LSU toppled Alabama in Tuscaloosa in a thrilling offensive fireworks display that potentially blocks the Crimson Tide from making the College Football Playoff. Well, maybe. Elsewhere, Minnesota held on at home against Penn State to remain undefeated and now legitimately becomes part of the playoff conversation themselves, although their schedule continues to stiffen as we [...]
Credit to the Irish for rebounding with a huge win over a mid-level opponent - the mistakes that plagued them against Virginia Tech were largely eliminated against Duke, and accordingly the Duke game went the way the Virginia Tech game should've. That was the first truly stress-free performance for Notre Dame in five weeks, and [...]
Notre Dame got off to a fast start on Saturday night, lost its way briefly in near halftime, then eventually clamped down on an inferior Duke team in front of their home crowd. With no Danny Dimes under center, the Blue Devil passing game struggled all night and continued to give the Irish great field [...]
With just a handful of games remaining in the 2019 season (my goodness does every single college football year fly by or what?) we have a clear picture on the use of the current Notre Dame freshmen and how that will affect the roster shape in the next couple campaigns. As we'll discuss below, something [...]
When Charlie Weis became Notre Dame head coach in late-2004, he hired David Cutcliffe as his first offensive coordinator. Cutcliffe had just been fired by Ole Miss after his only losing season in Oxford, a mistake the Rebels would come to regret. However, Cutcliffe suffered a heart attack just before fall camp in 2005 and [...]
This is the first week for the official College Football Playoff committee rankings. Hey, SMU and Appalachian State have been cruising - let's discuss the probability that a Group of 5 team will finally make it into the playoff! The final two G5 undefeateds fell this weekend, so that was fun while it lasted. Possible [...]
With 6 out of our top 11 experiencing idleness things were quiet in week 10. Not so much this weekend as a pair of games will feature undefeated teams sure to reset the national playoff picture. We're recapping the week that was before looking ahead to major events in Tuscaloosa and Minneapolis. This Week's Biggest [...]
Notre Dame dominated the Hokies in the most important categories that decide games, but the Irish shot themselves in the foot in all of the less predictable and more random facets of the game. Turnovers and special teams blunders that cost valuable field position nearly led to a horrendous loss reminiscent of South Florida loss [...]
It didn't need to be close but it was far too close for comfort on Saturday afternoon as Notre Dame escaped an upset attempt from Virginia Tech. With just a few minutes remaining, the Irish drove 18 plays for a game-winning touchdown in a matchup that featured several patented upset-special check marks along the way. [...]
Once upon a time, Justin Fuente was the caliente young head coach in college football, hired at 39 years old by Virginia Tech after a short but impressive stint at Memphis while finishing on a 19-6 run with the Tigers. Then, Fuente won 10 games and finished No. 16 in the nation in his debut [...]
We are now down to seven Power 5 teams with unblemished records following Oklahoma's upset loss in the Little Apple. It took longer than usual to begin shaking up the top of the rankings but it's happening as we tumble towards another edition of the College Football Playoffs. But first, a recap of this past [...]
As the great NBA writer Zach Lowe put it on a recent podcast, "as analytical as sports [now] gets, it's still about feeling". The feelings after Notre Dame's blowout loss in Ann Arbor mirrored the stages of grief - perhaps with an overemphasis on the anger and depression, although there may have been some "what [...]
Rough week, but there were in fact other games that happened and, if you're a fan of college football, other things worth tracking going forward. 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 available [...]
We should be used to this by now. College football provides us the opportunity to build a case for every program and point out weekly which direction they are headed. For Notre Dame, they were supposed to be headed upward (still an outside shot at the playoffs!) while it was time for Michigan to be [...]
You don't want to hear what I have to say about this game in particular. Besides, if I did, it would be very NSFW. What I have after tonight's game are questions. A lot of questions. A few of them for your perusal, and maybe some attempts to answer them: Why does this keep happening? [...]
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