It was ugly early on during the Notre Dame-Cal game on Saturday afternoon. And I mean very, very ugly. Nearly a full hour elapsed before a first down from either team was made. The Irish offense especially came out seriously disheveled with quarterback Drew Pyne playing like the moment was far too big for him. [...]
When I think about the University of California, Berkeley I picture their stadium in the hills, earthquakes, hippies, Marshawn Lynch, Aaron Rodgers, 1950's era cheerleader uniforms, and their mascot Oski the Bear. Truth is this Cal program hasn't been on Notre Dame's radar pretty much at all since Vietnam. The Irish faced the Golden Bears [...]
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 [...]
The last thing many want to do after watching Notre Dame lose to Marshall is take a look at what all of the good teams are doing. Still, we march on with the rankings. Plus, fear not there is plenty of schadenfreude to fill your spirit with the struggles from other teams, too. There were [...]
We knew Marcus Freeman being thrown into the Fiesta Bowl followed up by an opener at Ohio State was going to be a tough hill to climb and a hole to dig out of as the new Notre Dame head coach. Losing to Sun Belt team Marshall at home in embarrassing fashion is like erecting [...]
You have to give it to Marcus Freeman. I can't remember the last time a college football coach flushed so much goodwill down the toilet so quickly. Notre Dame lost to Marshall 26-21. In his first game against an unranked team as coach, Freeman ended an Irish winning streak of 42 games against such teams, [...]
What heady times we live in... Notre Dame and Ohio State flipped back and forth for the #1 class ranking all July, with the Irish re-taking the spot right at the end of the month thanks to four-star cornerback Dion Johnson decommitting for the Buckeyes. Ohio State also lost out on a number of guys [...]
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 [...]
It was a pretty poor week for hoping parity would be coming our way as the usual suspects strengthened their resumes in the first full Saturday of college football. Still, we saw some absolute bangers of games littered throughout the weekend. Our Fighting Irish lost but still we rise. Here's the new 18 Stripes poll [...]
Welcome back to the 18S Group of 5 Tier List! One full week of games is (mostly) in the books and it did not disappoint. Let's dive into the action. The Week 1 Group of 5 Tier List Week 1 Review We Need To Talk About Boise So perennial Group of 5 power Boise State [...]
Notre Dame opened the 2022 season in a tight battle with no. 2 Ohio State, even taking a lead into halftime. In a game marred by key injuries on both sides it ended up being a very upside down style of play based on expectations from the Irish and Buckeyes. For a while, it looked [...]
These things are a lot easier to write after wins, but here goes. Notre Dame lost to Ohio State 21-10 tonight, sending Marcus Freeman to 0-2 and creating the easiest wisecrack in the history of Twitter about the much-discussed and hyped new Notre Dame coach. It's funny how pregame narratives can be so wrong. What [...]
[fade in to gentle nature sounds] As the late summer sun sloughs off the demi-gloom robes of twilight, a landscape draws into view that is markedly different than the one the same heavenly traveler left us with not so long ago. The once-imposing Matterhorns that obstructed the precious natural resources the pride must hoard to [...]
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 [...]
Notre Dame and Ohio State haven't played much throughout history but when they do it tends to be a huge game at the time of kickoff. The Irish head to Columbus to open the 2022 season in what will be the 5th straight game in this series between Top 10 teams. And if we include [...]
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