Notre Dame notched its second-straight victory over their Catholic archrival, but it wasn’t exactly pretty. The Irish started fast with three first quarter touchdowns before the offense was beset by inconsistency, scoring a touchdown on only one of the final 13 drives after posting three in the first four. In many ways, Notre Dame was […]

Following the loss to Michigan two weekends ago, Brian Kelly made it clear that the moral victories that come from heartbreaking losses are nothing to hold onto anymore. And while I agree with him, that the Irish should be playing with energy and enthusiasm on every down, following Saturday’s loss to Stanford, it seems that […]

Notre Dame returns home to host 16th-ranked Stanford Saturday. The Irish enter the contest on the heels of two close, last-minute losses and in desperate need of a win. Fortunately, recent history is on their side—since 1997 Notre Dame has won nine of the last 13 (0.692) in the series, including six straight at home. […]

Another week, another close, tough loss for the Irish. Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio improved to 3-1 against Notre Dame, and the Spartans have won 10 of the last 14 in the series. If it feels like these close, late-game losses are a trend, it’s because they are. Since opening the 2008 season Notre […]

As I slowly recovered from the initial shock of the final play of Notre Dame’s game against Michigan State, something felt eerily familiar—almost like déjà vu. And as I continued to reflect, I realized that I had experienced it before. Notre Dame’s recent loss seems like a link in a chain of disappointments that have had […]

Notre Dame travels to East Lansing Saturday to face their third consecutive Big Ten opponent and annual foe Michigan State. The Irish are coming off a tough loss to Michigan, the second in which a young Wolverine quarterback was the nail in the coffin. It will be imperative for Notre Dame to avoid a hangover, […]

Part 3 of this series of articles will cover the effects that performance in close games and game day management, preparation, and execution have on a program, and how these areas have affected Notre Dame. Part 2 focused on scheduling and the benefit that playing home games while Part 1 focused on recruiting and player […]

I originally came up with the idea of creating “five-year profiles” because I wanted to evaluate the entire Charlie Weis period at Notre Dame on a scale relative to the rest of college football. The thought was that if we could create a snapshot of what the last five seasons (2005-2009) looked like at ND […]

Thanks to all who participated in the 2010 Season Predictions Survey. When the data to support this analysis was gathered, over 1,500 votes had been cast. The primary goal of this exercise is to move beyond simply estimating a win-loss record. Selecting the percent confidence in a win on a game-by-game basis is not only […]

The stat gurus at Football Outsiders have released the most recent edition of their off-season annual—Football Outsiders Almanac 2010—complete with an introductory explanation of some new and innovative statistics, 2010 projections for every college football team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, quarterback and recruiting rankings, and a brief history of conference realignment. In conjunction with […]