Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 16, 2024 11 UNDER THE DOME THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT "He is a game changer. He is a great foot- ball player. He is tough. Practices at such a high level. Studies the game. He's a huge part of this offense now and will continue to be a huge part of our team moving forward. He's a valuable member to this program." — Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman on sophomore wide receiver JORDAN FAISON "But if Notre Dame isn't in the first field on Nov. 5, sit tight. Even in the super-conference era in which too many teams don't face each other in league play, there are still enough good vs. good games among CFP contenders that will knock at least one down in front of Notre Dame. "It's more fun to think about who the Irish could play (and host) in the first round, anyway. Clemson or Tennessee could be great football. Indiana would be a great story. Or maybe LSU upsets Alabama in two weeks, then takes down Florida, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma to finish 10-2. Wouldn't a trip to South Bend in late December be the perfect reward for Brian Kelly?" — Pete Sampson of The Athletic "I'm buying Notre Dame as one of the most im- proved teams in the country. … Here's my biggest thing to watch with the Irish: Micah Shrewsberry has built a reputation as something of an offen- sive savant, orchestrating one of the nation's best offenses at Penn State in 2023. ND's offensive efficiency ranked in the mid-200s at KenPom last season — to go with a defense that ranked in the top-five of the ACC. If the defense can maintain its effectiveness, and the attack improves to be- come a typical Shrewsberry offense, a jump should come." — ESPN's Jeff Borzello on making Notre Dame one of two teams in "Tier X: Two teams we pounded the table for" in ESPN's projections for 99 teams heading into the 2024-25 season "I think it's a three-horse race between South Carolina, USC and UConn. But Notre Dame is a fourth team that could emerge as a contender. If the Hannah Hidalgo-Olivia Miles pairing lives up to billing, the Irish will boast the best backcourt in the country. Plus, Niele Ivey shored up the frontcourt depth by bringing in transfers Liatu King and Liza Karlen, as well as impact freshman Kate Koval. "Similar to UConn, health has been the X factor for Notre Dame in recent years. Maddy Westbeld is out for the beginning of the season and Sonia Citron didn't play in the Irish's exhibition game (both were second-team all-ACC picks last season). Notre Dame had only seven available players for that contest, then Karlen was injured in the first half. It's easy to get excited about this group, but only if it manages to stay healthy." — Alexa Philip- pou of ESPN on a team not named South Carolina that could win the 2025 NCAA title "How contentious will the annual Notre Dame squabble be? In a word, very. The lightning-rod Fighting Irish are in the playoff hunt at 7–1, but that one loss is brutal: at home to 4–4 Northern Illinois, currently the ninth-place team in the Mid- American Conference. We'll find out how much the worst loss for any contender is held against Notre Dame." — Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated "Notre Dame is a lot better than you realize. A lot of people want to define teams nowadays by singular performances, but that's not the era that we're living in. We're not living in an era anymore, as we now have expanded to the 12-team playoff — and even really, when we played in the four- team playoff — we're not living in an era where perfection is necessary to win a championship. "You have the opportunity to make mistakes and yet still be in a position to contend for a champion- ship. Everybody right now is having a really hard time evaluating Notre Dame. I get that. I watched the NIU game. I saw them get pushed around in the NIU game, and it was a difficult game to unsee when it comes to evaluating who Notre Dame is and what Notre Dame can be. But since that game, you almost have to just remove it and just evaluate the response. "You know they can play defense; that's never a problem. I expect that to continue. But the of- fense is starting to take the strides that would make you think they can maybe be a contender when the [College Football] Playoff arrives here in a few weeks." — ESPN college football analyst Greg McElroy after calling the Notre Dame-Navy game in Week 9 "Notre Dame has already eliminated one ser- vice academy hopeful. The Fighting Irish padded their résumé in Week 9 with a 51-14 win against previously undefeated Navy. Army should provide quite the challenge, however. The Black Knights are one of the most well-rounded teams in the nation. They're third in the AAC in scoring offense (40.4 points per game) and first in scoring defense (12.4 ppg). They've beaten every opponent they've faced by at least 17 points. Of course, they haven't seen anyone like Notre Dame yet. A win here would surely propel Army past Boise State as the leader to represent the Group of Five conferences in the playoff." — Will Backus on including Notre Dame-Army Nov. 23 among CBS Sports' November games that will impact title chase PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER Irish On Social Media