Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/259072
UNDER THE DOME 13 The highest "way too early" football rating we've seen for Notre Dame in 2014. SI.com (Sports Illustrated) ranked the Irish at No. 13 while USA Today placed the Fighting Irish No. 15. Other outlets that weighed in were Athlon Sports and Yahoo! (both at No. 22), and ESPN.com (No. 23). 32 Teams in the 16-year history of the Bowl Championship Series (1998-2013) to win a BCS game, with Central Florida, Clemson and Michigan State becoming the final members of that club this year. Incredibly, Notre Dame is not one of those 32, finishing 0-4 in the BCS games they played in after the 2000, 2005, 2006 and 2012 seasons. Among the top 18 programs in all-time winning percentage, the Fighting Irish were the only one not to produce a BCS victory. 33-1 Online Sports Bovada's odds of Notre Dame winning the four-team College Football Playoff next season, tying it with USC for the 16th-highest rating. At the top is defending national champ Florida State at 11-2, followed by Alabama (13-2), Stanford (9-1) and Ohio State (10-1). 204 Games Notre Dame will have played since defeating Michigan in the 1998 opener (36-20) when it kicks off versus Florida State Oct. 18 in Tallahassee, Fla. That victory over the Wolver- ines was the last time the Irish defeated the defending national champion, or co-champion. 1959 The last year an offensive lineman was named the sole MVP of a college bowl game — until Notre Dame's Zack Martin in the Pinstripe Bowl win versus Rutgers Dec. 28, 2013. It hadn't happened since Dec. 19, 1959, when Penn State center Jay Huffman was the MVP of the inaugural Liberty Bowl, a 7-0 win over Alabama, at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium. For some historical perspective, that was both Rip Engle's first bowl game at Penn State and Bear Bryant's first bowl game at Alabama. An Early Irish Spring Spring practice will begin earlier than ever this year at Notre Dame, opening March 3. The annual Blue- Gold Game will be April 12 in Notre Dame Stadium. The Easter holiday April 20 prevented the school from holding the Blue-Gold Game that weekend. Also, with the last class day April 30, prior to final exams, the school didn't want the spring game to be delayed into the weekend of April 26-27. Blue & Gold Illustrated's next mailing will be March 11. Thus, instead of a spring preview edition, there will have already been five practices held of an allowed 15. During the spring, Notre Dame's practice schedule is usually Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with scrim- mage work on Saturday. In recent years under head coach Brian Kelly, the practices have been held in the morning. Spring practice will come early this year for Brian Kelly with drills starting March 3 before concluding with the Blue-Gold Game April 12. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND