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 week, another series of undefeated and highly ranked teams falling victim to the upset bug. Ohio State, downed by the Badgers in Madison. Nebraska, done in by a swarming Longhorn defense that allowed a long gain of 14 yards on the ground. South Carolina, outscored 21-0 in the second half by Kentucky after going […]

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 […]

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 […]