Notre Dame Moves to No. 18 in AP; Aldridge Out, Hughes In

 The Notre Dame Fighting Irish moved into the No. 18 spot of the latest AP Top 25 Poll this week. The week one rankings can be found here, at SportsIllustrated.com. Previously the Irish were ranked No. 23 in the country, and they seemed to impress the voters this week. Nice job, Irish!

In other Irish news, the Notre Dame backfield is getting a bit of a shakeup. James Aldridge, the starting fullback this season, is having a nagging shoulder problem and won’t be starting this weekend against Michigan. Instead, Robert Hughes will be the lead fullback. The Irish have had a few injuries and shakeups in the backfield, but they still have a number of key contributors in the mix, and they ought to rely on their running backs and full backs a little more versus the Wolverines than they did against the Nevada Wolfpack last week.

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