Marcus Freeman has gotten pretty good at the 'crush teams you're supposed to crush' thing, hasn't he? No offense to Oregon State, which wasn't remotely the same team today in a 40-8 beating at the hands of the Irish than it was during the season. Due to opt-outs, transfers, etc. the Beavers' offense was effectively [...]

When this season began, I doubt any Notre Dame fan was too concerned with watching the Pac-12 Network, but this is what you get for losing a couple of games you shouldn't have. Notre Dame sent the Pac-12 Network's football coverage out in predictable fashion Saturday, routing Stanford 56-23, though they took an annoyingly circuitous [...]

I'm going to be honest: I expected to write something like this next week. Next week is ND's 8th straight game, on midterms week, against USC. I expected to get crushed. (I still do.) And then I thought I'd be writing about ND being at a crossroads under Marcus Freeman. Guess it arrived a week [...]

4th and 16. The 2023 season, not to mention a potential firestorm week the likes of which Marcus Freeman has never seen, hung in the balance Saturday night at Duke. And Sam Hartman worked his magic. You have to believe Hartman took it personally when he came up short, literally (in the first quarter) and [...]

When? When will this program, which can't catch a break anywhere under any circumstances, break through against one of the elite? It wasn't Saturday night. Ohio State delivered the latest dagger in what has been a life full of them for the Fighting Irish fan, scoring a touchdown as time ran out to beat ND [...]

So in the end, much of the hemming and hawing in our writers' room during Notre Dame's 41-17 win over Central Michigan didn't amount to much. The Irish won by a large margin, as expected, and moved to 4-0 in advance of the game against Ohio State. And yet, so much today felt like a [...]

Notre Dame fans spent 3 quarters mostly fretting, complaining, maybe even doubting as the Irish slopped to a 7-point lead against NC State. ND won by three touchdowns, 45-24. It's a choose-your-own-adventure type of day in the Irish fan base! Secondary is primary Remember barely a year ago, when ND was entering the Ohio State [...]

You obviously learn nothing of significance out of games like Saturday's 56-3 win over Tennessee State. The opponent is simply not good enough to make major qualitative judgments about your own team in such contests. Knowing that, I was looking for little things. Here are a few that stood out. Sam Hartman again We don't [...]

When I remember to do it, I like to rate the potential trap games on the Notre Dame schedule for our fair site on a scale of 1 to 10 Ackbars in honor of the greatest admiral in the history of the Rebel Alliance/Resistance. I failed to do it last year. Suffice it to say [...]