Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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12 JANUARY 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME 91.0 Offense grade from Pro Foot- ball Focus for junior JOE ALT, making him the highest- graded offensive tackle in the nation for the second year in a row. His grade was 4.5 points higher than the next-closest FBS tackle. Alt also was second among all tackles in both pass-blocking (92.2) and run-blocking (86.9) grades this season. My story and journey have been difficult. I've probably had the most [jersey] numbers in college football history. I've had six different numbers. I've played offense, I played linebacker, nickel and safety. The journey has taught me you're never going to get things right away. Everyone comes in as a freshman and expects to play, but the journey teaches you to be patient, work hard and keep working." — Notre Dame senior safety Xavier Watts after winning the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, which is given to the top defensive player in the nation 141 Percent increase in ticket demand for the Sun Bowl matchup between Notre Dame and Oregon State from when the bowl games were set Dec. 3 to Dec. 7, according to research done by Action Network college football insider Brett McMurphy via Ticket City. Here are the top nine: Bowl Matchup Ticket Demand Increase Sun Notre Dame vs. Oregon State 141% Rose Alabama vs. Michigan 72% Cotton Missouri vs. Ohio State 71% Sugar Texas vs. Washington 44% Gator Clemson vs. Kentucky 37% Texas Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M 34% Orange Georgia vs. Florida State 30% Peach Ole Miss vs. Penn State 26% LA Boise State vs. UCLA 10% 9 Of 9 On penalty kicks for the Notre Dame men's soc- cer team in shootout wins over Western Michigan in the round of 16 and Indiana in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. The clutch effort helped the Fighting Irish advance to their third-ever Col- lege Cup, and their second in the last three years. Notre Dame is now 5-2 in penalty shootouts in NCAA Championship history. The Irish made the NCAA final with a 1-0 win over Oregon State Dec. 8 and lost to Clemson 2-1 in the title game Dec. 11. 40.5 Scoring margin for the N o t re D a m e w o m e n 's basketball team during its seven-game winning streak following its season-opening 100-71 loss to South Carolina. The Irish have outscored their opponents 95.1-54.6 during that stretch, while eclipsing the 100-point mark three times. Through Dec. 7, the Irish ranked fifth in the nation in scoring margin at 31.9 — trailing only South Carolina (43.4), Utah (42.5), Texas (39.1) and Michigan State (35.1). There was much good about this season for Notre Dame. There's also a feeling there could have been more. If [Marcus] Freeman learns as much from his second season as he did from his first, there's little reason to think there's not more out there for this program, regardless of who makes up the two-deep next season." — Pete Sampson of The Athletic 39.1 Points per game was Notre Dame's scoring average through 12 games. That fig- ure currently ranks second all time in the history of the program. The 1912 team, which scored 48.6 points per contest over eight games en route to a 6-0-2 finish, ranks first. Jean-Baptiste was a versatile cog on Notre Dame's defense, as the Ohio State transfer finished the season with career highs in sacks (4.5), tackles for loss (9.5) and pressures (22)." — Jesse Simonton on including Notre Dame graduate student defensive end Javontae Jean- Baptiste on the 2023 On3 All-Transfer team PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER