season but I'm going to catch that wave right now and ride it for a while. I was going to title this article, "Just Make the Right Hire" but I [...]
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 [...]
I'm just here so I don't get fined. I'm on the record as stating losses are more interesting to write about because there are more hot topics to cover. That old adage went out the window at least a month ago. I don't really want to keep writing these reviews anymore (just one more to [...]
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, [...]
It's Senior Day this weekend against Virginia Tech. Let's pray the weather holds up enough for the parents of the players to stand at midfield and await their hugs and tears. The Irish continue to be very healthy with no new significant injuries heading into the second-to-last game of the regular season. Daniel Cage saw [...]
Notre Dame has been playing football since 1887. Virginia Tech has been playing football since 1892. This Saturday, the Fighting Irish and Hokies will meet on the gridiron for the very first time. It's been a fairly successful 2016 for Virginia Tech as they are in year one of the post-Frank Beamer era. They put [...]
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