Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JANUARY 2024 13 UNDER THE DOME THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT Micah Shrewsberry, meanwhile, after tak- ing Penn State to the NCAA Tournament with a team built from spare portal parts, moves up two spots. No one in this entire exercise received as much universal praise as the new Notre Dame coach. 'I was sur - prised Micah is not higher," the grassroots director said. "Micah, of anybody in Tier 4, could be in Tier 2 in the next year or two and Tier 1 for the next 15 years.'" — The Athletic on including Notre Dame's Micah Shrewsberry in Tier 4 of the best Division I men's basketball head coach with input from a former player-turned- analyst, an X's and O's guru, multiple former coaches, a high-profile grassroots director, a current university basketball administrator and a search firm head who were all granted anonymity PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER IRISH ON SOCIAL MEDIA 2 Notre Dame players have earned the Bronko Nagurski Trophy since it has been awarded to the nation's best defensive player annually beginning in 1993: linebacker Manti Te'o in 2012 and senior safety Xavier Watts in 2023. Both Te'o and Watts recorded 7 interceptions dur- ing the seasons they won the award. Watts finished the regular season fifth on the team with 47 tackles, plus had 2.5 tackles for loss, 4 passes broken up, 1 fumble recovery and 1 forced fumble. His 137 inter- ception return yards are the second most at Notre Dame since 1996 (Julian Love recorded 153 in 2017). It's not only what it [the presence of Notre Dame] does for the Bowl, but what it does for the city. The last time Notre Dame was here in 2010, we had the biggest economic impact on our city ever for a bowl game." — Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas You saw everything tonight. There was so much quality, so much resilience, so much fight in the team, and different guys stepped up. I couldn't be prouder of a team than what I was tonight." — Notre Dame men's soccer head coach Chad Riley after his team's victory over Indiana in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament Dec. 2 2 Of 43 Is how Notre Dame opponents fared on third- and fourth-down plays when they needed 10 yards or more to get a first down during the regular sea- son — a conversion rate of 4.7 percent — per Pete Sampson of The Athletic. The second conversion came midway through the fourth quarter of the Stanford game, with Notre Dame up 40 points. The first came when Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord connected with wide re- ceiver Emeka Egbuka on third-and-19 from the Irish 22-yard line with less than 10 seconds remaining in the contest to set up the game-winning touchdown in the Buckeyes' 17-14 victory Sept. 23. 41.51 M i l l i o n t o t a l television view- ers for the 10 Notre Dame football games that were rated dur- ing the regular season, per Notre Dame media relations. The numbers are industry standard and did not factor in games played on the SEC Network, Pac-12 Network, ACC Network, Peacock, ESPN+ and CBS Sports Network, so Notre Dame's games against Central Michigan (Peacock) and Stanford (Pac-12 Network) were not included. The Irish ranked eighth in the country in total view- ers behind Ohio State (66.63 million in 11 games rated), Alabama (60.9 in 10), Michigan (57.31 in 11), Colorado (54 in 9), Georgia (47.39 in 10), Texas (43.26 in 11) and Florida State (42.94 in 11). The Irish's aver- age of 41.51 million ranked sixth. Notre Dame, Alabama, Texas, Southern Cal, Ten- nessee and Ole Miss are the only teams in the country that did not have a game dip below 1.4 million viewers this season. 400 400 Career wins at Notre Dame for hockey coach JEFF JACKSON, with the Irish's 6-1 triumph over Michigan Dec. 1. Now in his 19th season on the Irish bench, Jackson boasted a 400-254-73 mark (.600 win- ning percentage) through Dec. 9. Including his six sea- sons at Lake Superior State he is 582-306-98 (.640). His 582 wins is the most among active Division I head coaches and ranks 10th all time in NCAA history. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS