The Irish pass defense in 2020 was solid against the soft underbelly of the ACC, spectacular for a half against Sam Howell in Chapel Hill, and was exploited by playoff-level attacks three times. Diving into the numbers shows a unit that declined relative to past seasons, even if excluding the Clemson and Alabama games. Passing [...]
I'm totally going to overthink this. In the haste of leading up to the 2020 football season and the questions about whether there'd even be a season to be played, we did not feature a Heisman preview at 18 Stripes. Back in May 2020 I did look at the Notre Dame players who have almost [...]
Monday morning brought us the return of the Shamrock Series uniform drop, an annual event that dazzles many but had been skipped for 2019-20 as the series gets ready to re-boot itself at Soldier Field against Wisconsin later this season. Enough with the small talk, let's rate the new uniforms. HELMET Most were expecting something [...]
After a long and tortuous absence the beat media was finally able to attend a Notre Dame practice once again. On Saturday afternoon, the Fighting Irish opened camp inside the indoor facility before shifting to some work on the outside field. The media was present for 30 minutes of the workout and Brian Kelly met [...]
Notre Dame added its third wide receiver to the 2022 recruiting class today when top 100 target CJ Williams announced for the Irish. There was pro-Irish buzz for a long time around the 6'2", 193-pound Californian and Alabama legacy; now, he's set to become the first Mater Dei product to wear the blue and gold [...]
Welcome back to the Odyssey. As always, you can click here to read all parts of the journey covered so far. Last time, we took a look at Tennessee beating Florida in the Swamp as 17.5 favorites, clinching a spot in the SEC Championship. Today we take a look at the first of two Conference [...]
The Notre Dame defense has been on quite a run in recent years having gone 3 straight season allowing fewer than 20 points per game. They head into 2021 with many key pieces returning but also a handful of important positions to figure out after personnel losses. There's also a new sheriff in town, hopefully [...]
This off-season absolutely flew by for me personally, who is ready to talk some real football? Notre Dame will begin fall camp this weekend as the program prepares for Brian Kelly's 12th season with the Irish moving the coch past Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz for the 2nd most career campaigns in school [...]
Part 1 (of X) in a series memorializing high days of unintentional comedy within the collective canon of ND Fandom: Notre Dame can be a bit much. Lou Holtz once famously said "[For] those who know Notre Dame, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation will suffice." Leaving aside the [...]
A few years ago, I was into ranking the potential trap games on the Notre Dame football schedule on a scale of 1 to 10 Ackbars. I haven't done it since the beloved admiral (spoiler alert!) was wiped out in The Last Jedi, so RIP to a legend. For reasons unclear to me at this [...]
Wooooo-ie, has it been a busy month since we last updated the board. Fourteen prospects with Notre Dame offers committed elsewhere, one flipped a longtime commitment to an in-state rival, one decomitted from a powerhouse program, and one new Irish offer went out. The Offense Board A reminder on how we do this - we'll [...]
Welcome back to the Odyssey. As always, you can click here to read all parts of the journey covered so far. Last time, we took a look at Oregon surviving a scare from their archrival Oregon State, keeping their slim National Championship hopes alive. Today we take a look at what many, including myself, see [...]
Two years we ago we debuted the 18 Stripes Hall of Fame Pyramid for Notre Dame football and its extensive history of wonderful talent. You can read the final rankings from 2019 HERE with links to the previous levels of the pyramid linked therein. We’re now adding players who have left Notre Dame since the conclusion of [...]
This offseason, we’ll be breaking down the performance of each unit – passing and rushing offense and defense – with a look ahead to 2021 and what this means for the Irish. It's time to examine the run defense, which has been remarkably consistent and solid in the Elko/Lea era. The Notre Dame defense has [...]
College football--and college sports in general--are really going through some unprecedented times right now. The NIL rules have shaken up over 100 years of amateur tradition, the NCAA is on unsteady ground as an institution, while the conference expansion roulette heating up really feels like it's about to re-draw the map in a lasting way [...]
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