Editor’s note: This is the final installment of a five-part series detailing the blueprint for winning the BCS national championship and measuring the Irish performance against this standard. As Irish fans know all too well, Notre Dame hasn’t been part of the national title picture for over a decade. The last year the lads in […]

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of a five-part series detailing the blueprint for winning the BCS national championship and measuring the Irish performance against this standard. As the offensive and defensive results indicate, there is certainly a blueprint for winning a BCS national championship. The overwhelming majority of the last 10 champions performed […]

Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a five-part series detailing the blueprint for winning the BCS national championship and measuring the Irish performance against this standard. What is the defensive recipe for winning the BCS national championship? The aforementioned approach has been used to parse the data and identify the statistical metrics common […]

Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a five-part series detailing the blueprint for winning the BCS national championship and measuring the Irish performance against this standard. Offensively, what does it take to win the BCS national championship? The data below outlines the statistical metrics that answer this question via the approach described in […]

It’s been 21 seasons since Notre Dame last won the national championship, and college football has certainly evolved during that time. The Associated and United Press Championships have been replaced by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Recruiting has changed focus to the talent hotbeds of California, Florida and Texas. Two tight end, I-backfields have been […]

While the defense may be a bigger problem, one of the primary concerns for many Irish fans is the spread passing offense of new head coach Brian Kelly. Kelly makes no secret of his offensive goal, he wants to be aggressive and vertical, scoring on every possession. As such, he favors the pass over the […]

It always starts the same way. Media pundits gushing over video-game offensive and defensive statistics, touting playmakers and storylines, and predicting the winner or the next “game of the year, decade or century.” It fires up the fans. This year will be no different: it may not be Oklahoma’s unthinkable, record setting offense or USC’s […]

At Clashmore Mike we strive to monitor the college football landscape as a whole, objectively and without bias. While we have a vested interest in Notre Dame, we attempt to view the performance of the Irish via appropriate statistical metrics that benchmark on-field production (irrespective of how said production is measured). One such example is […]

After two of the most prolific offensive seasons in Fighting Irish history, the Charlie Weis-led Notre Dame offense produced two inconsistent and wholly underwhelming campaigns in 2007 and 2008. The efficient, passing-centric offense led by quarterback Brady Quinn has been replaced by a one-dimensional vertical passing attack that struggles against relatively average defensive units. As […]

Disclaimer: The following is not intended for betting purposes. The AV Ranking was two for three in conference championship picks from last week. It was much less accurate, however, predicting the odds of beating the spreads. While the AV Ranking was able to successfully predict Oklahoma beating the 17 point spread in the Big 12 […]