Last week, the Irish were ambushed by an inferior rival in the Big House and lost their first game of 2009. Ten years ago this week, the Michigan State Spartans came to South Bend to try and extend their recent ascendance over the Irish. Nine of the Last Twelve That was the state of the [...]
It was a quiet week atop the rankings and a tough week for Notre Dame's friends in the Atlantic Coast Conference. That league may still have the defending champs and the odds-on favorite to repeat in their title quest but the rest of the conference is looking awfully rough right now. The Week's Biggest Loser: [...]
My thesis is simple: Too much praise and blame is assigned to the offensive line and play-calling while not enough (especially blame) at the running back position when things go wrong or right. No other position has been subject to so much hyperbole and shallow commentary, all while being attached to the success of other [...]
Big ups to 18S regular Scarponi for helping us out with the arduous task of working the chart into a much more user-friendly format that shows win probability rather than loss probability. His 18S Award-Winner Free Subscription For Life is now secure! As we noted last week, we're filling in for the Reddit dude last [...]
If you jumped into this game nearing halftime and then paid half attention while looking over the box score following the win you could get the impression Notre Dame played one heck of a game in a blowout over New Mexico. In some ways--as the Irish rolled to their most points since a 69-14 romp [...]
With all due respect to the first two opponents on the Notre Dame schedule, everyone with a pulse knew in August that this season will likely be determined by what happens next Saturday at Georgia. Nothing has changed in that department after the Irish's 66-14 rout of New Mexico, a game that bore a slight [...]
New Mexico hired current Maryland coach Mike Locksley in 2009. He, uh, "led" the Lobos to a 2-26 record before being canned part way through the 2011 season; his tenure there made the writers of Days of Our Lives seem unimaginative. He was sued for sexual harassment before he even coached a game (a suit [...]
In week one, Notre Dame destroyed a decent Nevada squad 35-0 in South Bend. Ten years ago this week, the Irish traveled to Ann Arbor to take on RichRod's second Michigan team. A Forcier to be reckoned with? The 2008 Michigan Wolverines were a complete disaster, finishing 3-9 and losing five games by 18 or [...]
While Notre Dame enjoyed some cheeseburgers most of the rest of the country battled it out on the gridiron. Last week we learned the bottom of the SEC had a rough start, however, week two brought us the return quite possibly of a dominant LSU program that hasn't really been an elite team since 2011. [...]
You've heard us talk about SP+ many times here - in our advanced stats discussions, in our game previews, in our playoff projections, etc. Last year, an enterprising Reddit user who should be nominated for sainthood created a win probability matrix for every team in FBS and updated it every week. The same user did [...]
Bill Connelly, formerly of SB Nation and now with ESPN, was releasing historical SP+ ratings on Twitter in recent weeks that are a really fun look at how college football teams have progressed (or not!) over the years. Here are some thoughts about Notre Dame's graph that caught my attention for this storied program we [...]
During the spring I highlighted 6 snaps from the loss to Clemson where Ian Book needed to calm down and trust himself more in the pocket. His skill-set is such that his optimal performances happen when he's able to deliver the ball accurately, on time, while allowing pass catchers to continue down field without breaking [...]
SP+ predicted a 35-16 Notre Dame win at Louisville. The spread in Vegas was 18 points in many places. But the Irish win to open 2019 didn’t feel particularly fun, did it? Breaking down reasons to be encouraged, concerned, and confused using advanced stats from the season opener. Something not clear? Check out this handy [...]
Welcome to the recap of the first full week of college football. It wasn't exactly a wild ride of a week for some of the stronger team and yet there were plenty of fun and entertaining games littered through Monday's action. While the top teams in the SEC fared well others in the lower regions [...]
Last week, we set the stage for the 2009 football season and the wild ride ahead for Notre Dame. This week is game week, as the Irish took on the Nevada Wolf Pack on September 5th in South Bend. Here Comes the Pistol The teaser for this game mentioned Colin Kaepernick, who might be the [...]
