Miscellany, News, Statistics »

By · December 18th, 2008
Pre-Season Polls: What Happened to the Bulldogs?

Most pre-season prognosticators had the Georgia Bulldogs atop the polls to start the year. A strong finish to the 2007 season coupled with incumbent quarterback Matthew Stafford, star running back Knowshon Moreno, and freshman phenom A.J. Green led many to believe the Bulldogs had the inside track at the national championship. Obviously, the crystal football […]

Miscellany, Statistics »

By · December 14th, 2008
How Good Are the Irish? A Year-End Defensive Statistical Review

With the offense out of the way, it’s time to move on to the defense. For comparison purposes, the mid-year defensive review can be found here. The numbers haven’t changed appreciably, neither has the season story for the defense. Most pre-season prognosticators believed the Achilles’ heel of the Irish defense would be stopping the run. […]

Miscellany, Statistics »

By · December 12th, 2008
How Good Are the Irish? A Year-End Offensive Statistical Review

Notre Dame has concluded their regular season, and a reflection on the Irish offense’s progress (or lack thereof) is warranted. The mid-year numbers are here, and this analysis was performed in similar fashion by benchmarking against the competition. Facing the 73rd toughest AV Ranking strength of schedule, the Irish only managed to go 6-6. But […]

Miscellany, News, Statistics »

By · December 9th, 2008
2008 Elite Selection Playoff: Week Fifteen and BCS Championship Predictions

Disclaimer: The following is not intended for betting purposes. The AV Ranking was two for three in conference championship picks from last week. It was much less accurate, however, predicting the odds of beating the spreads. While the AV Ranking was able to successfully predict Oklahoma beating the 17 point spread in the Big 12 […]

Miscellany, Personnel, Recruiting, Staff »

By · December 7th, 2008
The Great Weis Failure Theory

The Fighting Irish limped through their season finale against USC last Saturday. The game proved to be a resounding exclamation point to a dismal second-half season and sparked a frenzy of conjecture over the future of embattled head coach Charlie Weis. Media pundits, Irish haters, and loyal fans all have opinions. The pundits compare his […]

Miscellany, Personnel, Staff, University »

By · December 2nd, 2008
Facing an Angry Mob: The Future of Charlie Weis at Notre Dame

For most Irish fans, including myself, this year was quite a let down for the Notre Dame Football team. At the beginning of the season, many analysts touted the Irish as a team with more cohesiveness and more experience. Gone were the days of poor technique and poor execution. However, most people still felt that […]

Miscellany, News, Statistics »

By · December 1st, 2008
2008 Elite Selection Playoff: Week Fourteen and Conference Championship Predictions

Disclaimer: the following is not intended for betting purposes. As promised here and here, this week the AV ranking will be used to predict the Big 12, ACC, and SEC conference championship games. Forgetting for the moment that the AV Ranking would have put Texas in the Big 12 championship over Oklahoma, these conference championship […]

Game Coverage, Statistics »

By · December 1st, 2008
Statistically Speaking: Notre Dame vs. USC

To put it mildly, USC had their way with the visiting Fighting Irish. In most games you can find a silver lining, but in this contest looking for good in the Irish performance is an exercise in futility. While Notre Dame stayed even in turnover margin, they failed to enter the red zone, held the […]

Miscellany, Personnel, Staff »

By · November 25th, 2008
Progression…or a Lack Thereof

pro⋅gres⋅sion Pronunciation [pruh–gresh–uhn] – noun 1.    the act of progressing; forward or onward movement. 2.    a passing successively from one member of a series to the next; succession; sequence. Progression—in football, it’s used to describe two things. First, it’s used to describe the mental and physical process a quarterback goes through on a passing play […]

Miscellany, News, Statistics »

By · November 25th, 2008
2008 Elite Selection Playoff: Week Thirteen

The season is winding down and the BCS picture is becoming more and more clear. With so many one-loss teams a controversy is brewing, but a lot (albeit not all) should be settled with the conference championships. Visit these links to see the prior releases of the ESP for weeks eight, nine, ten, eleven, and […]