Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM OCT. 15, 2022 13 UNDER THE DOME Sebastian Dominko — Tennis The freshman from Maribor, Slovenia, ignored rain delays and overcame inexperience to beat two of the best players in the country at the Bobby Bayl- iss Hidden Dual Sept. 23-25 in South Bend. Playing on his home courts and in his first-ever college tournament, Dominko went 3-0 in singles play and took down two top-20 ranked players with- out dropping a set: No. 10 Alex Kotzen from Co- lumbia (6-4, 6-4), and No. 17 Ondrej Styler of Michigan (6-3, 6-2). Bryan Dowd — Soccer The junior goalkeeper from Willow Springs, Ill., notched two critical saves in Notre Dame's 2-1 win over Boston College Sept. 30, making a pair of acrobatic stops in the 74th minute to preserve the Irish's second straight ACC win. Through nine games this season, Dowd was 5-3-1 with a 1.18 goals-against average, 24 saves and a .706 save percentage while logging 765 of the 810 minutes in goal. Montgomery Ferreira — Golf The sophomore from Ta- coma, Wash., took top individ- ual honors with a 7-under-par 209 at the 2022 Badger Invi- tational Sept. 18-20 in Verona, Wis. Her effort helped the Irish post an impressive second- place team finish. Prior to arriving in South Bend, Ferreira was a Washington State high school champion. Her sister Jordan also played golf for the Irish and graduated in 2017. Lucy Trump — Volleyball While the rebuilt Irish pro- gram is still struggling to find its footing through the early part of the 2022 season, the ver- satile freshman outside hitter from Florence, Ky., is making an immediate impact. Through 14 matches, Trump led the Fighting Irish in points (148.5) and total attempts (378). She was also among the team leaders in kills (142), service aces (14), digs (88) and total blocks (20). TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom ✦ GIMME FIVE This isn't one of those seasons in which people can say, "Notre Dame doesn't play a tough sched- ule." Far from it. Through Week 5, Notre Dame had the No. 1 strength of schedule among all 131 FBS teams per Sports Reference. After Week 5 concluded, there were five opponents on the 2022 Notre Dame football schedule ap- pearing in the Associated Press Top 25. The last time Notre Dame played five teams that were ranked at the time of the Irish matching up with them was 2017. Notre Dame played six ranked teams that year, including No. 16 LSU in the Citrus Bowl. It's going to be tough for Notre Dame to reach half a dozen ranked opponents in 2022. The Irish already played then-No. 2 Ohio State in the season opener and then-No. 16 BYU this past weekend in the Sham- rock Series game in Las Vegas. But the next ranked team on the schedule is No. 22 Syracuse, and the Orange have to play No. 14 North Carolina State and No. 5 Clemson before hosting the Irish on Oct. 29. Speaking of Clemson — it'd be disastrous for the Tigers if they somehow fell out of the polls by the time they trek to South Bend for a game at Notre Dame Stadium Nov. 5. At this rate, the same goes for No. 6 USC for when the Trojans host the Irish Nov. 26. So, even if BYU falls out of the polls by the end of the season and Syracuse is not ranked at the end of the month, Notre Dame will have almost assuredly played at least four ranked teams at the time of kickoff. That's one more than all of 2022 including the Fiesta Bowl against No. 9 Oklahoma State. Notre Dame last played four ranked teams at the time of kickoff in 2020, and two of those games were against Clemson — once in a regular-season ACC game and once more in the ACC Championship Game. There was a game against No. 25 North Carolina sandwiched in there, too. Then Notre Dame played No. 1 Alabama in a College Football Playoff semifinal matchup. All of that to say this: Notre Dame has a tough schedule in 2022. Adjust your judgments of first-year head coach Marcus Freeman accordingly. - Tyler Horka CHARTING THE IRISH NOTRE DAME SITS AT BOTTOM OF FBS IN TURNOVERS FORCED Through Week 5, Notre Dame was the only FBS team in the country that had not yet forced mul- tiple turnovers. Forcing 1 turnover in four games isn't a recipe concocted by any defensive coordinator. Not Al Golden at Notre Dame. Definitely not Alex Grinch at USC. Grinch guided the Trojans to a nation-best 15 turnovers forced through Week 5. There were 26 other FBS teams that had forced at least 10 through Week 5. It's not as if Golden can do much more. He was aware of the team's turnover issue as early as right after the Week 2 loss to Marshall. He said not forcing a single turnover in eight quarters was unac- ceptable. But he also said turnovers tend to come in bunches. Two games later, though, and they had still yet to start flowing for the Fighting Irish. Notre Dame spent much of fall camp placing heavy emphasis on forcing fumbles and getting the ball out. While those drills translated for the of- fense in only losing 2 fumbles through four games, practice field to game field carryover was nowhere to be found for the defense. The only turnover Notre Dame was credited for through four games was when North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye essentially lost the ball on his own trying to evade the blitz of Irish linebacker JD Bertrand. No inter- ceptions. No classic bone-crunching, ball-popping hits to pump up the entire sideline. Golden could be right. Notre Dame might be on the verge of exploding for 3 or 4 takeaways in a single game. Whenever that occurs, the Irish should be in position for a big victory. — Tyler Horka Ranked Teams On Notre Dame's Schedule Through Week 5 Team Record AP Ranking ND Game Date Ohio State 5-0 No. 3 Sept. 3 Clemson 5-0 No. 5 Nov. 5 USC 5-0 No. 6 Nov. 26 BYU 4-1 No. 16 Oct. 8 Syracuse 5-0 No. 22 Oct. 2 FEWEST FORCED TURNOVERS AMONG FBS TEAMS THROUGH WEEK 5 Rk. Team Turnovers Forced 121. Arkansas State (tie) 3 West Virginia 3 Army 3 New Mexico State 3 Auburn 3 Temple 3 127. Texas (tie) 2 Alabama 2 Fresno State 2 Stanford 2 131. Notre Dame 1