After reaching the midway point in the 2016 college football season, it's fair to say that Notre Dame has easily been the biggest disappointment of the year thus far. Stanford doesn't lag the Irish by much on the "disappointment meter." Heading into Saturday's game, Stanford is 3-2 on the year with a huge emphasis on the two losses after getting waxed in back to back weeks by Washington (44-6) and Washington State (42-16). This implies that as bad as Notre Dame has looked six games into ...
Stanford
Opponent Watch: Friday Night Lights
Each week in this space, we examine two things: Notre Dame's strength of schedule (from USA Today's Sagarin rankings), and who Irish opponents are facing. For those of who want to scout future opponents, I'll give you my recommendation for who to watch when you're not watching Notre Dame Football. ...
TCB Poll 2016: Week 4
With the advent of the College Football Playoff, we -- the Elvii of college football -- have joined together to present our weekly playoff nominations to keep the selection committee honest. We call it the TCB Poll. ...
I Never Liked The VanGorder Hire
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 ...
Opponent Watch: Is a McCaffrey Heisman Campaign Bruin?
Each week in this space, we examine two things: Notre Dame's strength of schedule (from USA Today's Sagarin rankings), and who Irish opponents are facing. For those of who want to scout future opponents, I'll give you my recommendation for who to watch when you're not watching Notre Dame Football. ...
Friday Roundup: The “No More Talking to Myself” Episode
When I came back from my podcast break, I said that the main goal of the show is simple: having fun and creating an entertaining show. When I go back and listen to what I've done so far and, quite frankly, while recording, I feel like the times I'm missing that simple goal is when I'm just talking to...well, no one. So with that in mind, I decided that there was a need for a co-host on the show. Shane, aka SuperManTDJesus, aka the one that brings you awesome videos here on HLS, had mentioned ...
The Irish Get Well With Nevada Win, But Spartans Loom
Last week I foretold the beginning of the end of the Brian Kelly era. Several people on Twitter and HLS strongly disagreed. Hey, it happens! The Irish got exactly what they needed on Saturday with a convincing win over Nevada. While I don’t think Nevada is a great team, any win on Saturday was welcome. I would also argue that Nevada is akin to a victory over a top MAC program as the Wolf Pack have been in a bowl game the last two seasons. It is also a much higher quality game than the FCS ...
Here is Every Notre Dame Football Game on YouTube*
Here is a playlist of every Notre Dame football game available on YouTube, as of today. There's about 500 games here, dating all the way back to 1913. ...
Playoff in 2016? I’m Changing My Prediction
In an article last month, I suggested the Irish were a playoff team. I generally focused on three areas: the schedule, the offense, and the “breaks” finally breaking Notre Dame’s way in a given year. However, I also cautioned that nothing great ever happens in June and July…see Alize Jones. ...
Scouting Report: Stanford
Notre Dame was 30 seconds short of a legitimate shot at the playoff last season. That’s a distant memory given the bowl loss to Ohio State and Jaylon Smith’s career-altering injury, but there it was nonetheless. Ranked No. 6...with the lead...on the road...against a Top 10 team...to close the season. A win would’ve only lead to an argument for a Top 4 spot, and a chance–if the conference championship games broke their way. But Kevin Hogan led a five-play, 45-yard drive to set up a game winning ...