Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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cats suffered a heart-wrenching 1-7 Big Ten campaign, starting with losing to Ohio State after holding a 30-27 lead with six minutes left in the game. They lost by three to Minnesota, in triple overtime to Michigan, in overtime to Iowa and on a 49-yard "Hail Mary" touchdown pass by Nebraska as time expired. Summary: Pat Fitzgerald is 55-46 in eight seasons at his alma mater and is one of the best in maximizing his personnel. He will return nine starters on offense and eight on defense while trying to make a sixth bowl in seven years. LESS LIKELY TO UPSET No victory for Notre Dame can be taken for granted, but these three are the least likely losses on paper — and all are played in the first month of the season, which could be a break. 10. VS. SYRACUSE (7-6) Winter News: Top running back Jerome Smith, who rushed for 2,085 yards the past two seasons, turned pro rather than returning for a fifth year, but the Orange still have a deep backfield that averaged 194.8 yards per game on the ground last season. Notable: The 21-17 Texas Bowl win over Minnesota marked the first time since 1995-96 Syracuse has won bowl games in consecutive years. Summary: Second-year head coach Scott Shafer welcomes back seven starters on both offense and defense, but the Orange were badly outgunned during 2013 losses to Florida State (59- 3), Georgia Tech (56-0) and Clemson (49-14). 11. RICE (10-4) Winter News: Rice's football pro- gram was honored Jan. 13 with Tulane, Stanford and Georgia as the winners of the 2013 AFCA Academic Achieve- ment Award, which celebrated schools with a 100 percent graduation rate from its class that enrolled in 2006. Notable: The Owls won Conference USA last season, their first league title since 1957 when they captured the Southwest Conference crown. Summary: Seventh-year head coach David Bailiff was a Paul W. Bryant Coach of the Year finalist, but he will face a rebuild in 2014 minus 23 seniors (17 of them were in their fifth year). This includes replacing QB Taylor McHargue and the school's second all-time leading rusher Charles Ross, who helped Rice finish 17th nationally in rushing yards per game (227.4). 12. VS. PURDUE (1-11) Winter News: The longtime state ri- vals have played every year since 1946 but will not meet again until 2020, at Purdue. Notable: Purdue ended the season with a 10-game losing streak, its lon- gest such drought since dropping 11 straight from 1906-08. Summary: The Boilermakers are un- dergoing major reconstruction with second-year head coach Darrell Hazell after finishing 119th among 123 teams last year in scoring offense (14.9 points per game) and 111th in scoring defense (38.0 points allowed per contest). Pur- due still took Notre Dame to the wall in 2013 and 2012 before losing 31-24 and 20-17, respectively. ✦