Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM JANUARY 2025 11 UNDER THE DOME 1 Player in the nation in men's college basketball was averaging at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game, prior to Notre Dame point guard Markus Burton suffering a knee injury early in an 85-84 overtime loss to Rutgers in Nov. 26 in Las Vegas. That one player was Burton, who entered the contest against the Scarlet Knights with averages of 21.5 points, 5.2 re- bounds and 5.2 assists per game. Burton played just three minutes and scored only 2 points against Rutgers before going down with a knee injury that will sideline him indefinitely, dropping his averages to 18.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game. 2 Top-five victories for Notre Dame women's basketball through the first month of the season, making the Fighting Irish the only team in the country that could make that claim. The Irish knocked off No. 3 USC 74-61 in Los Angeles Nov. 23, and then topped No. 4 Texas 80-70 in overtime Dec. 5 in South Bend. 3 Notre Dame women's hoops players — Sonia Citron (25 and 11), Hannah Hidalgo (24 and 10) and Olivia Miles (20 and 10) — each tallied at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in the Fighting Irish's 93-62 win over Syracuse Dec. 8. Per ESPN.com, that's just the fifth time three teammates have hit those marks in the same Division I game in the past 25 seasons. 4 Fighting Irish players — sophomore running back Jeremiyah Love, junior running back Jadarian Price, freshman run- ning back Aneyas Williams and senior quarterback Riley Leonard — have scored a rushing touchdown of 50 yards or more. The Irish are the only team in the country that accomplished that feat during the regular season, per Notre Dame media relations. 6 Times this season, the Notre Dame foot- ball team scored 49 or more points — the most in a single season in program his- tory. The Irish tallied 66 against Purdue Sept. 14, 49 against Stanford Oct. 12, 51 against Navy Oct. 26, 52 versus Florida State Nov. 9, 49 against Army Nov. 23 and 49 at USC Nov. 30. 30.6 T o t a l Q u a r t e r - b a c k R a t- ing — a metric introduced by ESPN to provide a more complete evaluation of a quarterback's overall contribution to a game that ranges from 0 to 100, with 50 being an average performance — allowed by Notre Dame sophomore cornerback Christian Gray and fresh- man cornerback LEONARD MOORE, per ESPN's Bill Connelly. The young Irish duo has combined for 4 interceptions, 12 passes broken up while filling the void created by star corner Benjamin Mor- rison's season-ending hip injury. "Simply being able to man up against good receivers and keep proper numbers in the box is a cheat code for big defense in big games," Connelly said of the Irish's "nasty man cover- age" that serves as a path for them to win the national championship. "Notre Dame can do that as well as anyone in the CFP." For what it's worth, Connelly — whose SP+ metric give the Irish a 9.0 percent chance to win the national title — has Notre Dame beating Indiana (24-23), Georgia (20-16) and Penn State (23-21) before falling to Oregon (28-27) in the national championship game. 44 Games was all it took for women's basketball sophomore point guard Hannah Hidalgo to tally 1,000 career points at Notre Dame. That makes her the fastest player in program history to reach that milestone, eas- ily surpassing the previous mark of 60 games set by Beth Morgan (1993-97). After her 24-point performance in the Irish's 93-62 win at Syracuse Dec. 8, Hidalgo had 1,011 career points. 56.0 Percent blue-chip percentage for Notre Dame's 25-man 2025 recruiting class. The blue-chip ratio measures the amount of four- and five-star recruits in proportion to the total number of recruits in a class. The Irish, who inked one five-star (Wallingford [Conn.] Choate Rose- mary Hall offensive tackle Will Black) and 13 four-star players, ranked 15th nationally in blue-chip ratio. Notre Dame was also ranked 15th in that category in 2024 (56.5), fifth in 2023 (78.3) and fifth (77.3) in 2022. 152.19 Passer rating — which would rank No. 22 nationally for the season — for senior quarterback Riley Leonard during Notre Dame's 10-game winning streak. During that stretch, he completed 156 of 231 throws for 1,771 yards with 16 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions. For good measure, he added 721 yards (ninth among quar- terbacks) and 14 touchdowns (fifth among quar- terbacks) on the ground in that span. +450 Odds for Notre Dame to win the national championship, per ESPN Bet. Only No. 2 Georgia (+130), No. 1 Oregon (+185), No. 6 Penn State (+185), No. 5 Texas (+200) and No. 8 Ohio State (+300) had better odds than the Fight- ing Irish heading into the College Football Playoff. 1990 Was the last season during which a television network other than NBC broadcast a game from Notre Dame Stadium. NBC signed a deal to exclusively televise Notre Dame home games starting in 1991. ABC/ESPN will televise the Indiana at Notre Dame matchup that opens the 2024 College Football Playoff Dec. 20. ESPN was the last network other than NBC to televise a game at the House That Rockne Built, when Penn State defeated Notre Dame 24-21 on Nov. 17, 1990. Also, it just so happens that the first Notre Dame home game televised by NBC was the Fighting Irish's 49-27 victory over Indiana in South Bend on Sept. 7, 1991. That marked the last time the Fighting Irish and Hoosiers squared off on the gridiron prior to this year's CFP matchup. $3,991 Was the price of the most expensive ticket — as of Dec. 9 — on the re- sale market to attend the first-ever College Football Playoff game in South Bend, per Gametime Tickets. The location of those two seats (both at that price) for the matchup between Notre Dame and Indiana was Section 26, Row G. On the flip side, the least expensive ticket cost $907 and was located in Section 101, Row 26. ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER