When Brian Kelly was hired to coach at Notre Dame, one of the biggest and most legitimate questions Irish supporters had was his ability to recruit on a national level. If Brian Kelly and his staff showed nothing else on National Signing Day, they responded to fans’ worries with an emphatic “yes,” and did their best […]

Editor’s note: The previous week’s results can be found here: week 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6. The dust has settled on the 2011 season, and the Auburn Tigers came out on top. It was quite the turnaround for head coach Gene Chizik. Auburn finished the 2009 season in relatively pedestrian […]

Editor’s note: Special thanks to ESP and AVR co-creator Vincenzo Siciliano for his effort in the work outlined below. He did the analysis, I just made a few observations and wrote up this summary. Disclaimer #1: The following is not intended for betting purposes. Disclaimer #2: The following analysis does not include the Army—Navy game […]

Editor’s note: Be sure to check back for the final installment of the ESP when the final AV Ranking (AVR) will be used to predict the bowl game outcomes. The previous week’s results can be found here: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6. The season ended with three undefeated teams but only […]

Now that teams are in the middle of their conference schedules, the cream is rising to the top. Arkansas bested South Carolina. Texas A&M handed the Sooners their second loss. LSU edged out Alabama. And TCU dismantled the Utes on their home field. There were near misses as well. Iowa nearly lost to Indiana and […]

Notre Dame returns home Saturday before getting a much-needed bye week. The Irish are beset with injuries on both sides of the ball and the team’s psyche is undoubtedly fragile after the decisive loss to Navy. After reeling off three-straight victories, head coach Brian Kelly’s team took a big step back in East Rutherford. Notre […]

Another number one bites the dust. Yesterday didn’t have the chaos of last week or the week before it, but Oklahoma’s loss to Missouri and Auburn’s besting of LSU leaves only seven unbeaten teams—Auburn, Boise State, Michigan State, Missouri, Oregon, TCU and Utah. Auburn’s win vaulted them to the top of both the ESP and […]

What a weekend to release rankings. Number one Alabama falls to South Carolina, LSU hands the Gators their second consecutive loss in what can only be described as Milesian fashion, Michigan State’s defense contains Denard Robinson en route to thumping rival Michigan, Oregon State upsets Arizona on the road, and Stanford finishes off the Trojans […]

Part 2 of this series of articles will cover the effects of scheduling and the benefit that playing home games have on a program, and how these areas have affected Notre Dame. While Part 1 focused on the player impact on a program, recruiting and development—something the coach and his staff have greater control over—this […]

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 […]