Blue and Gold Illustrated

Oct 29, 2018

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 29, 2018 9 UNDER THE DOME 2 With the trip to San Diego to play Navy Oct. 27, this will mark only the second season ever that the Notre Dame football is playing two games in California. It also will play at USC in the regular-season finale Nov. 24. The only other year the Fighting Irish traveled twice to the Golden State was during the miser- able 3-9 campaign in 2007. Remarkably, two of the three victories were recorded in California that season. The first was when the 0-5 Irish upset UCLA 20-6, a game played in the Rose Bowl. Then in the final contest of the year, Notre Dame defeated Stanford — which had upset No. 2-ranked and 41-point favorite USC earlier in the year by a 21-14 count. 3 Defensive touchdowns scored in his career by junior cornerback JULIAN LOVE after scooping up a fumble and scoring from 42 yards out at Virginia Tech. That ties him with four others — cornerbacks Shane Walton (1999-2002) and Allen Rossum (1994-97), linebacker Bobby Leopold (1976-79) and safety Tom Schoen (1966-67) — for most defensive touchdowns tallied by a Notre Dame player. In first place with four is 2004-07 safety Tom Zbikowski (two apiece on fumbles and interceptions). Following the Virginia Tech game, Love joined senior tackle Jerry Tillery and senior linebacker Te'von Coney on the watch list for the 2018 Chuck Bednarik Award, which honors college football's top defensive player. 9 Times in the 16 seasons since 2003 that Notre Dame will play only three games in the month of October, including this year. This is primarily because of the well-planned bye week in the middle of the season that also has often coincided with mid-semester fall break (Oct. 13-19 this year). In the 84 years from 1919 through 2002 (or since the infamous Spanish flu in 1918 cancelled all the October games that year), the Fighting Irish had only five Octobers where it played three or fewer games. 25 In the past quarter-century, this year's "road game" versus Navy will be played in the sixth different NFL Stadium (SCCU Stadium, San Diego). Since 1993, Notre Dame has played the Mid- shipmen in Veterans Stadium (Philadelphia), FedEx Field (Wash- ington), Ravens Stadium (Baltimore), MetLife Field (New York) and EverBank Field (Jacksonville). In between, there were also two games played in Ireland (1996 and 2012) at two different venues. The 2020 game also will be at MetLife Field. 70 Percent completion rate in three consecutive games by junior quarterback Ian Book in his first three starts this season, and prior to entering the Oct. 13 game versus Pitt. Book completed 73.5 percent (25 of 34) at Wake Forest, 72.7 percent (24 of 33) versus Stanford and 71.4 percent (25 of 35) against Virginia Tech in Irish victories. The Notre Dame media relations department researched that no Fighting Irish quarterback through at least the 1950 season completed at least 70 percent of his tosses in three straight games. It's unlikely it occurred prior to then, either, because passing per- centages from that era of football were lower compared to today's shorter passing attacks. For example, 1947 Heisman Trophy winner John Lujack completed 144 of 280 throws (51.4 percent) during his collegiate career. 70-14 Notre Dame's efficiency ranking on offense among 129 Football Bowl Subdivision teams was No. 70 the first three weeks of the season while averaging 23.3 points per game. In the next three games, it improved to No. 14 with Book as the starting quarterback while averaging almost exactly double the point total at 46.3. ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL

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