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 will not reside in Athens at the end of the…

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. While the numbers show this to be a weakness, the…

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 more troubling than winning only half their games against a…

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 championship, it failed to predict Florida beating the spread in…

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 record to that of his predecessors as ample evidence to…

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 this year’s squad would be one or two years away…

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 games feature the following opponents:

Big 12: Missouri vs. Oklahoma…

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 ball for over eight minutes less than their Trojan counterparts,…