Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com PRESEASON 2017 9 UNDER THE DOME 1 Back-to-back losing seasons recorded by the Notre Dame football pro- gram since the 20th century. It occurred in 1985 (5-6) under fifth-year head coach Gerry Faust, followed by the same record the next season un- der first-year boss Lou Holtz. It nearly happened in 2007 (3-9) and 2008 (7-6), and the Irish will attempt to avoid it again this year. 5 This season marks the fifth time Notre Dame football will play five games before the month of October, with the first coming in 1995. The Fighting Irish were 3-2 in September 1995, and then 4-1 in 2006, 0-5 in 2007 and 4-1 in 2013 — in- cluding an Aug. 31 victory versus Temple, which is this year's opener as well. 7 Games lost by the Fighting Irish in 2016 by eight or fewer points (a one-score deficit), a school record. The previous high was six in head coach Charlie Weis' final season in 2009 that ended 6-6. The 2-8 team under Joe Kuharich in 1960 and 5-6 unit in 1986 under first-year head coach Lou Holtz had five apiece. 13-5 Record of eighth-year head coach BRIAN KELLY at Notre Dame when facing a first-year head coach at another school, including 2-1 last year. He will face only one this year: Temple in the Sept. 2 opener. Owls head coach Geoff Col- lins was the defensive coordinator at the University of Florida last year. The five de- feats were to Michigan's Brady Hoke and Stanford's David Shaw in 2011, back- to-back weeks in 2014 versus Louis- ville's Bobby Petrino and USC's Steve Sarkisian, and Virginia Tech's Justin Fuente last year. 21 Home runs hit through Aug. 21 by Baltimore Orioles rookie Trey Mancini, who played at Notre Dame from 2011-13. He became the first Oriole rookie to reach 20 homers since Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. in 1982 with a club-record 28 by a first-year player. An eighth-round selection of the Orioles in the 2013 MLB Draft, Mancini fin- ished his Notre Dame degree in political science in the fall semesters of 2014 and 2015. 175 Years Notre Dame cel- ebrates this year with its founding by Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C. in 1842. The 175 label will join the "Ara" addition to the Notre Dame helmet this season in honor of its 1964-74 head coach Ara Parseghian, who died Aug. 2. 252-73-5 Record posted by the Fighting Irish, a .771 win- ning percentage, from 1930-96 in the original Notre Dame Stadium. It dropped to 85-40 (.680) in the 20 years from 1997-2016 with the seating expansion to the edifice and the bowl configuration around it. Chapter three of the venue's history begins this year with the opening of the Campus Crossroads Project. 1994 In the 23 football seasons since that year, Notre Dame football has been ranked 15 times in the Associated Press preseason top 25 — and never once finished higher than where it started. Con- versely, in the eight seasons the Fighting Irish were not ranked in the AP preseason top 25, they finished in the final rankings four times, most recently in the top 10 in both 2012 (No. 4) and 2005 (No. 9). Notre Dame is not in the AP top 25 this year (No. 28) for the first time since 2012, and it began No. 29 in the Amway Coaches Poll. 4,798,976 Pixels contained in Notre Dame Stadium's new light-emitting diode (LED) video score- board on the south end of the edifice. It is the most of any NCAA outdoor venue. Compared to many video boards of the same di- mensions, it has four times the amount of resolution. BY THE NUMBERS ✦ Sponsored by: NotreDameTickets.com PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA