Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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14 SEPT. 19, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED UNDER THE DOME UNDER THE DOME Irish student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom John Felitto — Golf The freshman from Mountainside, N.J., shot a 7-under-par 135 to win the Notre Dame Kickoff Chal- lenge at Warren Golf Course Sept. 3. He opened play with a morning round of 70, then knocked five strokes off in the afternoon and carded a 65 for the lowest 36-hole tournament score in Notre Dame history. Felitto's strong performance helped Notre Dame win the tournament by a resounding 27 strokes. Annie Heffernan — Cross Country The sophomore from Cincinnati crossed the finish line first at the Crusader Open Sept. 2 in Valparaiso, Ind., finishing the 5,000-meter race with a time of 18 minutes and 47 seconds. It marked the best showing of her career, top- ping her previous career best of third at the National Catholic Invitational last year. Notre Dame posted a perfect score by pro- ducing the top five finishers at the event. Chris Hubbard — Soccer The senior goalkeeper from Louisville, Ky., got his third shutout vic- tory of the season with a 5-0 triumph over No. 22 Cal Sept. 4. He stopped all eight of the Bears' shots on goal. Hubbard also contributed an assist when he found ju- nior forward Jon Gallagher all alone off a goal kick. Gallagher's goal gave the Irish a 2-0 lead just 12 minutes into the match. Cal Petersen — Hockey The junior goaltender from Waterloo, Iowa, was named Notre Dame's team captain Aug. 31. He is the first netminder to be se- lected for the honor in the history of the team. In 2015-16, Petersen had a save percentage of .927 — the third best single-season mark in program history — and led the nation in percentage of team minutes played while posting a 19-11-7 record. TOP OF THE CLASS ✦ GIMME FIVE In this year's opener at Texas, Notre Dame sophomore kicker Justin Yoon's first field goal attempt of the game was blocked, thereby ending his streak of 12 consecutive field goals converted over the final 11 games in 2015. That streak had been the fourth longest in Notre Dame history. As a freshman, Yoon was 15 of 17 on field goals — with the misses coming in the first two games in victories against Texas and Virginia — and he also missed two extra points (50 of 52 overall) in the first four games. Over the last nine games, he did not miss any kicks. Here are the five longest streaks of field goals converted by a Notre Dame kicker. In each case, the streak began in his first season of taking over as the starter. Player (Years) Streak 1. David Ruffer (2009-10) 23 2. Nick Tausch (2009) 14 3. Mike Johnston (1982) 13 4. Justin Yoon (2015) 12 5. John Carney (1984-85) 10 Getting To Know … JUNIOR SAFETY DRUE TRANQUILL Major: "Mechanical engineering." Favo r i te fo o d : " I love grilling out a good steak with my dad. So, grilling out. Baked potatoes, grilled veg- etables, I love all that stuff." Favorite movie: "I like 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Dark Knight Rises.'" Favorite TV show: "I like 'Friday Night Lights,' the Netflix series." Favorite music: "I'll go with my childhood sweetheart Carrie Underwood. I love what she did on American Idol." Favorite professional sports team: "My fa- vorite professional sports team would have to be the Pittsburgh Steelers. I've got family from Pittsburgh, and I love the culture they've got there on defense." CHARTING THE IRISH NOTRE DAME WHEN DEFENDING 80-PLUS SNAPS Texas' new up-tempo spread offense had no trouble against the Notre Dame defense in the season opener, running a total of 86 offensive plays. Over a full season, that would likely lead all of the Football Bowl Subdivision in plays per game. The 2015 leader in plays per game, Baylor, ran 84.8 per game. First-year Longhorns offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert — a disciple of former Baylor head coach Art Briles — implemented the same system at Texas. The problem against Texas, according to Irish head coach Brian Kelly, wasn't the Longhorns' up-tempo pace. "I thought we were in pretty good shape," Kelly said. "Tempo was not a factor this game for us. Our guys played a lot of plays in very humid conditions. It wasn't an issue in terms of communication. "Our mistakes were one where we weren't in the right coverage or the fronts — maybe once or twice we didn't have the shade the right way. That's going to happen. It wasn't a matter of not having com- munication and getting guys in a good position, it was just — we've got to execute better, tackle better." In 2015, Gilbert's offense at Tulsa averaged 83.3 plays per game, fourth most in the country. Of the Irish opponents in 2015, only Ohio State ran a similar tempo, tallying 85 offensive plays. Under third-year defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder, Notre Dame is 1-3 and has allowed an average of 46.5 points per game when the opposing team runs 80 or more plays. Here are the last five games in which Notre Dame has played against a team that ran 80-plus offensive plays. NOTRE DAME DEFENDING 80-PLUS SNAPS PER GAME Year Team Snaps Result 2016 Texas 86 50-47 loss 2015 Ohio State 85 44-28 loss 2014 USC 93 49-14 loss 2014 North Carolina 84 50-43 win 2011 Air Force 88 59-33 win MOVING? Let our customer service department know your new address! Call us 1-800-421-7751