Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2020 Notre Dame Football Preview
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TOP STATE REPRESENTATION A total of 30 states plus the District of Columbia and Germany are represented on the 2020 Notre Dame roster. Quantity helps, but impact and balance are especially vital to evaluate the top states. 1. California (15) Fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book is head coach Brian Kelly's first three-year starter at the position. Return- ing starting blockers for Book include senior left guard Aaron Banks and junior center Jarrett Patterson. Expected to be in the receiver rotation is fifth-year senior Javon McKin- ley, whose 11 catches last year averaged 24.4 yards and included four scores. On defense, all three levels should have contributors, led by junior cornerback TaRiq Bracy, whose 467 snaps last season were fourth most in the secondary, while his seven passes broken up topped the team. Senior Jordan Genmark Heath and junior Jack Lamb are both vying for the starting role at Buck linebacker. Finally, there is the defense's sophomore Isaiah tandem — end Isaiah Foskey and cornerback Isaiah Rutherford. 2. Ohio (8) The presence along the 2020 offensive line helps give it the high rating. Fifth-year seniors Tommy Kraemer (right guard) and Liam Eichenberg (left tackle) begin their fourth and third years as starters, respectively. Junior guard John Dirksen and sophomore center Zeke Correll also have been progressing well and are on the sec- ond unit. Fifth-year senior Shaun Crawford returned for a sixth sea- son to aid a green cornerback corps. He started eight games last year and, when healthy, always provides quality play and leadership. 3. Georgia (7) Kyle Hamilton, a Freshman All-American last year, and Ohio State transfer Isaiah Pryor will be vital figures at safety. Also challenging for action in the secondary and from the Peach State is sophomore cornerback KJ Wallace. The offense is headlined by junior tight end Tommy Tremble, who started seven times last year, caught four touchdowns among his 16 receptions and was effective as a blocker. Running back C'Bo Flemister returns with the most rushing touchdowns (five) from 2019. 4. Pennsylvania (7) Juniors Robert Hainsey — a Pittsburgh native and IMG Academy product from Florida — and Kurt Hinish are vital anchors along both lines. A third senior, Josh Lugg, will chal- lenge for significant minutes anywhere along the offensive line after basically starting six games at right tackle last year in place of the injured Hainsey. Meanwhile, junior Mike linebacker Bo Bauer was honored as last year's Special Teams Player of the Year for the Irish. 5. Michigan (4) A number of states — Illinois, New Jersey and Florida — could be in the fifth spot, but the defensive end trio of starters and fifth-year seniors Ade Ogundeji and Daelin Hayes, plus the continuing rise of Ovie Oghoufo, provide an integral ele- ment to the success of the 2020 Irish defense. Home Remedy After winning the last five home games in 2017, all six in 2018 and all seven in 2019, Notre Dame's current 18-game winning streak is the third longest in the 90-year history of Notre Dame Stadium that opened in 1930, head coach Knute Rockne's final season. Last year marked the fourth time in the last eight years the Fighting Irish finished unbeaten at home, joining the 2012, 2015 and 2018 teams. To put that into context, consider that in the 22 years from 1990-2011, Notre Dame was unblemished at home only once (6-0 in 1998). Only three other Division I programs among the 130 in the Football Bowl Subdivision currently have longer winning streaks at home: Clemson (22), Central Florida (21) and Ohio State (20). The lone defeat at home since the opening of the Campus Crossroads project in 2017 was a 20-19 defeat to Georgia in the second contest of 2017. The Bulldogs went on to play for the national title that season. The longest home winning streaks are as follow: • 1942-50 — 28 Under Frank Leahy, this began after losing to Michigan in November 1942, and then ended with a 28-14 defeat to Purdue in the second game of 1950. • 1987-90 — 19 Head coach Lou Holtz and his troops fashioned three straight perfect records at home from 1987-89, and the first two games in 1990 before losing their No. 1 ranking with a shocking 36-31 defeat against a Stanford team that had lost the previous week to San Jose State and would finish 5-6. Especially noteworthy is seven of those wins came against ranked teams — six of them in the top 10, highlighted by No. 1 Miami in 1988. • 2017-present — 18 Most notable were back-to-back routs of No. 11 USC (49-14) and No. 14 North Caro- lina State (35-14) in 2017. In 2018, the Irish ended a three-game losing streak versus No. 7 Stanford with a 38-17 triumph. There is currently a two-way tie for fourth with 10 apiece in 1969-71 and 1997-99. Among Notre Dame's three Hall-of-Fame coaches hired since 1950: • Ara Parseghian finished unbeaten and untied at home four times in his 11 seasons from 1964-74: 1964, 1966, 1970 and 1973. The Irish won consensus national titles in '66 and '73, shared it in '64 and finished No. 2 in '70. • Dan Devine achieved it twice in his six years from 1975-80, and in both of those seasons (1977 and 1980), the Irish played the No. 1 team in the bowl game, winning the national title in the former. • Holtz accomplished it three times — consecutively from 1987-89 — in his 11 years, with the latter two resulting in a school-record 23-game winning streak. Neither Parseghian nor Devine was able to do it back-to-back. Notre Dame did not lose at home in 1969 and 1970, but in 1969 it did have a 14-14 tie with USC. Not finishing unbeaten at home doesn't mean the Irish are destined for a bad season. However, an unblemished mark at home usually guarantees a good campaign, and perhaps even a great one. PHOTO BY ANDRIS VISOCKIS 26 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2020 FOOTBALL PREVIEW