Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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14 PRESEASON 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME The 2018 season marks the Sil‑ ver Anniversary of ESPN's Game‑ Day pregame college football show, which debuted at Notre Dame on Nov. 13, 1993, with the No. 1 versus No. 2 showdown with Florida State that the Fighting Irish won 31‑24. Thus, it seems fitting that the show's Silver Anniversary season will kick off the 2018 campaign at Notre Dame for the Sept. 1 opener against Michigan. It marks the first time since the Oct. 13, 2012 matchup with Stanford — a 20‑13 overtime conquest by the Irish — that GameDay is at Notre Dame. It was a positive portent as Notre Dame went on to finish the regular season 12‑0 and ranked No. 1 before losing 42‑14 to Ala‑ bama in the BCS National Champi‑ onship Game on Jan. 7, 2013. Overall, Notre Dame is 12‑16 on GameDay, most recently a 41‑8 loss at Miami last Nov. 11. Beginning with the debacle ver‑ sus Alabama in the BCS title game, Notre Dame tied a school‑record four‑game losing streak on Game‑ Day (also losing at Michigan in 2013, at Florida State in 2014 and at Clemson in 2015) before snap‑ ping the drought with a 24‑20 vic‑ tory versus Temple on Oct. 31. 2015, when DeShone Kizer found Will Fuller for the go‑ahead score with 2:09 remaining in the contest. Of the 28 games played by Notre Dame with GameDay present, Michigan has been the most fre‑ quent opponent with six appear‑ ances while USC has had five. The results in those six contests saw the Wolverines emerge victorious five times: 1994 at ND: Michigan 26, Notre Dame 24 1998 at ND: Notre Dame 36, Mich‑ igan 20 1999 at U‑M: Michigan 26, Notre Dame 22 2003 at U‑M: Michigan 38, Notre Dame 0 2011 at U‑M: Michigan 35, Notre Dame 31 2013 at U‑M: Michigan 41, Notre Dame 30 The Irish are 4‑4 all time at home when GameDay comes to town. Since playing Stanford in Octo‑ ber 2012, this has been the longest stretch of time Notre Dame has had without hosting GameDay. The previous high was from Septem‑ ber 2000 (versus No. 1 Nebraska, a 27‑24 overtime loss) until Oct. 15, 2005 — a 34‑31 heart‑wrenching loss to No. 1 USC. Both defeats to many were signs that Notre Dame "was on the way back," but both eventually proved to be false alarms. The Fighting Irish head coach re‑ cords on GameDay are: Lou Holtz (2‑2), Bob Davie (1‑4), Tyrone Will‑ ingham (3‑2), Charlie Weis (2‑2) and Brian Kelly (4‑6). On Sept. 1, ESPN GameDay is returning to South Bend for a football game for the first time since Notre Dame's showdown with Stanford on Oct. 13, 2012. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA The 2018 preseason forecast for Notre Dame is much like where the team itself has been the past 24 years — all over the place. Such inconsistency was reflected in getting ranked as high as No. 5 by the ESPN Football Power Index (FPI), to not even cracking the top 25 on Colleg- eFootballNews.com or SaturdaydownSouth.com. Generally, reality was somewhere in between. Nos. 8-16 were the most common projections by the numerous media outlets. The Fighting Irish fin- ished No. 11 in the Associated Press poll in both 2015 and 2017, with a 4-8 fiasco sandwiched in between, thereby reflecting the inconsistent theme. On the web, the highest ranking for Notre Dame was No. 7 by SBNation's analytics specialist Bill Connelly, while the Sporting News had the Fighting Irish at No. 9 and ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach, independent from the FPI, placed them No. 12. Among print editions, Phil Steele's had the Irish No. 8, Lindy's No. 12, Street & Smith's No. 14, Athlon No. 15, and Sports Illustrated and USA Today No. 16. The Amway Coaches Poll that was unveiled Aug. 2 had Notre Dame No. 11, while the AP poll released Aug. 20 placed the Fighting Irish at No. 12. Interestingly, Notre Dame's highest AP preseason rating in head coach Brian Kelly's nine years was No. 10 in 2016 — the year it went 4-8. Conversely, the Irish were not even in the AP preseason top 25 in 2012 and 2017 — and finished No. 4 and No. 11, respectively, the highest placements during Kelly's tenure. UP, DOWN & ALL AROUND Notre Dame To Host ESPN'S GameDay Opener