A Notre Dame Football Blog
I never liked the Brian VanGorder hire. VanGorder was hired in 2014, following the departure of Bob Diaco to become Connecticut's head coach. The criticism of Diaco was his "bend but don't break" approach made his defenses appear somewhat vanilla or "boring." So what? They were fundamentally sound, rarely beat themselves and were always in the top half of the nation in total defense. Much enthusiasm ensued when the Irish brought VanGorder and his NFL pedigree to South Bend. Many media ...
But let's be honest, they probably won't be. If the last two weeks are any indication, a prediction of an inch of snow followed by what South Bend saw this week would look far more accurate than our collective football clarvoyance. We had only two, that's right, two people pick Arizona over Notre Dame straight up last week and one of those was Biscuit who continues to kick all of our asses from his August predictions. And the notes we had for the game? Oh good God, they aren't any better. ...
Seriously, ND isn't in a bad spot. Listen to Mr. Day.
No, this will not be a post that will excuse Notre Dame for a rather terrible performance on the road against Arizona State. No team should turn the ball over five times and expect to win against a ranked team. Period. Beyond the turnovers, Arizona State put a hell of a game together, consistently putting pressure on Golson, notching seven sacks and giving him happy feet the whole game. In the first half, Arizona State ran at a totally different speed than the Irish defense that looked ...
I have no jokes today. No witty insults to throw at Arizona State. No fictional storylines to throw Notre Dame players into. No, this isn't because I've hit a creative wall. I'm not mailing it in because the audio version of this post debuts on the radio this evening. It certainly isn't for a lack of caring either. It's because the main thing consuming my mind is just simply winning this game. After all, I've preached patience for the past couple of weeks in regards to the playoff ...
The IBG is back once again and getting back to the normal weekly schedule. This weekend, Notre Dame is in a fight for their playoff lives in a top ten matchup on the road. Sound familiar? So it's time for representatives from NDNation, UHND.com, The Fighting Irish Blog, and the godfather of the IBG, The Subway Domer, to put Navy to bed and take a look at what's ahead. Let's get to it. My question: Based on how the rankings this week, do you feel any differently about a too-close-for ...
Via @CFBPlayof
I mentioned on Monday that I would write a rebuttal to Bayou's hypothesis that playing Navy close would cost us playoff positioning. Thankfully, the College Football Playoff Committee saved me from loads of writing by making the argument for me by keeping the Fighting Irish ranked at #10. As I said during the ND Fan Radio Navy post game show, I felt that the narrow win against Navy would mean about as much to the committee as the blowout win against Rice did: nothing. Last week, I put ...
Molly Moran and I return for a new episode of HLS TV. The title is dedicated to the lose of Joe Schmidt. As Molly is the self-proclaimed leader of the Joe Schmidt Fan Club, the loss of Schmidt for the season has hit HLS TV hard. We talk about Joe and what his injury means for the future of the Irish defense as well as Notre Dame's tilt against Navy. We also discuss what the win means for the Irish going forward, discuss the upcoming game against Arizona State, and do our usual MVPs for the ...
I know. Being the second-ranked football team this week would make us all feel a lot more comfortable about our chances of making the inaugural edition of the College Football Playoffs. We are one silly offensive pass interference away from "hosting" a first round playoff matchup. Now that we're all done throwing our remotes, replacing our flat screens, and replenishing our liquor cabinets, it's time to look at the playoff picture. The whole picture. We don't know what exactly the 12-person ...
Screencap via @SupermanTDJesus
Touchdowns Golson to Brown Golson to Koyack It only took two TDs for Notre Dame to top Stanford. Brown's TD allowed us all to breathe going into the half and Koyack's catch, on a 4th and 11 no less, sent us into jubilation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDUvS88s_cY Turnovers Golson's Fumble Golson's INT Golson struggled once again in protecting that ball. The fumble was once again a result of him holding the ball waaaaaay too far out from his body. The INT was a result of Golson ...
Who To Watch USC at Stanford (Sat 3:30pm ET, ABC) Week 2 doesn't have much to offer, and your Saturday primetime is already booked with Notre Dame vs. Michigan, so I'll recommend a matchup of two future ND opponents. Out west on The Farm, see Steve Sarkisian in his first true road test against David Shaw's Cardinal. ...