Twenty-two months ago Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick was in the throes of a full-blown crisis surrounding the Fighting Irish football program. The team had just completely stumbled to a 4-8 record shattering the floor that some believed could never occur under Brian Kelly, the program was without a defensive coordinator following the prolonged [...]
Notre Dame escaped with a victory on Saturday and can now enjoy some delicious cheeseburgers, but that doesn't mean the film room is closed for the week. The final score was too close for comfort on Saturday as Notre Dame's hyper-efficient offense stalled out most of the afternoon before finally delivering the winning touchdown in [...]
For a number of years we've fondly mentioned college football head coaches who have been Doing Good Things (DGT, for short) at their respective programs. With a decent chunk of the 2018 season complete it's time to revisit the men laying down quality work, as well as some that are not DGT. *S&P+ team rankings [...]
Welcome back to the playoff big board! Man, week 7 was eventful, as four of the top eight teams in the AP poll went down. As you might imagine, that shook up the board quite a bit. Our board will consist of all ranked undefeated teams and all ranked one-loss Power 5 teams - first [...]
Four teams in the Top 10 were defeated this week with 3 others at the top (including Notre Dame) nearly succumbing to the loss column. Everyone is still chasing Alabama who shrugs off a knee sprain from T-Town Tua and still cruises to an easy victory in a cross-divisional game. Mid-October is here and ready [...]
I feel so dumb. I let myself get a little cocky predicting Notre Dame would easily cover a 21-point spread in a rivalry when the program almost never does that. We have been down this road so many times before with a tired team dealing with exams struggling against a statistically poor team with a [...]
This team is different. They're not going to play down to the competition. The offense is too good to let that happen. That was the subtext, if not the text, of the bulk of the national media's discussion of Notre Dame this week. So with Pitt, tormentor of worlds (see 2008 and nearly 2012), coming [...]
As Notre Dame has attempted to diversify its portfolio with scheduling in recent years the rivalry with Pitt, like a few others, has taken a back seat. This Saturday, the Panthers return to South Bend for the first time since 2012 and this will be only the second meeting in the series over the last [...]
Saturday's game against Virginia Tech presented the Irish with a chance to exorcise the demons of last year's loss in South Beach by going into a hostile road environment and coming out with a victory. But to football nerds like me, it also gave us a chance to see Chip Long - Notre Dame's promising [...]
Notre Dame has opened a season 6-0 for the third time in Brian Kelly's tenure, joining 2012's 12-0 start and 2014's 6-0 start. The Irish have achieved that only two other times since Tony Rice graduated: a 10-0 start in 1993 and an 8-0 start in 2002. We know not to get too excited; after [...]
Notre Dame couldn't establish an efficiency advantage for the first time since Ian Book took over the offense, but countered with a Dexter Williams-led win in explosiveness. The Irish also continued their excellence limiting scoring opportunities to create a big advantage in points per scoring chance, with some thanks due to Justin Fuente and his [...]
As we nestle into the halfway point of the season, we notice that it's time to revisit our predictions from our staff and commentariat polls right before the season started. Later in the week we'll bring you a preview of Notre Dame's second-half opponents and discuss - gasp! - a potential march to the playoffs. Big [...]
Welcome to a new feature here on 18Stripes, where we dig into potential playoff teams by tier and take a shot at how things could shake out. Our board will consist of all ranked undefeated teams and all ranked one-loss Power 5 teams - first from the AP poll, then from the committee rankings when they're [...]
Undefeated teams are beginning to fall and Notre Dame remains unblemished and moving up our weekly poll. The same cannot be said for LSU, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. Things got so bad for the Sooners that they finally fired Mike Stoops as defensive coordinator. 18 Stripes Top 20 Poll RANK TEAM RECORD LAST WEEK 1 [...]
It appears my reverse-jinx worked. Notre Dame came out like gangbusters to open a tough road game but then went into a big funk until halftime with only a 1-point lead over Virginia Tech. With a let down in plain sight, the Fighting Irish stepped on the gas in the 3rd quarter on their way [...]
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