Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1194048
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JANUARY 2020 9 UNDER THE DOME 3 Current Notre Dame hockey players, freshman forward Trevor Janicke, sophomore forward Jake Pivonka and sophomore defenseman Spencer Stastney, who were named to the 28-man preliminary roster for the 2020 U.S. National Junior Team. The 2020 IIHF World Junior Hockey Champion- ship will be played from Dec. 26, 2019 to Jan. 5, 2020 in Ostrava and Trinec, Czech Republic. The roster will take part in a training camp Dec. 16-17 in Plymouth, Mich., before heading overseas. USA Hockey expects to name the final 23-player roster Dec. 24. 11 Victories Notre Dame football is attempting to finish with in 2019 by defeating Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl Dec. 28. It would finish with exactly 11 victories in a season for only the fourth time — and the first at 11-2. The Fighting Irish didn't begin playing 11-game regular seasons until 1974, head coach Ara Parseghian's final season. Notre Dame then went to 12-game regular seasons in 2006, and have had six seasons since then with a minimum of 10 wins: 12 in 2012 and 2018, and 10-3 in 2006, 2015, 2017 and 10-2 so far in 2019. The three previous three 11-win seasons saw the Fighting Irish finish No. 1 in 1973 (11-0), No. 1 in 1977 (11-1) and No. 2 in 1993 (11-1). This year, it is vying to get into the final Associated Press top 10. 13.4 Rebounds per game averaged by Notre Dame senior John Mooney through games played Dec. 14, placing him No. 1 in Division I basketball, ahead of No. 2 Kevin Marfo of Quinnipiac (13.0). Mooney also was one of three major conference players to average at least 10.0 rebounds per contest. 44 Points needed against Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl Dec. 28 to set the single-season scoring average that has remained for 51 years. The 1968 team averaged 37.6 points, tallying 376 points during a 7-2-1 season. During the 10-2 regular season in 2019, Notre Dame scored 445 points, or 37.1 per game. A 44-point total versus the Cyclones would put the average at 37.61. With 45 points, the average would be rounded off from 37.69 to 37.7. 465 Points totaled by the 10-3 Notre Dame team in 1991 for the most ever in a 13-game season — meaning that 21 or more by the Fighting Irish in the Camping World Bowl this month would set the single- season mark. For 12 games, the highest output was 427 in 1993 by the 11-1 Irish squad. The most in an 11-game campaign was 382 by the 11-0 national champs in 1973, and the most in 10 games was the 376 by the 7-2-1 unit in 1968. 6,084 Yards of total offense (passing and rushing) produced in 2019 by La Jolla (Calif.) The Bishop's School junior quarterback Tyler Buchner — a 2021 Notre Dame verbal commit — following his team's 75-59 loss to El Camino (Calif.) High in the championship game of the Califor- nia Interscholastic Federation Division 2 San Diego Section Nov. 29. Versus El Camino, Buchner rushed for 353 yards and five touchdowns and passed for 296 and three more scores for a total of 649 yards of total offense by himself. The 6,084 yards this season came on 4,474 passing (267 of 402, 66.4 per- cent) and 53 touchdowns, and 1,610 rushing (12.6 yards per carry) and 28 scores. ✦ BY THE NUMBERS 37 , 391 Listed official attendance at Stanford Stadium for Notre Dame's regular-season finale versus the Cardinal Nov. 30. The number represents tickets sold, because the 50,000-seat stadium it- self appeared to have had half of that official figure. It was only the sixth time since 1980 that a Notre Dame football game was played at a stadium with less than 40,000 in attendance. Among the other five, two were still sellouts: • 2018 at Wake Forest — 31,092 • 2015 vs. Boston College — 38,686 at Fenway Park (full capacity) • 2014 vs. Navy — 36,807 at FedEx Field • 2011 at Wake Forest — 38,651 (full capacity) • 1996 vs. Navy — 38,651 at Ireland's Croke Park Overall, this year's game at Stanford had the third smallest attendance since 1980. PHOTO BY SPENCER ALLEN