Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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14 JAN. 1, 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Dane Goodwin — Basketball T h e 6 - 6 j u n i o r g u a rd f r o m U p p e r A r l i n g t o n , Ohio, scored a game-high 25 points and went 4 of 6 on three-pointers in Notre Dame's 75-65 loss to Duke on Dec. 16. He also made all six of his shot attempts in- side the arc and added two assists with a steal. Goodwin was averaging 14.3 points and shooting 45.8 percent on three-pointers through the team's first six games. Madeline LaPorte — Swimming & Diving The junior from Broomfield, Colo., won the 1,000-meter freestyle event in a dual meet against Cincinnati Dec. 4. Her time of 9:52.21 is one of the four fastest in the event in program history. No. 12 Notre Dame won 10 of 12 individual events in the meet, with two of them supplied by LaPorte, who also claimed the 500 freestyle after swimming it in 4:48.56. Graham Slaggert — Hockey The junior forward from South Bend totaled one goal and two assists in two games against Ohio State. In a 3-0 win Dec. 12, he scored No. 15 Notre Dame's first goal and assisted on its final one. In a 3-2 loss the follow- ing day, he assisted on the initial score. Slaggert played in six of Notre Dame's first eight games and had two goals and four assists. Maddy Westbeld — Basketball The freshman forward from Kettering, Ohio, totaled 45 points in Notre Dame's first two ACC contests this season. She put up 21 points and nine rebounds while go- ing 3 of 4 from three-point range in Notre Dame's 82-67 loss to Georgia Tech Dec. 13. She then tallied 23 points, six rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in the Fighting Irish's 84-78 victory versus Virginia Tech Dec. 17. Through seven games, Westbeld led the team in scoring (17.1 points per contest), re- bounding (7.6), assists (20) and blocks (seven), and was tied for first in steals (12). TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom CHARTING THE IRISH IRISH SIGN TOP-10 CLASS As of Dec. 22, Notre Dame had the No. 9 recruiting class in the 2021 cycle per Rivals. If this position holds, the Fighting Irish will finish with a top-10 class for just the third time since head coach Brian Kelly took over the program in 2010. The other two occasions occurred in 2011 (No. 10) and 2013 (No. 3). The 2021 class should give Notre Dame a slight advantage over its com- petition next fall — assuming the schedule doesn't change again. Among Notre Dame's slated opponents next fall, only USC also cracked the top 10, right behind the Irish. Also in the top 30 are Wisconsin (No. 15), North Carolina (No. 16), Vir- ginia (No. 25) and Florida State (No. 28). Perhaps the biggest sur- prise is to see Florida State — the team Notre Dame opens the season with in 2021 — so low. The last time the Seminoles finished out- side of the top 20 was 2007, when they had the No. 21 haul. Stanford also has an un- characteristically poorly- rated haul (No. 54). ✦ GIMME FIVE In 1969, Notre Dame ended the school's 44-year ban on bowl games from 1925-68. At least one rea- son for not going was because prior to 1968, the final polls were done at the end of the regular season, which rendered bowl games meaningless. For example, in 1953, even though No. 1 Maryland lost to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, Notre Dame at 9-0-1 (and a regular-season victor over the Sooners) remained No. 2 to the Terrapins No. 1 because the outcome had already been tabulated at the end of the regular season. Notre Dame also didn't have to go to a bowl in 1966 to be declared the consensus national champion. In 1968, the Associated Press decided to wait until after the bowl games to vote on a champion, and maybe not so coincidentally the Fighting Irish ended their bowl ban the next season. The 2020s will mark Notre Dame's sixth full decade of bowl competition, where it is 19-19 overall (including the 1925 Rose Bowl win and 1970 Cotton Bowl loss to end the 1969 season). Here are Notre Dame's five best decades in bowls. Rk. Decade Record 1. 1970-79 6-1 2. 2010-19 5-4 3. 1980-89 3-3 4. 1990-99 3-5 5. 2000-09 1-5 Note: Four of the six bowl wins in the 1970s came against unbeaten and No. 1-ranked teams in either the AP or UPI, if not both. Notre Dame has not won a "major" since Jan. 1, 1994. In 1988 and 1989, the Irish also beat two 11-0 teams. After winning the 1925 Rose Bowl 27-10 over Stanford, head coach Knute Rockne and the Irish claimed their first national championship. Subsequently, Notre Dame insti- tuted a 44-year ban on bowl games from 1925-68. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS NOTRE DAME'S 2021 OPPONENTS IN RIVALS RECRUITING RANKINGS * Rankings according to Rivals.com as of Dec. 22 Rank Team 10 USC 15 Wisconsin 16 North Carolina 25 Virginia 28 Florida State 33 Cincinnati Rank Team 41 Virginia Tech 44 Georgia Tech 54 Stanford 64 Toledo 67 Navy 76 Purdue