Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: SYRACUSE cuse's offense and defense (with the fullback sometimes incorporated into the offense) are seniors. In contrast, through the first three games, only two of Notre Dame's 24 players on the two-deep (cornerback Cody Riggs and backup tackle Justin Utupo) are out of eligibility following the 2014 season. On offense, only three of the top 24 in the two-deep will be out of eligibil- ity after 2014: running back Cam Mc- Daniel, tight end Ben Koyack and right guard Christian Lombard. That is why Notre Dame's 2014 team has been classified as possibly "a year away" from contending for the College Football Playoff. Instead, its youth has sparked energy into the infrastructure. "This team, its strength is really in its youth," head coach Brian Kelly said af- ter the 31-0 shutout of Michigan Sept. 6. "There are young guys out there that are playing for this football team, and we have embraced that." The chemistry of youthful energy and veteran poise often has created the best chemistry for top Notre Dame teams. This year's team might appear to possess that combination. BY-AND-BYE Notre Dame is 4-1 under head coach Brian Kelly when it comes off a bye week. • It turned around its fortunes dra- matically in his first year (2010) after a miserable 4-5 start. With an extra week to prepare and recover, Notre Dame trounced No. 15 Utah 28-3 and finished the year on a 4-0 run. • The loss came in 2011 to USC, 31-17, a home game where the focus was on almost everything else — huge recruit- ing weekend, shiny new and genuine gold helmets, piped-in music for the first time, first home night game in 21 years — other than the actual football game. • In 2012, the Irish had an extra week to prepare for Miami in the Shamrock Series game in Chicago, and the Irish romped to a 41-3 victory. • Last year Notre Dame had two bye weeks, and both times the defense re- sponded with a sensational effort, the first a 17-13 victory against USC and the second a 23-13 conquest of BYU. Kelly said with Notre Dame's first bye this year coming early in the sea- son (the second will be Oct. 25), there won't be any different messages or ap- proaches. "Later in the year sometimes I've used [the bye week] as, 'If you want the extra day off or two, you need to win this football game,'" Kelly said. "This one is really one where we're asking our players to stay here. We're not interested in them traveling any- where. We want them to focus on their academics. We want them to focus on football. "We'll practice and then go with the skeleton [drills] mid-week so coaches can get out of town here [Sept. 16] for recruiting." A PROGRAM-CHANGER Syracuse went through a dark eight- year football stretch from 2002-09 in which it never recorded a winning sea-