Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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14 SEPT. 24, 2022 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME A.J. Pollock — Baseball The 11-year MLB outfielder is on a torrid stretch with the Chicago White Sox. In the 15-games from Aug. 27 through Sept. 11, the former Irish stand- out batted .316 with 18 hits, 11 runs, 3 home runs and 7 RBI. A first-round draft pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2009, Pollock is a former MLB All-Star and a Gold Glove winner, and was also a World Series champion with the Dodgers. Katie Ryan — Cross Country The graduate student from Tuckahoe, N.Y., led Notre Dame to a championship at the Win- row-Valparaiso Invite Sept. 2. She finished second in the event with a time of 18:16.3 in the 5K race, helping the Irish reclaim the title in this event after they finished second to Purdue in 2021. Ryan, a transfer from Stanford, is an important addition to a Notre Dame cross country team that finished fifth in the country last season. Kiki Van Zanten — Soccer The senior forward from Buffalo Grove, Ill., earned ACC Player of the Week honors for the period Sept. 5-11. Van Zanten helped propel Notre Dame to its first unde- feated non-conference slate since 2008, by scoring the eventual game-winning goals in a 3-1 win at Purdue Sept. 8 and a 3-1 home win against Ohio Sept. 11. The perfect start moved the Fighting Irish to No. 6 in the most recent United Soccer Coaches college rankings. Kaylyn Winkler — Volleyball In consecutive 3-2 wins over East Carolina and Old Do- minion Sept. 9, the graduate student middle blocker from San Antonio recorded 29 to- tal kills. She recorded 13 kills against ECU and led the team with 16 versus ODU. Winkler, a transfer from SMU, was a second- team All-American Athletic Conference per- former last year after leading the league in hit- ting percentage (.384). She tallied double-digits kills in seven matches a year ago. TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom ✦ GIMME FIVE One of the most impressive streaks in Notre Dame history came to a close after the Fighting Irish's loss to Marshall. Notre Dame was ranked in 80 consecutive Associated Press top-25 polls from Week 5 of 2017 through Week 2 of 2022. The Thun- dering Herd stopped that streak in its tracks. Notre Dame was a fixture in the AP poll the last five years. The Irish were ranked in the top five for at least a part of every season since 2017, including this year's preseason No. 5 rank- ing. They rose as high as No. 2 in the country during their run to the College Football Playoff in 2020. In 2018, Notre Dame rose as high as No. 3 in the poll en route to earning a CFP berth. Notre Dame has been ranked in the poll at the end of every sea- son since 2017, too. That streak has also been put in jeopardy after an 0-2 start. Notre Dame has not finished lower than No. 12 in the AP poll since 2017. The Irish were 11-2 with a win in the Camping World Bowl in 2019 when they finished with that ranking. The 80 straight weeks ranked in the AP poll marked a third- best streak for Notre Dame. It would have taken not falling out the poll for the duration of 2022 and staying ranked through the first half of the 2023 season to surpass the program's second-best streak. Notre Dame was ranked for 97 consecutive weeks from 1969-75. The top mark in program history is the 124 straight weeks Notre Dame was ranked from 1987-94. The common link between the No. 1 and No. 2 streaks in program history? National championships. The Irish won titles in 1973 under Ara Parseghian and 1988 under Lou Holtz. They were never able to rise to the mountaintop under Brian Kelly, the architect of the most recent AP poll streak. — Tyler Horka CHARTING THE IRISH NOTRE DAME LOSING GROUND ON ALL-TIME COLLEGE FOOTBALL WINS LIST Notre Dame is in danger of falling behind the soon-to-be two newest members of the SEC on col- lege football's all-time wins list. In Week 2, Oklahoma slid by the Irish with 930 all-time wins after victories over UTEP in Week 1 and Kent State in Week 2. Notre Dame stayed stuck at 929 with losses to Ohio State and Marshall. Texas tied Notre Dame at 929 in Week 1 with a win over Louisiana Monroe and nearly moved past the Irish with a narrow one-point defeat at the hands of No. 1 Alabama in Week 2. Oklahoma and Texas appear primed to have successful seasons in 2022. That's been the norm for the former. The latter is trying to come back from a 5-7 campaign in 2021. Notre Dame? It's looking to avoid a similar disaster of its own. The Irish started 0-2 for the first time since 2011 and lost to an unranked team for the first time in 42 games with the 26-21 home defeat to Marshall. Notre Dame was overrated from the start despite being the consensus No. 5 team in the country per the Associated Press and coaches polls. The Irish fell out of both polls, and it only took two weeks. Now, they're going to be battling the Sooners and Longhorns all fall on the all-time wins list. That is, of course, the last of head coach Marcus Free- man's worries. He's preoccupied with righting the ship and getting Notre Dame headed back in the right direc- tion in the short term. Short-term expectations are built on the standard of long-term success, though. Notre Dame went 54-10 from 2017-22. The brand is what it is and the Irish are top-five nationally in all-time wins because of stretches like the last half-decade littered throughout the program's storied history. Without a quick turnaround, though, Notre Dame will lose its top-five all-time standing. — Tyler Horka Marcus Freeman couldn't keep the third-longest Associated Press poll streak in Notre Dame history afloat. It ended after 80 consecu- tive weeks. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER MOST ALL-TIME WINS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL HISTORY Rk. School Wins* 1. Michigan 978 2. Alabama 944 Ohio State 944 4. Oklahoma 930 5. Notre Dame 929 Texas 929 7. Penn State 911 8. Nebraska 909 9. Tennessee 858 USC 858 * Through Week 2 of the 2022 season TOP-FIVE ASSOCIATED PRESS POLL RANKING STREAKS IN NOTRE DAME HISTORY Rk. Weeks Years 1. 124 1987-94 2. 97 1969-75 3. 80 2017-22 4. 75 1942-50 5. 46 1952-56