With all of the recent and dramatic change in the Irish football program, the 2009 season seems to be mostly forgotten. There is no bowl game. Sensational quarterback Jimmy Clausen and unanimous All-American and Biletnikoff Award-winning wide receiver Golden Tate have left for the NFL. And Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis has been replaced […]

Notre Dame dropped their fourth-straight game Saturday and completed a second-half season slide for the second consecutive season. The Irish finish the regular season at 6-6, the six wins about at the expectation level of the most pessimistic fans. For the 33 Irish seniors, it was a bitter way to end a season ripe with […]

If the ESP determined the National Championship Game participants, it would be all but a done deal. Unless Texas loses to Nebraska in the Big 12 Championship, they will face the winner of the SEC Championship game which pits Alabama and Florida for the second consecutive year. TCU and Boise State have had great runs, […]

The 2009 regular season finale for the Fighting Irish will take place in Palo Alto Saturday. Notre Dame faces a much-improved Stanford team and is trying to avoid a four-game losing streak to close out the season. Doing so will be no small task. This game once looked to be the final hurdle to an […]

Editor’s note: I was at the Ole Miss – LSU game this weekend and was unable to watch Notre Dame play Connecticut. This analysis is directly from the box score and will undoubtedly lack certain insight that comes from viewing the game. The Irish dropped their third straight Saturday, this time at home, on Senior […]

The national title picture is becoming more and more clear. Unless something dramatically changes, it will be Texas against the winner of the SEC in the national championship game. The ESP has Alabama number one and Florida number two, while the BCS has the two teams in reverse order. This disparity is largely due to […]

The Fighting Irish return to South Bend Saturday on the heels of their second consecutive loss and looking to avoid a second-half season meltdown. Despite the promise this squad showed early in 2009, the last handful of games have looked eerily similar to the last six games of 2008 when the Irish sputtered to a […]

Notre Dame couldn’t complete the comeback Saturday, falling 27-22 to Pitttsburgh at Heinz Field. The Irish offense sputtered for three quarters while the defense kept the score close in the early going. For the second consecutive week, the team looked unprepared and unmotivated until the fourth quarter. This final 15 minute period showed some potential […]

There was quite a bit of shuffling at the top of the ESP this week (as always a comparison to the BCS is here). Florida dropped a spot after a rather unconvincing win over South Carolina while Alabama jumped two spots to take over at the top. Texas remained number two with TCU, Cincinnati, Boise […]

The Fighting Irish travel to Pittsburgh Saturday. Notre Dame visits the Panthers in the wake of a stunning loss to the Midshipmen, a game where the defense was repeatedly gashed up the middle and the offense struggled mightily in the red zone. The latter has been a theme all season while the former has also […]