Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME 14 APRIL 2023 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED Kasey Choma — Lacrosse The senior midfielder from Manorville, N.Y., na- tive was recognized as a first- team preseason All-American by USA Lacrosse Magazine. She was a first-team All-ACC honoree and a second-team All-American in 2022, after leading the Irish last season with 59 goals while adding 28 draw controls and 8 assists. Through four games this season as of Feb. 26, Choma paced the Irish with 15 goals and was second on the team with 18 points. Sebastian Dominko — Tennis The freshman from Maribor, Slovenia, was named the ACC Singles Player of the Week Feb. 19 after an impressive 2-0 showing against Wisconsin and Illinois- Chicago. O n F e b . 1 8 , D o m i n ko notched a 6-4, 6-1 straight-set victory over Jared Pratt of the Badgers. Later in the day, the No. 1 Irish singles player claimed a dominating 6-0, 6-1 win over Aleksa Bucan of UIC. Chris Kavanagh — Lacrosse The Irish sophomore attackman from Rock- ville Centre, N.Y., racked up 12 goals and 18 total points in the first three games this season, totals that led No. 2-ranked Notre Dame and also ranked in the top 10 nationally. Kavanagh scored at least 3 goals in all three games, in- cluding a 5-goal effort against Marquette in the season opener Feb. 5. As a freshman last year, he finished tied for third on the team with 22 goals. Carlli Kloss — Softball The junior catcher/outfielder from Cypress, Ca- lif., earned ACC Player of the Week honors Feb. 12. She had at least 1 hit in all five games that weekend, with multi-hit games in three of those. Through 14 games as of Feb. 26, Kloss was batting .311 and was second on the Irish with 10 RBI and 24 total bases, while also lead- ing the team with 4 doubles and a .553 slugging percentage. TOP TOP OF THE CLASS OF THE CLASS Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom ✦ GIMME FIVE Gerad Parker broke down his objective as the new Notre Dame offensive coordinator into simple terms during his introductory press conference Feb. 20. "We want to score more points than we did last year," Parker said. "And next year, we're going to want to score more points than we did last year. And that's the deal." That is the deal. For every offensive coordinator, at every school, in every year. Score more points, win more ballgames. Period. Whether or not Parker is able to make good on his goal is to be determined. He has limited offensive coordinator experi- ence. He was West Virginia's OC from 2020-21, but he spent time in and out of play-calling duties there. He's been given the keys to the Irish offense in 2023, like former Notre Dame OC Tommy Rees was for the first time in 2020. The Irish offense scored 33.4 points per game that season, which ranked 30th nationally. That figure is actually pretty strong for the Irish since the beginning of the Brian Kelly era. In the 13 seasons since Kelly was named head coach in 2010, including head coach Marcus Freeman's first year on the job last fall, Notre Dame has averaged a national points per game ranking of roughly 43rd in the FBS. Only twice in the last baker's dozen of years has Notre Dame had a top-20 scoring offense. It oc- curred with 36.8 points per game in 2019 and 35.2 points per game in 2021. Those figures ranked No. 13 and No. 19 in the country, respectively. It's difficult to eclipse the 40-plus points per game plateau. Only six teams did so last sea- son. Three of them (Ohio State, Georgia and Michigan) made the College Football Playoff. TCU, the other 2022 CFP participant, just missed the points party at 38.8 points per game. That came in a tie for ninth nationally. Notre Dame checked in with a mark of 31.8 points per game, which ranked 41st in the country. — Tyler Horka CHARTING THE IRISH TEAMS WITH THE BEST ODDS TO NOTCH 11 OR MORE WINS According to ESPN's college football predictive model expert, Bill Connelly, there are 18 FBS teams that have at least a 10 percent chance to finish the 2023 season with a record of 11-1 or better. Notre Dame is one of them. Connelly gives the Irish a 10 percent chance to win 11 games this upcoming regular season. That's tied with LSU and Fresno State for the 16th-best odds among teams ranked in or just outside of ESPN's way-too-early Top 25. Notre Dame has finished with 11 regular-season wins eight times in the program's storied history. It happened for the first time when the Fighting Irish went 11-0 en route to a national championship under Ara Parseghian in 1973. It most recently occurred in 2021 when the Irish went 11-1 to earn a Fiesta Bowl berth in what turned out to be Brian Kelly's final season with the Irish. Notre Dame has finished a season (including bowl games) with at least 11 wins nine times in program his- tory. The Irish converted those runs into national champion- ships three times (1973, 1977, 1988). Kelly owns four of the nine 11-plus win seasons in Notre Dame history. Two of those were 12-win campaigns. Lou Holtz has the only other pair of 12-win seasons in program history to his name. An 11-win regular season in 2023 all but assures the Irish a berth in the CFP. The Irish have to play three of the other 17 teams in the FBS that have a double-digit percentage chance of finishing 11-1 or better; Ohio State, USC and Clemson. Winning 11 games and only losing one with a schedule like that gets noticed by the playoff committee. — Tyler Horka ODDS TO FINISH 11-1 OR BETTER IN 2023 Courtesy ESPN Rk. Team Percent 1. Georgia 62 2. Michigan 46 3. Ohio State 39 4. Tulane 26 5. Penn State 25 6. Alabama 21 7. Florida State 19 Southern Cal 19 Clemson 19 10. Oklahoma 16 11. Tennessee 13 Washington 13 13. Texas 12 UCLA 12 Troy 12 16. Notre Dame 10 LSU 10 Fresno State 10 NOTRE DAME'S FIVE HIGHEST SCORING AVERAGES SINCE 2010 Year Points Per Game National Rank 2019 36.8 13 2021 35.2 19 2017 34.2 24 2015 34.2 34 2020 33.4 30 New Notre Dame offensive coordina- tor Gerad Parker wants the Irish to be more prolific in 2023. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS