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 The Associated and United Press Championships have been replaced by the Bowl Championship Series (BCS).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 […]

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 […]

The 2010 Notre Dame football season is drawing near. The Irish are a little over two months away from their home opener against Purdue and Wednesday marked the opening of ticket sales to the general public. In conjunction with the latter, and in preparation for the impending season, Clashmore Mike is hosting its annual pre-season […]

The Pythagorean expectation—brought into the sports vernacular by baseball statistician Bill James—in its most simplest form is a tool used to describe how “lucky” a baseball team was in a given season. By comparing runs scored versus runs allowed, James was able to derive a relationship between winning and scoring margin, and thus could show […]

Spring is definitely in the air. The trees have started to bud and most of the snow is melted away. People have pulled their grills out of the garage and the bravest of souls have taken the chance during the mildly warm weather to sport their flip-flop sandals. Fortunately, to beat the winter blues out […]

With few exceptions, the 2009 Irish offense had a very productive year. Quarterback Jimmy Clausen and wide receiver Golden Tate turned in brilliant performances and led an explosive unit that generated over 30 points per outing. But if there was an Achilles’ heel—and there was—it was red zone point production. The Irish struggled inside the […]

The 2009 Irish offense has been dissected, detailed and summarized. Now it’s time to turn to the other side of the ball. Many (myself included) believed Notre Dame’s 2009 defense would be a large step forward from a 2008 unit that was below average. The Irish returned a host of starters, an off-season coaching responsibility […]

Disclaimer: The following is not intended for betting purposes. Similar to last year, the final AV Ranking values (see the values in the table below) will be used to predict the BCS bowl game winners against the spread. The BCS games are as follows: Rose Bowl presented by Citi: Ohio State vs. Oregon Tostitos Fiesta […]