The beginning of Fall practice marks the end of a long off-season for Notre Dame football. After limping through the second half of the 2008 campaign, questions surfaced about head coach Charlie Weis’ job security. Despite this, the Irish coaching staff hauled in a solid—albeit not great—recruiting class, and subsequently underwent several coaching changes. If […]

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 […]

Expectations for Notre Dame’s 2008 season were high. The majority of the offense returned and the Irish faced a pedestrian schedule. But after the two consecutive disappointing offensive seasons, many are grasping for answers. A 3-9 campaign followed by an underwhelming 7-5 season can cause even the most ardent fan to forget about quarterback Brady […]

With the Blue-Gold game over and the football team taking time-off until June, the staff of Clashmore Mike sat down to determine several key players in this year’s team. Some are needed for the Irish to have a great season. Others have been named as players to watch and are expected to put up record […]

This past weekend was the annual Blue-Gold spring football game for the Fighting Irish. It was a game that, at times, lulled me to sleep and, at other times, got me excited for the young, developing talent on display. After a rigorous post-game debriefing with my brother and my dad, I was certain that the […]

The 2009 Blue-Gold Game at Notre Dame Stadium threatened to turn into a snooze-fest for the fans and it appeared, for a significant number of those in attendance, that this ended up being the case. As numerous publications and pundits cautioned before the game, it can be futile to infer too much about the status […]

Spring cleaning…for anyone who isn’t a spitting image of Danny Tanner, this term evokes many feelings of disgust, hate, and loathing. At least, that’s what I feel when I think of spring cleaning. It’s a tedious task that usually takes up an entire Saturday–a Saturday that could be spent watching TV, playing video games, or […]

At times during the 2008 season the Irish offense looked like a passing juggernaut. Other times Notre Dame sputtered when faced with a short field, frequently failing to produce an effective rushing attack. This led to poor red zone and third down efficiency that cost the Irish more than one game. In fact, many of […]

As discussed before, three topics contributing to the success and demise of the 2008 Irish offense will be discussed this off-season. The first installment, Part 1, detailed the positives and negatives of head coach Charlie Weis’ offensive philosophy and play-calling approach. The second installment consists of three segments detailing Notre Dame’s struggles running the football. […]

A year ago, I wrote an article discussing who Notre Dame’s true rival is. It was an open and shut case and nobody can deny that throughout their respective histories, Southern California is Notre Dame’s biggest rival. However, with the instability of Weis’ tenure at Notre Dame, most people are pegging Charlie’s success this season […]