Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com DECEMBER 2019 11 THEY SAID IT "Obviously, you can't beat the stadium. The moments we've had here, the games we've played here have been amazing. This game was special for me, being able to sing the Alma Mater at the end was great, and I just thank God for this opportunity." — Notre Dame senior safety Alohi Gilman after Notre Dame's final home game against Boston College (WNDU) "Notre Dame athletics director Jack Swarbrick partially attributed the streak's demise to the three November home games against fairly ho-hum opposition: Virginia Tech, Navy and BC. Indeed, The South Bend Tribune's Eric Hansen pointed out that this is unusual for the Irish, who have played as many as three November home games just four times since Notre Dame expanded its stadium 22 years ago. "It was much easier for Swarbrick to off load a bunch of unsold tickets to a friend of the program and convince fans to brave frigid conditions for a boring game — thereby extending the sellout streak — when he had to do it only once per November. And yet the inconvenient schedule and weather are far from the only issues involved here. College football attendance has been sagging for years. According to the NCAA's official attendance figures, average FBS home attendance fell in 2018 for the seventh time in the last eight seasons, from 42,108 in 2017 to 41,509 last year. That represented a drop of more than 10 percent from the 2008 peak of 46,456." — David Ching, a senior contributor to Forbes "It's not just on offense. It's defense, too. We want to continue to look at speed at the defensive back position. Speed at the running back position and wide receiver position. All those skill positions, we have to continue to aggressively recruit that position of speed. Make-up speed in particular at the cornerback position is one of the traits that can overcome a lot. "The charge that I've given Coach [Brian] Polian and the recruiting staff is to let's not get too caught up on what position they play; let's really focus in on that speed element and those position groups because I think that's got some room for growth within our program." — Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly on the importance of recruiting and developing players with speed "The Fighting Irish have a bright future with Hamilton roaming the back end of their defense. He recorded four total tackles against Boston College and saw three passes come his way as the primary coverage de- fender. Allowing just one reception for seven yards, Hamilton broke up another and intercepted the third pass his way to see just a 2.8 passer rating into his coverage." — Cam Mellor of Pro Football Focus on Notre Dame freshman safety Kyle Hamilton "All things considered, I think a pretty good season for the Irish." — Ty Hildenbrandt, host of the college football podcast The Solid Verbal UNDER THE DOME OF THE MONTH "One last ride." The official account of the Notre Dame Football program (@NDFootball) Nov. 25 ND Banners & Flags BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED PO Box 2331 • Durham, NC 27702 1-800-421-7751 Visit our online store! www.BlueGoldOnline.com BANNERS (28"x40") $19.95 + $4 S&H (Reg. $24.95 + S&H) CLEARANCE (Banners and Flags are Single-Sided Display poles not included) Please add sales tax if shipping to: IN (7%), MI (6%), and NC (7.5%) "ND Irish" Banner (Item #6138) "Mickey" Banner (Item #6135) MICKEY MOUSE GARDEN FLAG (Item #6136) $10.95 + $2.00 S&H (Reg. $14.95 + S&H) LIFE IS GOOD BANNERS "Irish Football" (Item #6143) "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" (Item #6139)