Notre Dame travels to Ann Arbor Saturday to face what appears to be a rejuvenated Michigan team under second year head coach Rich Rodriguez. Both teams easily dispatched their first opponents as the Irish scored a dominant win against Nevada and the Wolverines routed Western Michigan. But convincing opening week wins are largely overshadowed by […]

The momentum from the Hawaii Bowl certainly carried over for the Irish offense. Head coach Charlie Weis couldn’t have written a better script for the first game of 2009 as Notre Dame amassed better than 500 yards of offense while shutting out a Nevada squad that averaged over 37 points per game in 2008. It […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

What I appreciate most about the Notre Dame fan base, and what normally annoys anyone who doesn’t bleed Blue and Gold, is our unending devotion to the Irish and our blind support of the football team—including to the point of humiliation (see: 2007). If we sit around long enough and think about the team enough, […]

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 […]