Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI One of the first steps toward elite status is consistently holding serve at home. Notre Dame is 13-1 in its last 14 home encounters, and christening the new FieldTurf with an unbeaten debut year should lead to a major bowl bid. BUBBLES: Michigan and Stanford. Each has defeated Notre Dame four times in the last five meetings. The ex- ception was the 12-0 Irish regular season in 2012 (with quarterback Everett Gol- son having to be relieved both times). Michigan is the bellwether of each Notre Dame season. Of the 15 times the Irish lost this game since 1978, their win- ning percentage that year averaged out to .555. In the 15 times since then Notre Dame didn't lose, the win percentage escalated to .761. As for Stanford, we've repeated this ad nauseam: If the Cardinal with its aca- demic standards and far less tradition can produce a 46-8 record with four straight major bowls the past four years, why can't Notre Dame have a similar run? Time is due for such consistency. Win these two at home, like in 2012, and en- tering Tallahassee 6-0 on Oct. 18 is at- tainable. STEALS: at Florida State, at Arizona State and at USC. Notre Dame has not achieved a one- for-the-ages win since vanquishing No. 1 Florida State in 1993. There have been "solid" and quality wins, especially at Oklahoma in 2012 (slightly mitigated by the Sooners already losing at home to Kansas State), but not a dragon-slaying program changer, a la defeating USC in 1973 after an 0-4-2 record in six previous meetings, or upsetting Miami in 1988 after getting outscored 133-20 the four previous matchups. The Golden Nugget in Las Vegas this season installed the Seminoles as an early 24-point favorite versus Notre Dame. That typifies how the Irish haven't earned the right from the past 20 years to be taken seriously on the grand stage. Arizona State or USC actually might not be better than Notre Dame, but win- ning on the road against this caliber of opponent can make it feel like a steal. Once you become a "program," though, it's just another victory. That's when you are no longer de- fined as just another "solid" program. ✦ Senior Editor Lou Somogyi has been at Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 1985. He can be reached at lsomogyi@blueandgold.com 2014 SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) .................... Time (ET) Aug. 30 Rice (NBC) ............................. 3:30 p.m. Sept. 6 Michigan (NBC) ..................... 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13 vs. Purdue* (NBC) ................. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 vs. Syracuse^ .................................. TBA Oct. 4 Stanford (NBC) ...................... 3:30 p.m. Oct. 11 North Carolina (NBC) ............. 3:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at Florida State ............................... TBA Nov. 1 vs. Navy+ ........................................ TBA Nov. 8 at Arizona State .............................. TBA Nov. 15 Northwestern (NBC) .............. 3:30 p.m. Nov. 22 Louisville (NBC) ..................... 3:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at USC ............................................. TBA * at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; ^ at MetLife Sta- dium in East Rutherford, N.J.; + at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.