Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com APRIL 2019 9 UNDER THE DOME 0 Back-to-back road games for the Notre Dame football team in 2019. That's a first since 2012, when the Fighting Irish finished the regular season 12-0. 1-2 Rivals ranked incoming Notre Dame freshman safeties Kyle Hamilton (No. 75 player overall nationally) and Litchfield Ajavon (No. 106) as the best one-two combination at safety in the 2019 recruiting haul by any school. The top five was rounded out by Michigan, Texas A&M, Texas and Oklahoma. That tandem comes on the heels of Notre Dame signing two 2018 safe- ties that were ranked among the top 150 (Houston Griffith at No. 43, but is now working at cornerback, and Derrik Allen at No. 135) for the first time since the start of the Rivals era in 2002. 2 Triple-doubles this season for Fighting Irish junior guard Jackie Young after scoring 22 points, handing out 11 as- sists and grabbing 10 rebounds in the regular-season finale versus Virginia March 3. She also achieved the feat in the victory at Tennessee Jan. 24, with 16 points, 12 re- bounds and 10 assists. She joins Skylar Diggins (2009-13) as the lone Notre Dame players to achieve it twice in a career — and the first to do it multiple times in one season. 5 Rating of Brian Kelly among the best college football head coaches in the country, per The Athletic's Stewart Mandel. He has Alabama's Nick Saban and Clemson's Dabo Swinney at 1A and 1B after splitting the last four national titles. Also ahead of Kelly are Washington's Chris Pe- tersen (No. 3) and Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley (No. 4), although the latter has coached only two seasons. Rounding out the top 10 are Georgia's Kirby Smart (whom the Irish face Sept. 21), Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher, Washington State's Mike Leach, TCU's Gary Patterson and Stanford's David Shaw. Meanwhile, Bruce Feldman of The Athletic has Kelly No. 9. His top four is the same, but he has Fisher at No. 5, and then added Penn State's James Franklin (No. 6) and UCLA's Chip Kelly (No. 7) before rounding out with Patterson, Kelly and Leach. 11 Strikeouts recorded by sophomore southpaw pitcher Cole Kmet — also the starting tight end for the football team — in only 7⅓ innings during his second collegiate start versus Ball State March 3. He also issued no walks. The 11 strikeouts were the most by a Notre Dame pitcher since Will Hudgins had 12 against Pitt on March 23, 2012. Two days earlier, Kmet earned his first save of the season, versus Charleston Southern, setting down the Buc- caneers in order in the ninth, two on strikeouts. For Kmet's effort, he was one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week. Last year, he led the Irish in saves with eight, which ranked ninth all time in school history for a single season. 13 Double-doubles — points and rebounds — recorded by Notre Dame junior forward JOHN MOONEY during the 18-game Atlantic Coast Conference regular season. That was the most by any ACC player since 1996-97, when Wake Forest's Tim Duncan — a 15-time NBA All-Star and two-time MVP — had 15. Mooney averaged 14.1 points and 11.2 rebounds per game during the 13-18 regular season, and then tallied 20 points and 10 boards in Notre Dame's 78-71 victory versus Georgia Tech in the opening round of the ACC Tournament March 12. ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY COREY BODDEN