Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1044500
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 5, 2018 25 2-36-1 Record Navy has against Notre Dame when the Fighting Irish are ranked in the Associated Press top 10 at the time of the game. The two victories occurred in 1957 and 1944, and the tie in 1945. Since 1964, this was the 23rd consecutive such victory by Notre Dame against the Midshipmen. 4 Unbeaten teams remaining in the 129-team Football Bowl Subdivision this year: Alabama, Clemson, Notre Dame and Central Florida. The Fighting Irish and Crimson Tide are the only unde- feated teams remaining that have recorded at least six wins over teams from Power Five conferences (ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12). 7 In the last seven seasons (2012-18), this will be the fifth time Notre Dame will enter the month of November with zero or only one defeat, with the others occurring in 2012 (8-0), 2014 (7-1), 2015 (7-1), 2017 (7-1) — and this year (8-0). Consider that in the 18 previous years from 1994-2011 it occurred only three times (1998, 2002 and 2006). 9 Consecutive victories by Notre Dame, dating back to the Jan. 1 Citrus Bowl. That is the football team's second-longest winning streak in the past 25 years from 1994-2018, behind only the 12-0 start in 2012. The 1998, 2002 and 2006 Irish teams had eight-game winning streaks like the current edition did. In the 69 years since 1950, nine previous Notre Dame teams also started 8-0: 1964, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1988, 1989, 1993, 2002 and 2012. 10 San Diego was the 10th different city to host a neutral-site Notre Dame-Navy game, and the first west of Chicago. The uninter- rupted series since 1927 has never been played on Navy's home turf in Annapolis, Md. The previous nine sites included Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, East Rutherford, N.J., Landover, Md., Orlando, Fla., and Jacksonville, Fla., in the United States, plus outings in Dublin, Ireland, in 1996 and 2012. Earlier this week it was announced the 2020 Notre Dame-Navy contest also will be in Dublin, for the third time, Aug. 29. 15 Completions in a row for junior quarter- back Ian Book when he connected on all five passes in the first quarter versus Navy af- ter completing his final 10 in the previous game against Pitt on Oct. 13. He then missed his first attempt in the second quarter against the Mid- shipmen. The 15 consecutive completions are the second most in the team's history, behind the 25 straight (one off the national record) Everett Gol- son had against Syracuse during a 31-15 victory on Sept. 27, 2014. 23 Carries by senior running back Dexter Wil- liams, a career high (totaling 142 yards), topping the 21 he had versus Stanford on Sept. 29 (when he rushed for 161 yards). He never had more than eight carries his first three seasons, and his 74 attempts in only four games this year have almost doubled his 39 each of the past two campaigns. 76.5 Completion percentage this season for Book (130 of 170) after he con- nected on 27 of 33 against Navy. He entered the game already as the nation's leader in that cat- egory at 75.2, and his 81.8 rate versus the Midship- men raised it 1.3 points higher. The single-season school record is held by Jimmy Clausen in 2009 when he finished at 68.0 percent (289 of 425). 8,731 Estimated miles, per Notre Dame's football media relations office, the Irish will travel from Oct. 26 through Nov. 25 to San Diego (Navy), Evanston (Northwest- ern), Newark (Syracuse) and Los Angeles (USC). BY THE NUMBERS BY LOU SOMOGYI 2 Fumbles lost by Notre Dame during the 8-0 start, both by receivers early in the first quarter. The first was by sophomore Michael Young at Wake Forest, and then the second by senior MILES BOYKIN — who would respond with two touchdowns — on the game's first play versus Navy. For some context on losing only two fumbles through eight games and how much the game has changed, consider that Notre Dame's 1977 national champions with Joe Mon- tana at quarterback lost 25 fumbles during the 11-game regular season and had 39 turnovers overall. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA