The 2009 Irish offense has been dissected, detailed and summarized. Now it’s time to turn to the other side of the ball.

Many (myself included) believed Notre Dame’s 2009 defense would be a large step forward from a 2008 unit that was below average. The Irish returned a host of starters, an off-season coaching responsibility realignment by head coach Charlie Weis put co-defensive coordinator Jon…

With all of the recent and dramatic change in the Irish football program, the 2009 season seems to be mostly forgotten.

There is no bowl game. Sensational quarterback Jimmy Clausen and unanimous All-American and Biletnikoff Award-winning wide receiver Golden Tate have left for the NFL. And Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis has been replaced by Brian Kelly.

This seemingly serves as a forward-looking time…

Scheduling for Success

Once again we’ve reached the part of the season that is consumed by boasting. Who has the best conference—mine or yours? We’re all biased even though we try to be objective about non-conference scheduling. Complicating the process is that fewer top teams are playing each other, more teams are taking advantage of the 12th game to increase the number of home games…

Notre Dame dropped their fourth-straight game Saturday and completed a second-half season slide for the second consecutive season. The Irish finish the regular season at 6-6, the six wins about at the expectation level of the most pessimistic fans.

For the 33 Irish seniors, it was a bitter way to end a season ripe with high expectations. For head coach Charlie Weis it was a…

The 2009 regular season finale for the Fighting Irish will take place in Palo Alto Saturday. Notre Dame faces a much-improved Stanford team and is trying to avoid a four-game losing streak to close out the season. Doing so will be no small task.

This game once looked to be the final hurdle to an Irish BCS berth, now it appears to be an extremely…

Editor’s note: I was at the Ole Miss – LSU game this weekend and was unable to watch Notre Dame play Connecticut. This analysis is directly from the box score and will undoubtedly lack certain insight that comes from viewing the game.

The Irish dropped their third straight Saturday, this time at home, on Senior Day, to the visiting Huskies. For the coaches, players and…

The Fighting Irish return to South Bend Saturday on the heels of their second consecutive loss and looking to avoid a second-half season meltdown. Despite the promise this squad showed early in 2009, the last handful of games have looked eerily similar to the last six games of 2008 when the Irish sputtered to a dismal finish.

Notre Dame’s opponent, the Connecticut Huskies, should not…

Notre Dame couldn’t complete the comeback Saturday, falling 27-22 to Pitttsburgh at Heinz Field. The Irish offense sputtered for three quarters while the defense kept the score close in the early going.

For the second consecutive week, the team looked unprepared and unmotivated until the fourth quarter. This final 15 minute period showed some potential for the Irish, but head coach Charlie Weis hasn’t found…

There was quite a bit of shuffling at the top of the ESP this week (as always a comparison to the BCS is here). Florida dropped a spot after a rather unconvincing win over South Carolina while Alabama jumped two spots to take over at the top. Texas remained number two with TCU, Cincinnati, Boise State, Georgia Tech, Ohio State and Pittsburgh rounding out the…

There was a bit of shuffling at the top of the rankings this week. Florida remains atop the ESP but Texas jumped an idle Alabama squad with their win over Oklahoma State. There were some other teams in top 10 that shuffled around as well. Check out the latest BCS rankings for comparison purposes.

As most teams have played eight games, the AV Ranking nearly…