Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1183432
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 16, 2019 11 UNDER THE DOME "People in Tallahassee maintain their number one target is Bob Stoops. How many Stoops can be up for this one job? I don't think they can get Bob Stoops. He walked away from Oklahoma. I'm told the only job he'd really be interested in is Notre Dame." — ESPN personality Paul Finebaum said on his radio show "I know, I know. This is a silly question in some regards because Notre Dame is happy with Kelly and he's not going anywhere. But Finebaum put it out there and it's stuck in my head a bit. "Let's just say that Notre Dame and USC came knocking. [Urban] Meyer should choose the USC job because of the freedom it allows him to recruit anyone and not have to deal with academic restric- tions. Let's be clear — Meyer is a great recruiter but not all of his recruits have been choir boys and many of them wouldn't have had a chance to meet Notre Dame's academic standards." — Rivals national re- cruiting director Mike Farrell (Yahoo! Sports) "By holding out on joining a conference, Notre Dame has put itself in a position where national standing is all that matters. Its fans are left in early November with a No. 16 ranking and remaining games against Duke, Navy, Boston College and Stan- ford. For the Irish, there is nothing to gain, only plenty to lose, and that's how they played Saturday. "How much more exciting would it be for their players, even after two tough road losses to tal- ented teams like Georgia and Michigan, if Notre Dame were still at least chasing a championship within a league like most two-loss teams in the country? Once the Irish have lost twice, Kelly no longer can say "all of our goals are in front of us" like every other coach, because there's only one goal at Notre Dame, and it's becoming clear that the goal of winning the big prize is no longer a realistic one." — Brady McCollough of The Los Angeles Times PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS OF THE WEEK "Dear everyone who thinks Brian Kelly should be fired: "Notre Dame had two 10+ win seasons from 1997-2009 under three head coaches. Kelly has had four 10-win years since 2010 with 1 BCS title appearance and a College Football Playoff bid. Please shut up." Dustin Schutte (@SchutteCFB), managing editor at Saturday Tradition THEY SAID IT "I feel like we're back to playing our style of football. We're playing for each other out there. We came together as players and [said], 'The guys in the room, that's who we do it for.' You've got to block out the noise. There's always going to be doubters and your haters, but the most important guys are the guys to your left and to your right and the guys in the locker room." — Senior defensive end Khalid Kareem after Notre Dame defeated Virginia Tech