After routing the Huskies to start the second half of their season, Notre Dame welcomes Pittsburgh to South Bend. The visiting Panthers enter the contest with a 5-2 record, 28 the AV Ranking, and impressive resume. Although potentially untested (70th ranked AV strength of schedule, Pittsburgh is respectable in most statistical categories.

The most glaring weakness of the upcoming Irish opponent is a –6 in…

Charting the Irish offense from Saturday’s game against Washington leads to some interesting results. Namely, the Irish still frequently give away their run/pass intention prior to snapping the ball.

While offensive coordinator Mike Haywood had arguably his best play calling game of the year, the Irish are extremely predictable based on personnel grouping and formation. In other words, Saturday’s contest against the Huskies was more…

It’s week nine of the ESP and week two of the BCS Standings. A comparison of the ESP and AV Ranking follows.

Elite Selection Playoff

The past few weeks have seen some movement at the top but the really surprising thing is the number of teams in the top 25 of the ESP that aren’t from BCS conferences.

Boise State (10), Utah (11), TCU (13),…

Notre Dame owned an edge in nearly every statistical category in their 33-7 win over the Washington Huskies. The Irish offense didn’t punt once, and the defense limited the Huskies to only a few first downs through every meaningful minute of play.

The Irish had nearly a 15 minute edge in time of possession, was perfect scoring in four red zone attempts, only turned the…

Coming off a bye week Notre Dame travels to Seattle to face the win-less Washington Huskies. With the memory of a mistake-ridden loss to North Carolina fresh in the minds of the Irish players, a strong effort in the early going is a necessity. A convincing road win would go a long way to getting the second half of the 2008 season pointed in the…

This past week, the Notre Dame Football team found themselves at a very unique crossroads. For a long while, the Irish have yet to field a football team that could be so enjoyable to watch and yet, with a split second and a mental lapse, could be so frustrating to watch. When they are clicking on all cylinders, this football team has the ability to…

With the offense out of the way, it’s time to move on to the defense.

For Notre Dame’s defense the story of 2007 was really the inept Irish offense. The offense didn’t control the ball, frequently turned it over, and often times failed to change the field position. This made playing four quarters of solid football a very difficult task for the Irish defense.

Despite…

At first glance the Irish offense seems dramatically improved from a unit that spent last year near the bottom of the country in every meaningful statistical category. A closer look at the numbers, however, reveals a different story.

For example, through six games the Irish stand at 4-2, a far cry from the 1-5 record they held midway through the 2007 campaign. But the competition…

Coinciding with the release of the BCS comes this week’s version of the Elite Selection Playoff (ESP). For you first timers an explanation of the ESP can be found here. I’ve also attached the links to the BCS standings and Sagarin Computer Ranking for comparison purposes.

Nota Bene, Sagarin’s strength of schedule calculation is very different from that used by the AV Ranking. Sagarin includes…

You Call That A Tendency?

Charting the Irish offense from Saturday’s game against North Carolina leads to a painful—yet obvious—conclusion: Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood telegraphs the pass. It is puzzling how the Irish still managed 383 yards through the air, a testament to the talent Notre Dame has on offense.

Disclaimer: The following analysis excludes the first two drives of the game (11…