It may be head coach Brian Kelly’s first year at the helm, but positive change is already tangible.

While the 2008 and 2009 Irish squads finished 1-8 in November, this year’s unit went 3-0. It isn’t time to anoint Kelly the next Lou Holtz or Ara Parseghian, but Notre Dame played its best football down the stretch without several critical players such as quarterback Dayne Crist, …

Editor’s note: The previous week’s results can be found here: week 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6.

The dust has settled on the 2011 season, and the Auburn Tigers came out on top. It was quite the turnaround for head coach Gene Chizik. Auburn finished the 2009 season in relatively pedestrian fashion. The Tigers compiled an 8-5 record, including a dubious …

Notre Dame faces Miami in the Sun Bowl New Year’s Eve. The game marks the first meeting between the two teams since 1990 and is a preview of three future contests—a neutral site game at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 2012 and a home/away series in 2016 and 2017.

In many ways the two teams are heading in opposite directions. The Irish enter the game on …

Editor’s note: Special thanks to ESP and AVR co-creator Vincenzo Siciliano for his effort in the work outlined below. He did the analysis, I just made a few observations and wrote up this summary.

Disclaimer #1: The following is not intended for betting purposes.

Disclaimer #2: The following analysis does not include the Army—Navy game last weekend. It is not expected that excluding this …

Editor’s note: Be sure to check back for the final installment of the ESP when the final AV Ranking (AVR) will be used to predict the bowl game outcomes. The previous week’s results can be found here: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6.

The season ended with three undefeated teams but only two will be playing for the BCS National Championship in …

There was some shuffling atop the polls and the AVR this week as three teams—Boise State, LSU, and Oklahoma State —in last week’s ESP top 10 lost.

The Broncos fell one spot in the AVR but fell more sharply in both the AP and Coaches Polls dropping five spots in the former and seven in the latter. LSU dropped from 6th to 13th in the …

Three of the top four AVR teams were idle this week, and Boise State blanked Fresno State. Auburn and the Broncos remain one and two while TCU and Oregon flip-flopped. Of all the teams in the top 10, the Ducks have the least impressive resume with the 109th ranked strength of schedule.

The Irish moved from 52nd to 37th with their win over the Black …

The Irish head to New York City to take on historic foe Army this weekend. Notre Dame is coming of its biggest win of the season and first victory over a ranked opponent since 2006 while the Black Knights enter the game after a road win against Kent State.

The underlying storyline figures to be the matchup between the Irish defense and the Black Knights …

There are still four unbeaten teams. Auburn bested Georgia in a slugfest, Boise State handled Idaho, Oregon survived against California, and TCU edged out San Diego State. With the exception of the Broncos, the other four teams looked largely human.

The trend of top ranked AVR teams with weak schedules continues. Of the top 10 AVR teams, six—Boise State, Oregon, TCU, Nebraska, Ohio State, and Wisconsin—have …

The Irish host 15th ranked Utah Saturday in the first ever meeting between the two schools.

Notre Dame limps into the contest off a bye week at 4-5, and with a rash of injuries to key personnel including quarterback Dayne Crist and several of his primary targets.

The last two outings—a decisive loss to Navy and a home loss to Tulsa that featured a questionable …