Notre Dame Players Get Midseason All-American Honors

Two Notre Dame football players have made the Rivals.com midseason All-American team. Michael Floyd, a freshman receiver, made the midseason Freshman All-American team, and David Burton, a senior free safety, was named as an honorable mention in the actual midseason All-American team. Floyd has caught 27 passes for 426 yards so far, and has been one of quarterback Jimmy Clausen’s favorite targets. He’s still got a couple years with the team, so we’re expecting big things from Floyd. Burton has two interceptions, two forced fumbles and leads the Irish in solo tackles. Congrats to both young men, and good luck in the second half of the season. Check them out this weekend when the Irish play Washington.

In other Irish news, the Notre Dame hockey team is opening up their first home stand of the year this weekend. As you might know, the Notre Dame hockey team was good enough to make it all the way to the NCAA Finals last season, and a trip to the Frozen Four this year is a distinct possibility.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 17, 2008 - Post a comment

Irish Prepare for Second Half of Season, Washington

Notre Dame has come to the mid point in their season with a decent record of 4-2, and lots to be excited about. They’re two wins away from getting to the bowl game eligibility mark, and they could be one away if they can go to Washington this Saturday and get a win versus former Notre Dame coach Ty Willingham. The Irish are heavy favorites, but even at a possible mark of 5-2, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis is not happy, not satisfied. Said Weis, according to the Sports Xchange.com,

“I just feel disappointed for the team that we’re sitting here with two losses at the halfway mark. That’s really what surprised me. Everyone else’s expectations were lower based off how last year went. But I’m disappointed to be sitting here at 4 and 2 right now. Very disappointed.“

Weis is free to his opinion and his high expectations, but we get the feeling here at the Notre Dame Blog that most of the Irish supporters are pleased with the way things are going. Remember what things were like last season at this point? We’ve come a loooooong way.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 16, 2008 - Post a comment

Irish Basketball Team Expects High Expectations

Notre Dame Basketball is ramping up for the beginning of the season, so instead of having another blog about the football loss last week, we’re going to give you some inspirational news. It’s expected that Notre Dame will be given a high AP Poll ranking, possibly in the top ten, and they will also be within the elite of the Big East- possibly No. 1 or No. 2, depending on where the Big East coaches rank the Louisville Cardinals, presumably. According to this Brian Hamilton Chicago Tribune article about the high expectations, Irish forward Zach Hillesland had this to say:

“We know more than any other team in the country not to get caught up in preseason hype and preseason expectations, because if we lived up to expectations the past three years, we’d be finishing 11th and 12th in the Big East. We’re old enough and smart enough to know not to get carried away with that stuff.”

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 15, 2008 - Post a comment

Chicago Tribune Gives Irish Unsatisfactory Grades

We’re six games into the Irish football season, and some of the sports writers are handing out mid-term report cards. You can see Brian Hamilton’s grades for the Irish if you visit the Chicago Tribune webpage. He’s grading the offense, defense, coaching and special teams. If you’re not satisfied with the Irish performance so far, you might be inclined to agree with Hamilton’s assessment. However, we here at the Notre Dame Blog are a bit more optimistic about the Irish. They’re not looking so bad. They barely lost to the Tar Heels last week. If it weren’t for some bad turnovers, they’d be sitting on a 5-1 record, probably just outside the Top 25 rankings.

Hamilton does bring up the fact that the Notre Dame football schedule looks pretty easy from here on out, save for a game against the USC Trojans, which doesn’t look too promising. But hey, the Oregon State Beavers beat USC, so who knows. At any rate, the Irish have a lot more time to improve their grades, and the way the offense keeps topping itself from week to week, Notre Dame could get above a 3.5 GPA in no time.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 14, 2008 - Post a comment

Turnovers Costly as Tar Heels Beat Fighting Irish

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish came away from their game against the North Carolina Tar Heels with a loss this Saturday. North Carolina won the game 29-24 and was able to stave off a potential UND comeback late in the game. The Irish were in control of the contest through halftime, leading 17-9 when they entered the tunnel. However, Notre Dame proceeded to throw two interceptions in the second half and lost two other fumbles. It’s very hard to win against a good team when you can’t control the ball, and the Irish learned that lesson the hard way.

One good thing that came of the game was that quarterback Jimmy Clausen had a fine performance- save for the interceptions. He surpassed his previous yardage record (the third straight week that he’s done so) with a total of 383 passing yards. He also threw two touchdowns. Jimmy had plenty of time to throw all day, and he made the Heels pay, despite the fact that Golden Tate was out for large chunks of the game. Promising news from the passing game, but losing is still a bummer. The Irish are now 4-2 this season.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 13, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame-North Carolina Information

As you are probably well aware, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the North Carolina Tar Heels are set to play this Saturday in Chapel Hill. As the article about the game at UND.com says, the game is the 67th sellout of the past 74 Irish road games, meaning that if you want tickets, you’re going to have to go somewhere other than the box office on game day. We have a few ideas…. But we digress. Here are a few of the most interesting facts about the game, courtesy of UND.com.

  • Notre Dame is 16-1-0 all-time versus North Carolina
  • The Irish have not played in the state of North Carolina since the Gerald Ford administration
  • North Carolina has just six sacks so far this year
  • Brady Quinn threw for 346 yards against the Tar Heels in 2006
  • Notre Dame dominates the ACC more completely than any other major football conference, having a winning percentage of .717 all-time against the ACC.
  • George Gipp never played against North Carolina

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 10, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Slaughtered Heels in ‘49

On Friday we’re predicting that you’re going to get your usual dose of stats from the great guys at UND.com, who always come with a brilliant pre-game article about the random facts and minutia of the upcoming game. The Irish, as we’re all well aware, play the North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill this upcoming Saturday. In case you don’t have tickets, check your local TV listings, because it’s sure to be on somewhere.

We found a story about the 1949 game between the Irish and the North Carolina Tar Heels. (Meetings between these two teams are extremely rare.) The Irish, who were ranked No. 1 at the time and would eventually win one of their many national championships, beat the Heels in Yankee Stadium 42-6. The thing of it was that the Heels were winning at half time 6-0, until their starting tailback went down with an injury. In the second half the Irish scored 42 unanswered. Boy if that were to happen again… just think….

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 9, 2008 - Post a comment

Sports Illustrated Ranks Irish No. 48… AP, No. 35

If you take a look at this page, you’ll see that Notre Dame is ranked No. 48 in the latest college football power rankings, according to Sports Illustrated.com. There’s no real explanation here, although with the teams after No. 25, they sparingly comment on why they placed them where they did. The AP doesn’t give any written explanation for any of their rankings, but according to their latest poll, the Fighting Irish were ranked No. 35 out of the vote getters. When you’re out of the Top 25 in the AP poll, you’re considered unranked, remember.

So why the discrepancy? Notre Dame is 4-1 with wins over a few bad teams, and one or two decent teams. While the record is fine and dandy, some polls must take strength of schedule a bit more seriously. The Irish play the North Carolina Tar Heels next week, which will mean they’re playing a ranked team (No. 22). A win would go a very long way to proving the legitimacy of Notre Dame, and perhaps even giving them a ranking very soon.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 8, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame vs. Vanderbilt?

Notre Dame and Vanderbilt are the subjects of the latest Dennis Dodd article. Although they do not play each other this year, and although they do not usually play one another, are not located near one another, and would otherwise have not connection to one another, Dennis Dodd makes a number of comparisons between the two. Notre Dame is a good academic school that gets most of its hype for its sports teams, specifically the Fighting Irish football team, arguable the most popular college sports team in America. Vanderbilt, despite being in the football-focused SEC conference, is more known as a good academic school, though it’s no better than Notre Dame, at least not significantly. But while the reason for the comparison of these two schools is a bit flimsy, it still seems to help illustrate a few of Dodd’s points.

Dodd thinks that Notre Dame is much more likely to go to a bowl at this point in the season, despite the fact that Vandy (5-0) is currently ranked No. 13 in the AP Top 25 Poll. Notre Dame is 4-1 and unranked. However, they have a better shot at getting to a bowl because their schedule is easier and they have the clout necessary to get a bid to a bowl based on name and marketing alone. Agree? Disagree? There’s plenty of space to make your point in the comments section, and plenty of fans have already done so.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 7, 2008 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Beats Stanford, Improves to 4-1

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team beat Stanford this past Saturday by a score of 28-21. Notre Dame improved to 4-1, while the Cardinal dropped to 3-3. If you saw the game, you would know that the score was a bit deceptive, as the Irish were up 28-7 until about midway through the fourth quarter. The Cardinal made a couple of TDs and seemed as though they were mounting a comeback, but just in time the Irish stomped on the rally.

One of the more noteworthy things about the game was the performance of Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen. Coming off a career-best game against Purdue the Saturday before last, he broke his previous career-highs in yardage and completions. He ended the game with 347 passing yards (29-40) and three touchdowns. Basically the kid looked the best he’s ever looked. The Stanford defense isn’t exactly the best ever, but Jimmy sure made mine meat out of it. The Irish are doing better than most would have expected them to, but they still have some tough challenges coming up. Notre Dame plays 4-1 North Carolina next week.

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Permalink - Posted in General on October 6, 2008 - Post a comment


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