Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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14 DECEMBER 2021 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME Josh Bottelberghe — Swimming The senior from Vancou- ver, Wash., won two events and broke two school re- cords at the Ohio State In- vitational Nov. 18-20 in Co- lumbus, Ohio. He captured the 200-meter breaststroke with a record-setting time of 1:52.44 and took the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 20.16. He also set a new school standard by clocking 51.88 in the 100-meter breaststroke while finishing second. The Irish men posted a fourth-place team finish. Maddy Denner — Cross Country The senior from El Dorado Hills, Calif., led Notre Dame to a fifth-place team finish — the seventh top-10 show- ing in program history — at the NCAA Championships Nov. 20 in Tallahassee, Fla. She crossed the finish line in ninth place with a time of 19:37.7 to lead the Irish in the 6,000-meter race. Teammate Olivia Markezich came in right behind her, finishing 11th with a time of 19:38.0. Max Ellis — Hockey The junior from Canton, Mich., recorded the first hat trick of his career Nov. 20 when Notre Dame beat No. 1 Michigan 5-4 in overtime to complete a two-game road sweep. He assisted on Ryder Rolston's overtime game-winner in the first game against the Wolverines. Ellis, who was named the Big Ten's First Star of the Week Nov. 23, led the Irish with 10 goals and 18 points through 13 games. Olivia Wingate — Soccer The No. 3-seed Fighting Irish were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament with a 3-2 loss to No. 2 seed Arkansas, but the senior forward from Wilmington, Mass., did all she could to keep Notre Dame's season going. She had one of the two Irish goals against the Razorbacks, after scoring a goal in the second- round win over Purdue. Wingate finished the season with seven goals, which ranked third on the team. TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom ✦ GIMME FIVE Notre Dame has fielded a football team for 115 seasons. It has taken until the last five to do some- thing the Fighting Irish had never accomplished in the long and storied history of the program. For the first time ever, Notre Dame has won 10-plus games in five straight seasons. Despite not having added to the program's total of 11 national championships, head coach Brian Kelly has sustained a level of success that had not been enjoyed since the Lou Holtz era. Holtz's Irish teams won 10-plus games in a stretch of five of six seasons from 1988 (Notre Dame's last national championship season) to 1993. The only season in that stretch that didn't finish with 10-plus wins was a 9-3 campaign in 1990. Seasons were shorter during the Ara Parseghian tenure. Notre Dame only played 10 total games in one season in six of Parseghian's 11 seasons (1964-74). Still, Notre Dame finished the Parseghian era with back-to-back 10-plus-win seasons. Notre Dame went 11-0 in 1973 and 10-2 in 1974. Notre Dame also went 10-1 in 1970. Frank Leahy produced a double-digit-win season in 1949. The Irish went 10-0. The first three double- digit-win seasons in program history came under the legendary Knute Rockne. Notre Dame went 10-1 in 1921, 10-0 in 1924 and 10-0 in 1930. The two 10-0 marks resulted in national championships. It's a different era in college football. Rockne, Leahy, Parseghian and Holtz didn't have to qualify for a four-team playoff or win actual national champi- onship games. Neither did Dan Devine, of course. Kelly is winning at an extremely high level during a time in the sport in which it might be harder than ever to do so. Here is a look at Notre Dame's first five-year stretch with double-digit victories: Year Record Postseason Result 2017 10-3 W, Citrus Bowl 2018 12-1 L, Cotton Bowl 2019 11-2 W, Camping World Bowl 2020 10-2 L, Rose Bowl 2021 10-1 TBD* — Tyler Horka * Through Week 12 of the season; does not in- clude Stanford game or postseason The Fighting Irish have won at least 10 games in five straight seasons for the first time in program history. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER CHARTING THE IRISH NOTRE DAME HAS IT COVERED Good teams win. Great teams cover. That's an old saying that pertains to sports betting. How much truth there is to it is open to interpre- tation. The answers will vary depending on who you ask. There is not an exact science to it, obviously. But numbers are still numbers, and Notre Dame's have been better than those of almost every other team in the country. Through Week 12, only two programs — Michigan and Oklahoma State — had better records against the point spread than the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame was tied for the second-best record in the country (8-3) in that statistic along with nine other Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Notre Dame's path to that point has been an interesting one. The Irish were favored to beat the Florida State Semi- noles by seven points but barely eked out a 41-38 victory in Tallahassee in the season opener. The Irish were favored to beat Toledo in the home opener at Notre Dame Stadium by 16.5 points but again only won by a field goal, 32-29. Notre Dame took care of two-straight point spreads when it beat Purdue 27-13 and Wisconsin 41-13. The Irish were 2.5-point underdogs against Cincinnati, but the Bearcats won 24-13. Notre Dame covered the spread in all six of its games immediately thereafter. In the eight games Notre Dame covered the spread in through Week 12, the Irish had an average cover margin of 8.4 points per game. The Irish were favored by nine points at Virginia and won by 25. They were favored by 18 points against Georgia Tech and won by 55. — Tyler Horka BEST FBS RECORDS AGAINST THE POINT SPREAD Rk. Team Record ATS 1. Michigan 9-2 Oklahoma State 9-2 2. Notre Dame 8-3 Western Kentucky 8-3 North Texas 8-3 Pitt 8-3 UTSA 8-3 UNLV 8-3 Appalachian State 8-3 Baylor 8-3 Syracuse 8-3 Old Dominion 8-3