Notre Dame lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds of an offensive shootout Saturday. The game proved to be a rite of passage for Wolverine freshman quarterback Tate Forcier and bolstered the resume of head coach Rich Rodriguez’s latest second-year turnaround effort. For the Irish, another solid offensive outing was undermined by untimely penalties, a […]

Notre Dame travels to Ann Arbor Saturday to face what appears to be a rejuvenated Michigan team under second year head coach Rich Rodriguez. Both teams easily dispatched their first opponents as the Irish scored a dominant win against Nevada and the Wolverines routed Western Michigan. But convincing opening week wins are largely overshadowed by […]

The momentum from the Hawaii Bowl certainly carried over for the Irish offense. Head coach Charlie Weis couldn’t have written a better script for the first game of 2009 as Notre Dame amassed better than 500 yards of offense while shutting out a Nevada squad that averaged over 37 points per game in 2008. It […]

Notre Dame opens the 2009 season Saturday by welcoming Nevada to South Bend. For many this is the “make it or break it” year for head coach Charlie Weis. Two consecutive disappointing campaigns have exhausted all the leniency from the overachieving Irish squads of his first two years. Weis made several changes in the off-season: […]

The beginning of Fall practice marks the end of a long off-season for Notre Dame football. After limping through the second half of the 2008 campaign, questions surfaced about head coach Charlie Weis’ job security. Despite this, the Irish coaching staff hauled in a solid—albeit not great—recruiting class, and subsequently underwent several coaching changes. If […]

With the Blue-Gold game over and the football team taking time-off until June, the staff of Clashmore Mike sat down to determine several key players in this year’s team. Some are needed for the Irish to have a great season. Others have been named as players to watch and are expected to put up record […]

A relatively young off-season has brought a host of changes to the Notre Dame football program. The Irish landed a solid, albeit not great, recruiting class and three new coaches were hired to replace offensive line coach John Latina, defensive line coach Jappy Oliver, and offensive coordinator and running backs coach Mike Haywood. A more […]

Better late than never I guess… The Fighting Irish played arguably the best 60 minutes of football in the past 24 games Christmas Eve, beating the Hawaii Warriors in all three phases of the game. Notre Dame dominated in time of possession (33 to 27 minutes), total offense (478 to 359 yards), average yards per […]

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. […]

The story for the Irish this year is completeness, as in playing a complete game. The pieces are present—a dynamic vertical passing threat, a recently developed dependable kicking game and solid defense, excellent special teams coverage units, and talent at nearly every skill position—to be a good team, but Notre Dame has yet to put […]