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. [...]
You could see it on Marcus Freeman's face when JD Bertrand was called for the world's most obvious targeting foul on the final drive, and you could see it again when Cal came within a whisker of catching the Hail Mary on the final play. "This couldn't just be easy, could it?" It could not. [...]
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 [...]
Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff. Top News The latest playoff talks have been surrounding ironing out a new scheduling format with the 12-team tournament. Picking up steam is starting the season in week 0 (will we see week -1 games too?) and shuffling around playoff games in the winter [...]
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, [...]
The answer? 45. The question: How many more undergraduates does Marshall University have than Notre Dame? So we begin our incredible journey through the similarities and differences that comprise this Saturday’s gridiron matchup! […]
Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff. Top News The College Football Playoff will be expanding to 12 teams but most do not expect it to happen before the current contract runs out after the 2025 season. The new media deal for the future 12-team College Football Playoff is expected to [...]
Like a grizzly bear on a moose carcass, the first game of the 2022 Notre Dame football season was a study in contrast.* At times the Irish played like a team ready to compete with the best in college football and at other times they looked outmatched. The first offensive play for Notre Dame was [...]
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 [...]
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