Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME Notre Dame-Texas A&M Agree To 2024-25 Meetings; Texas 2019-20 Cancelled Notre Dame announced Sept. 25 that it has agreed to a two-year football series with Texas A&M in 2024-25. The Fighting Irish and Aggies will play Aug. 31, 2024, in College Station, Texas, and Sept. 27, 2025, at Notre Dame Stadium. This meets two of Notre Dame's scheduling objectives by keeping a recruiting presence in the state of Texas and adding an opponent from the SEC. The Irish have regular-season meetings scheduled with Texas in 2015-16 — the 2019-20 games have since been canceled, the university confirmed — and have also had Shamrock Series games in the Lone CHARTING THE IRISH TURNOVER TOTALS It took until the second quarter of Notre Dame's third game for the Irish to commit turnover No. 1 of the season. Senior tight end Ben Koyack's fumble set up a Purdue touchdown in an eventual 30-14 Notre Dame win. Through the first three Irish victories, the team had forced nine turnovers while handing it over just once. Turnover margin was not a strong point during most of head coach Brian Kelly's first four seasons at the helm of the program, and much of that has to do with the previous bend-but-don't-break defensive approach that did not cause many takeaways. Notre Dame's three-game mark of plus-eight in turnover margin was tied for best in the nation and al- ready is tied for the best full-season total under Kelly, tying the 2012 group that finished the season 12-1. "We knew that this was a year where we had some young, athletic players going in," Kelly said. "What we've been able to do, I don't know if 'surprised' would be the word, but one where we're pleased, is that we have taken care of the football. Our turnover/takeaway [margin] is outstanding. That is a huge predictor in success. "With a young, athletic football team, which we knew we had, we knew we had to play mistake-free to be successful. We've done that very well. We have taken care of the football. We've taken away the football." Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the turnover margin is that senior quarterback Everett Golson did not turn the ball over in the team's first three games in his return to the program. +8 (T-1st) 0 (T-61st) +8 (T-28th) -15 (119th) +1 (T-50th) 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010