Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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40 OCT. 2, 2017 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI SACRIFICIAL LAMB STATUS Notre Dame is one of three Foot- ball Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools — along with UCLA and USC — that has not played a Football Champion- ship Subdivision (FCS) school. Knowing that it will likely have to play as many as 14 or 15 games almost every season (when includ- ing the College Football Playoff), the University of Alabama annually schedules such a contest, facing Mer- cer this year (Nov. 18) just to give itself a breather late in the year when championship fever begins. Same with reigning national champion Clemson, which will host The Citadel on the same day. With a regular 12-game schedule and no league playoff to have to con- cern itself with, Notre Dame would do itself a disservice with the College Football Playoff committee by sched- uling an FCS team. However, that doesn't mean it cannot once a year include at least one Group of Five — American Ath- letic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (CUSA), Mid-American Con- ference (MAC), Mountain West Con- ference (MWC) and Sun Belt Confer- ence (SBC) — team on the docket for a regular 12-game slate. That has been part of the modus operandi since 2008 and 2009, when MWC teams San Diego State and Nevada, respectively, were scheduled as the openers. • In 2010, Western Michigan be- came the first MAC team to be on the Notre Dame regular season schedule since 1920, when it also was the Bron- cos. Also in 2010 Notre Dame hosted CUSA member Tulsa — which stunned the Irish with a 28-27 defeat. • In 2011, South Florida — which became an FBS member only 10 years earlier — pulled another shocker when it upset the Irish in the opener (23-20) despite finishing 4-7 the rest of the year. In 2013, a 2-10 Temple team was scheduled as the opener, followed by Rice to begin the season in 2014. In the same way that Notre Dame tries to have its bye week fall in mid- October to coincide with fall break, thereby allowing the student-ath- letes some down time to go home and decompress, it also has sched- uled a form of a "sacrificial lamb" game early in the season — without the opponent coming from the FCS. The MAC is likely to be a popular alternative. • In 2015 it was UMass, which be- gan the transition period to the FBS in 2011. The Irish won against the then-MAC member (now indepen- dent) Minutemen, 62-27. • Last year for the home opener it was Nevada, whose head coach Brian Polian is now the Irish special teams and recruiting coordinator. Notre Dame won 39-10. • This year , the Irish face Mi- ami (Ohio), while in 2018,Ball State comes to South Bend (Sept. 9). In 2019 (Sept. 14), New Mexico — now coached by 1997-2001 Notre Dame head coach Bob Davie — and Bowl- ing Green (Oct. 5) are on the sched- ule, and in 2021 Toledo (Sept. 11) comes to town. F o r 2 0 2 0 , We s t e r n M i c h i g a n (Sept. 19) was recently announced. Nevertheless, as Tulsa and South Florida have proven in the past decade, nothing can be taken for granted. Miami (Ohio) actually was sched- uled to be the opener in 1997 when the first addition to Notre Dame Stadium was unveiled. However, to have a "bigger name" for that opener, the RedHawks were re- placed with Georgia Tech, and the Irish instead scheduled a basketball series with Miami (Ohio) as part of the compensation. MY FAVORITE MARTIN Now in his fourth season in Ox- ford, Ohio, head coach Chuck Mar- tin — an assistant for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame from 2010-13, first on defense and then as offensive coor- dinator/quarterbacks coach — has gone from hot seat status to favorite in the East Division of the MAC af- ter tying Ohio U. for that honor last season. Only unbeaten Western Michigan with head coach P.J. Fleck (now at the GAME PREVIEW: MIAMI (OHIO) Top STorylineS Head coach Chuck Martin's RedHawks made NCAA football history in 2016, when they became the first team to start 0-6 and then finish the regular season 6-6. PHOTO COURTESY MIAMI ATHLETICS