Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547512
BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 14, 2026 11 UNDER THE DOME "I'm not going to shy away from a big challenge or anything that scares me. That's who I've been and that's who I'm going to be, time and time again." — Notre Dame senior wide receiver JADEN GREATHOUSE via ESPN "I'm no scheduling expert, Pete [Sampson], but did Notre Dame sign up for an extended series with the wrong ACC program? Clemson is no lon- ger the league's top dog. Dabo Swinney's pro- gram has slipped, and if I'm betting on which ACC team will give Notre Dame the most compelling matchup over the next decade, I'm taking Miami. "The Hurricanes are scheduled to visit South Bend again in 2028 and 2031, before the Irish return to South Florida in 2032 and 2034. That's too long between visits for a rivalry with this much history and national appeal. With the ACC's other traditional powers struggling, the league should want to showcase this matchup more often. Who knows what conference Miami will call home by then? President Joseph Echevarria has made it clear he's willing to discuss alternatives. But that's another reason to put something on paper now. Clemson and Notre Dame structured their agree- ment to survive changes in conference affiliation. Miami and Notre Dame could do the same. "If I'm Echevarria, I'm calling Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua about making this an an- nual game. From Notre Dame's perspective, what would stand in the way?" — Manny Navarro of The Athletic "Notre Dame's schedule is weak, why? Because they're an independent, which means in order to play big games they have to get somebody to agree to a nonconference game. Listen, big nonconfer- ence games are going extinct. This is like the albino tiger. It's going extinct because the committee, since 2014, has taken those rare, precious, beauti- ful animals, and they've taken them out back and shot them. Notre Dame's schedule is weak because of the committee. And now the committee is turn- ing around and saying, 'You don't play a very good schedule.'" — Joel Klatt of FOX Sports "One of the perils of football independence is Notre Dame doesn't get automatically served elite opponents the way members of the Big Ten and SEC do. The Irish have to find them. When USC bailed on the annual series with Notre Dame, it exacerbated the problem. Notre Dame replaced the Trojans with BYU, which would have been a quality win if the Irish hadn't lost 28-24 on Oct. 17 in Provo. That leaves the Miami game as Notre Dame's best and only chance to claim a win against an elite opponent." — Andy Staples of On3 "The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have heard for two years about not getting the marquee win and their schedule, and this and that. And then at BYU, well, they couldn't come through, they didn't play angry early. "Get fired up, get angry, come out and make a statement! You could be the better football team. You have the arsenal, you have the pieces, you're going to have the home atmosphere. We want to talk about the time is now Saturday night — I want to see an angry Irish team because they could be better than Miami in this game. You got to go out and do it." — John Fanta of NBC Sports "After last year and this initial ranking, it's evi- dent what the bar is for @NDFootball to get into a 12-team playoff. 10-2 isn't good enough with this schedule of games. The partial affiliation with the ACC has brought one maybe two good games a year. Won't matter once we go to 24 but as it cur- rently stands this is the reality." — Former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn on the Irish being slotted at No. 11 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings "Somewhere, Pete Bevacqua is waking up in a cold sweat, like a fragile, damaged survivor of a horror movie, and realizing it's all happening again. Welcome to the sequel. 'The Committee Lives,' and it's out for more blood from Notre Dame! "Let's do a quick around-the-horn on what folks think of the Irish this year. The AP poll has Notre Dame checking in at No. 4. The coaches — or at least the poor SIDs who have to fill in their ballots for them — have the Irish at No. 6. ESPN's FPI met- ric ranks Notre Dame No. 1 in the land, and if you prefer some different algorithms, Sagarin agrees, and SP+ only dings them down to No. 3." — Da- vid Hale of ESPN on Notre Dame being slotted at No. 11 in the initial 2026 CFP rankings "But it's Koehler's performance that may change the calculus for the Fighting Irish this season. The 6-10 forward looks every bit the part of Notre Dame's best player and should get a sniff as a 2027 NBA Draft prospect. Koehler finished with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks, all while bat- tling some iffy foul trouble. Koehler has real size, length, athleticism and fluidity to be a five-tool player." — Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports on Notre Dame sophomore forward Brady Koehler after his season-opening performance PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER THEY SAID IT THEY SAID IT Irish On Social Media