The Irish opened 2009 with a resounding 35-0 defeat of Nevada. While the Wolfpack offense turned the ball over three times—twice in potential scoring position—the game was a fairly one-sided affair. Notre Dame ran the ball well, controlled the clock, and displayed a dynamic downfield passing attack. Since then, games have been anything but one-sided. […]

After Saturday’s loss to USC, Clashmore Mike staff writer Anthony Pilcher conducted an interview with Chicago’s 670 The Score (670am). The audio of the interview itself can be found at the bottom of this article. What follows are some further responses and elaboration on topics from the interview itself. On The “Must Win” Game For […]

Notre Dame faces rival USC Saturday in South Bend. Both teams enter the contest coming off a bye week and, save wide receiver Michael Floyd, the Irish are as healthy as they’ve been since the season opener. Lately the series has been owned by the Trojans, with seven straight victories by an average margin of […]

With the offensive analysis out of the way, it’s time to focus on the mid-year statistical review of Notre Dame’s defense. But before getting to the numbers some logistical details must be outlined. As was the case with the offense, the individual game performances (Nevada, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and Washington) tell part of the […]

Bye weeks are good for many things. For head coach Charlie Weis this week was an opportunity to rest key personnel with injuries, self-scout the first five games, and get the reserves meaningful practice repetitions. For fans it is a chance to reflect on (and potentially readjust) their season expectations and, this year, to get […]

You can say the Irish are a lot of things, but boring isn’t one of them. If last week was good for hypertension, this week was enough to incite a heart attack. In what is becoming a recurring trend, Notre Dame needed late-game heroics from quarterback Jimmy Clausen to secure victory. The Huskies deserve credit. […]

Notre Dame begins a three game homestand against the Washington Huskies this weekend. Coming off consecutive last-minute victories and laden with injuries to key personnel, the Irish need a convincing win to build confidence and the subsequent bye week to nurse the wounded. Washington enters the game with victories against Idaho and mighty USC, a […]

I’m usually an optimist concerning most things. I’m the guy who sat in front of the television every Saturday afternoon during the 2007 football season yelling obscenities and screaming that the football team wasn’t playing as well as I thought they should. They weren’t playing up to my expectations, even though the expectations I had […]

Now that the voting is over, it’s time to present the results. First, thanks to all who participated. At the time of this analysis better than 200 people cast votes. For each game on Notre Dame’s 2009 schedule voters were asked to select their confidence in a win. Predicting the outcome of the 2009 season […]

Whether you saw the Blue-Gold game live or followed along with the reviews, the Irish have had a relatively eventful off-season. A solid recruiting class headlined by defensive stalwart Manti Te’o preceded three coaching changes. Rumors emerged from Spring practice sessions highlighting quarterback Jimmy Clausen’s continued development, defensive lineman Ethan Johnson domination of one-on-one drills […]