A Notre Dame Football Blog
I was happy to turn the page on the new year if nothing else than to turn the calendar on one of the worst years of Notre Dame football that I can remember. Starting on New Year’s Day of 2016 and throughout the season it was seemingly one bad moment after another. Now with the national title playing out tonight, our long Notre Dame nightmare can end. Or can it? Since the end of this season, there have numerous coaching changes. When the Irish tee it up on opening day next year, the ...
Photo Credit: David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP
It was far from pretty. The Irish needed a late touchdown yet again from DeShone Kizer and Will Fuller to avoid a loss that would have felt like a nightmare. On a night know for tricks and treats, it felt for much of the evening like the Irish were playing a trick on themselves. The result is fine: Notre Dame proved victorious over the Temple Owls 24-20. If this game were measured as a type of candy, it was far from being a Reese's Cup. In fact, it's insulting to mention Reese's with that ...
Happy Halloween, y'all! I say things like "y'all," deal with it. Notre Dame and Temple play after dark on Halloween. I assume that means both teams will be armed with silly string, eggs, toilet paper, and a penchant for mischief because we all know once the kids go in on Halloween all that remains are the hooligans. Well, hooligans and at bars a "sexy" version of every halloween costume. Man, I miss college halloween. But I digress, TIME TO GET IN THOSE PICKS. A reminder of how things ...
Earlier this week, it was brought to my attention that quite a few of y'all were not aware that the Friday Roundup went podcast a few months ago. Firstly, y'all are all totally busted for not having read the Roundup in ages, but secondly it made me re-think how I've been marketing this thing. Thus, the title of this week's episode which (I hope) makes it incredibly clear that there is yet another podcast for you to consume. While Notre Dame will get its fair share of air time every week, the ...
Welcome Loyal Readers. Are you refreshed after a week away from NDFB? Yeah...who am I kidding. I know you. You were sitting there at home dissecting crazy playoff situations, getting angry at Heisman ballots, running regression studies on field turf and ND's leg injuries, and longing for the days Lou Holtz was trolling Mark May on "College Football Final" because dear word is the new group terrible. So, will Saturday's game be a trick...or a treat? Oh, you didn't come here for painfully bad ...
One aspect of Saturday's game against Temple (7-0) that has me intrigued is the superficial similarity it has to Notre Dame's (6-1) National Championship Game against Alabama in 2013. The Temple Owls come into Saturday's game without a loss and College GameDay is comin' to their citayyyyy. They're ranked in the Top Twenty-Five for the first time since 1979. They're a program returned to relevance. And they're running into a buzz saw. For those of you who lived through, and still remember, ...
After rushing for nearly 190 yards per game in 2012, Notre Dame is averaging a meager 137 yards per game this season. While there are a number of reasons why the run game has struggled (graduation of key personnel, playing from behind, etc.), it is clear that the Irish miss Everett Golson's mobility. Defenses are attacking the line of scrimmage with little fear that Tommy Rees will make them pay for over-pursuing the Irish running backs. Although Rees will never be a running threat, Brian Kelly ...
Week one is in the books. While all of us here at HLS will start diving in to some deeper analysis of the game, for now, I wanted to share some of my initial thoughts and takeaways from the tilt against Temple. So without further ado, here are four pleasant surprises and four areas of concern from last Saturday's game. Four Pleasant Surprises 1) Tommy Rees Has Improved And not just his stat line either. Oh sure, he had a career day going 16-23 for 346 yards, 3 TDs, and, most importantly ...
Let's be perfectly honest here, Temple sucks. Picking on them falls somewhere between grabbing the low hanging fruit or simply being plain mean. Bayou tried to find something positive about the Owls in his preview, but he simply couldn't find much. And it isn't like this current incarnation of Temple football is any better than Temple's overall history. This is a program with a 430-555-3 (.440) all time record that has led them to only 4 total bowl games and 8 total weeks appearing in the AP ...
Notre Dame football head coach Brian Kelly sat in the middle of a middle pew, literally twiddling his thumbs, his eyes wandering the nave, transept, and the gilded lancet arches. Every few seconds he would glance down at his watch. Outside, in the tumbling darkness, voices, freshman voices, like animal calls, broke the heavy silence inside Sacred Heart with their call and response of freedom from parents and sobriety. He heard the door, heavy, heaving, and rose, moving to the sound. Inside, ...