Blue and Gold Illustrated

January 2019

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

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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2019 11 UNDER THE DOME 2 Football Bowl Subdivision teams among the 129 that did not allow more than 27 points in any of this year's regular season and conference championship games: Notre Dame and Fresno State. Wake Forest reached 27 against the Irish with a late touchdown during a 56-27 defeat Sept. 22. In six Notre Dame home games, the opposition did not score more than 17 points once (15.7 average), a first since 1985. Overall, Notre Dame's 17.3 scoring average ranked ninth nationally. 4 Notre Dame defenders who earned All-America notice from Pro Football Focus, which records and grades every play of every Football Bowl Subdivision game. Senior linebacker Te'von Coney received first-team recognition with a 91.6 grade that included him allowing only 132 passing yards on the 35 times he was targeted. Junior safety ALOHI GILMAN made the second team with a 90.4 grade, while senior defensive tackle Jerry Tillery (90.3) and junior cornerback Julian Love (90.1) were chosen honorable mention. Cotton Bowl opponent Clemson had three players selected: defensive tackle Christian Wilkins (first team), and wide receivers Te e H i g g i n s ( s e c o n d team) and Justyn Ross (honorable mention). 7 Touchdown passes allowed all season by the Fighting Irish — in- cluding merely one apiece by the junior cornerback tandem of Julian Love and Troy Pride Jr. Since 1981, the only Notre Dame team to allow fewer touchdown receptions all season were first-year head coach Bob Davie's 1997 unit with five during a 7-6 campaign. This 2018 team finished the regular season No. 4 nationally in pass efficiency defense with a 100.83 rating. 11 Times Notre Dame will have played an unbeaten team in a bowl game by facing 13-0 Clemson Dec. 29 in the Cotton Bowl. The Fighting Irish own a remarkable 8-2 record in the postseason versus opponents who have not lost. Chronologically, the eight victories came versus 7-0-1 Stanford in the 1925 Rose Bowl (27-10), 10-0 Texas in the 1971 Cotton Bowl (24-11), 11-0 Ala- bama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl (24-23), 11-0 Alabama in the 1975 Orange Bowl (13-11), 11-0 Texas in the 1978 Cotton Bowl (38-10), 11-0 West Virginia in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl (34-21), 11-0 Colorado in the 1990 Orange Bowl (21-6) and 12-0 Texas A&M in the 1993 Cotton Bowl (28-3). The only two losses were to 10-0 Texas in the 1970 Cotton Bowl (21-17) and 11-0 Georgia in the 1981 Sugar Bowl (17-10). 18-18 Notre Dame's all-time football record in the postseason, with 35 of the 36 played since the 1969 season, the year the school rescinded its non-bowl policy (the As- sociated Press selected the national title winner at the end of the regular season, not after bowls, until the 1968 campaign). Following the 1993 season, Notre Dame's 13-6 record in bowl games was the best winning percentage (.684) among schools with at least 15 appearances. Since then it has been only 5-12, with an NCAA-record nine consecutive losses from 1994-2006. If Notre Dame defeats Clemson, it would play two postseason games in one campaign for the first time in its history. 24-17 Final scores in both Notre Dame's 2018 season opener versus Michigan (Sept. 1) and in the regular- season finale at USC (Nov. 24). The last time that happened was the 1973 national title season, when head coach Ara Parseghian's Fighting Irish opened with a 44-0 victory at home versus Northwestern and then capped the regular season with a 44-0 win at Miami. That campaign concluded in the Sugar Bowl with a victory versus … No. 1 Alabama. 100 Years since Knute Rockne's first year as head coach at Notre Dame in 1918. The last time Notre Dame won a national title (1988), that year was the 100th an- niversary of Rockne's birth (1888). ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL

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