A lot of rust was to be expected for Notre Dame football as they took the field for the first time this Saturday in a tighter-than-expected 14-point win over the visiting Duke Blue Devils. The Irish sputtered to zero yards on their first 3 drives and only led 10-6 at halftime before showing a lot [...]
(Weird disclaimer: Photographers weren't allowed in the stadium today, so we're rolling with a photo of last year's game.) ND's off-season lasted just over eight months. It was only two weeks longer than it would've been in a normal world. It felt a lot longer. But the wait ended Saturday, and Notre Dame dispatched Duke [...]
The past several seasons have provided Irish fans with exposure to every ACC team, but for 2020 that gets to be taken to an entirely new level. Advanced stat projections agree with the ironic storyline that Notre Dame joining a conference for a season has actually eased their strength of schedule. Would that have been [...]
Welcome back to college football. Following a cancelled spring, in addition to an interrupted off-season and fall camp, the Fighting Irish take the field this Saturday to begin the 2020 campaign. It'll be our first glimpse of organized Notre Dame football in 259 days. Brian Kelly heads into his 11th season with about as much [...]
The ranking of the top 25 players on the Notre Dame roster is an annual tradition that means football is almost here. Like everything in 2020, this year's exercise was stranger and more confusing than usual. Our friend Douglas Farmer from Inside the Irish, who coordinates this activity across ND platforms with folks like us [...]
Editor's Note: This article was written in the past long before several college football conferences decided to postpone or cancel their seasons. It's been sitting in the draft section of the site for a while and we might as well push it out to the masses before Saturday's opener. *** Once upon a time there [...]
Five Wide Fullbacks returns with a discussion about Tommy Rees, Notre Dame in the ACC, picking players to return in 2021, the Heisman Trophy, and the weirdness to come with college football in a pandemic. 1) The decision to part ways with Chip Long and install Tommy Rees as Offensive Coordinator was one of the [...]
Welcome back to the 18Stripes Hall of Fame Series. A reminder that you can easily see every entry of the series here. Today we finish our first half of the decade (and final entry until next offseason) and the Charlie Weis era. Our potential entrant to the HOF, who could easily be praised as one [...]
Earlier this week we looked at Notre Dame's offense where a veteran quarterback and offensive line anchors that side of the ball. Now, we turn our focus to the defense where Clark Lea heads into his 3rd season as defensive coordinator and has a couple of blue-chip NFL prospects to build around for 2020. [players [...]
No open practices, no problem. How does one figure out what the Notre Dame depth chart is going to look like just under 2 weeks until the first game when no one has watched the team practice? Through logic, dear readers. Of course, it's impossible to know everything and if we're being honest even an [...]
We are going to push forward with college football content as portions of the sport are on track to play games soon, including our own Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Like many things this year, our pre-season poll is odd and strange. A bunch of teams aren't playing, no one is starting at the same [...]
Welcome back to the Hall of Fame Series here on 18Stripes. If you want to read the prior posts to get a better understand you can go here. Apologies for the delay between posts, moving and pandemics are no easy task. Today, we pivot away from the Ty Willingham era (slightly) and dive into the [...]
If you missed part one don't forget to check out a pair of victories from Tyrone Willingham and Gerry Faust, among others. These non-legendary coaches are not done, either. There is still more bewildering wins to come! Who will fill out the remaining 6 games... #6 7-6 Notre Dame in 1997 24-6 Win vs. #13 [...]
In roughly a month Notre Dame is scheduled to face Duke University on a football field for a real super official totally going to happen collegiate game. In order to prepare for such an event the Irish have begun practicing with their own water bottles and managers constantly wiping down the balls with disinfectant. The [...]
If the normal 2020 schedule were to be played another football program would be making its debut playing inside Notre Dame Stadium. Unfortunately, the Razorbacks from Arkansas will not get that opportunity this year as the SEC announced conference-only games this year. While researching something for a previously published piece I came across a throw-away [...]
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