A Notre Dame Football Blog
Saturday's 19-14 win over Pitt was, without question, Notre Dame's worst performance all season. There is zero need to look for historical comparisons -- it's of no moment how six years ago it took a different Notre Dame squad eleven days and twenty-three hours to beat Pitt on a field goal that should have been disallowed. The only meaning the game should have is that the Irish are undefeated and now rank fourth overall. That, and the defense is fantastic. Here are the top plays. Somehow ...
There was a time when the skyline between Notre Dame and Chicago was lined with glowing furnaces and fantastically-sized factories. Within those factories, men poured, formed, and cut steel. Today, those factories are mostly closed. Today, those men are mostly dead. On Saturday night, before the heaving, bouncing bodies in the stands, young men from Notre Dame, very much alive and fired by echoes cheering her name, quieted piped-in heavy metal with a punishing dose of heavy mettle. In ...
Brian Kelly got his signature win. In the first meeting of top ten teams at Notre Dame Stadium since Moses wore short pants, he orchestrated a performance of Wagnerian depth, one that left half-man half-hot dog David Shaw dumbfounded. The final score, 38-17, did not reflect just how comprehensive was The Irish triumph. Football is often referred to as "a game of two halves." To Stanford's detriment, Notre Dame took their second half away. Consider these tidbits: Stanford ran just seven ...
Should this season in fact be something special, the kind that ends in confetti underfoot, we may talk about Notre Dame's win over Wake Forest as the game in which the team discovered its identity. A change at quarterback, from Brandon Wimbush to Ian Book, after three consecutive but flawed wins transformed Notre Dame's offense. The defense punished Wake Forest throughout the contest, displaying a nastiness not seen from the boys in gold in a long time. Should this season be something special, ...
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish beat the Vanderbilt Commodores 22-17, to move to 3-0 on the season. Somehow, for many to most of the fan base, this is not enough. The narrative is quickly building that there is something wrong with the team, whether with Brian Kelly or Brandon Wimbush or with some combination of the two. Maybe with the Board of Trustees. Given the data, though, it looks like the 2018 Fighting Irish are more a team "on the verge" than a team "on the brink." Most pundits picked ...
Here at Her Loyal Sons, we strive for equal parts optimism and free discourse.
NBC Sports announced yesterday that the first two games, against Michigan and Ball State, of the 2018 Notre Dame football season have been the most-watched in eight years. Notre Dame Football on NBC is up sixty-five percent (65%) over last season. Clearly, you like to watch. NBC tracks its viewing metrics a bit differently than a simple trawl through Nielsen's data. NBC uses an acronym that is straight out of the Sean Spicer School of Photoshop: Total Audience Delivery (TAD). TAD is an ...
"We're happy to win the game..." are the words with which Brian Kelly chose to start his post game press conference in the uncertain wake of a 24-16 win over in-state rival (?), Ball State. Coach Kelly took most of the blame, but to be fair, not a single coach took a single snap. With The Irish unchanged at 8 and 2-0 on the season, is there something rotten in the state of Notre Dame? I don't think so. For one, Notre Dame is 2-0 and unchanged at 8 in the AP poll. Reality for Notre Dame is ...
For the Ball State Cardinals, leaving the friendly confines of Scheumann Stadium to travel from Muncie to Notre Dame, involves more than just 69. The left exit and the run up Highway 31 shifts the field. Behind them is the relative quiet of MAC West football -- MACtion. In front, the echoes of ESPN's College Gameday and the "cathedral of college football." The Fighting Irish head into Saturday's first-ever meeting with their in-state opponent ranked 8th in the country and with ...
Each football season takes on a personality of its own. The moment that personality percolates to the surface cannot be determined in advance. But, like April, come she will, recognizable in the moment, truly discernable only when the season itself is done and dusted. In 2012, the moment came in the eight game, when Everett Golson threw a fifty-yard completion to Chris Brown. In 2011, it came in the opener, against South Florida, when it started to rain and The Irish melted like spun sugar ...
The 2018 Notre Dame Football Preview from ND Insider has been on the stands for a few weeks now. Its appearance is another sign that football is close at hand. At ninety-six pages, heavy with gloss and laden with information, it takes the reader deeper and deeper into a very Irish world. With such depth, the reader only finds the bottom with the back cover. When digested, the reader should know everything about the team, from the specialists to the coaches. The 2018 Notre Dame Football ...