Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/884790
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com OCT. 23, 2017 11 UNDER THE DOME 2 Las Vegas natives on the Notre Dame football team — junior tight end Alizé Mack and junior safety Nicco Fertitta — affected by the Oct. 1 tragedy in their hometown in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, with at least 59 deceased and hun- dreds wounded. "Both of them were quite sullen, because they knew of somebody that they were close to or were acquaintances with that were affected by the tragedy," Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly said. "… We are all obviously devastated by the news and sick about it." 4 Wins by head coach Brian Kelly versus USC in seven meetings. That victory total against the archrival ties him with Knute Rockne and Elmer Layden for third place among the 14 Irish coaches who have faced USC in the first 88 matchups between the two schools. Only Lou Holtz (9-1-1) and Frank Leahy (8-1-1) have won more games against the men of Troy. 10 Rating of Notre Dame entering October in the mathematically based computer ratings of Jeff Sagarin. Notre Dame's 89.34 score was ahead of everyone on the second half of its six-game schedule after the Oct. 14 bye: No. 14 USC (87.22), No. 16 Miami (86.36), No. 18 Stanford (83.97), No. 29 North Carolina State (79.19), No. 36 Wake Forest (77.95) and No. 50 Navy (73.49). The only 2017 opponent ranked ahead of Notre Dame was No. 6 Georgia (92.43), which edged the Irish 20-19 Sept. 9. Alabama (104.55) and Clemson (95.63) are ranked No. 1 and No. 2. Notre Dame likewise was ranked No. 10 in the ESPN Football Power Index, but was given only a 7.6 percent chance to win out the remainder of its schedule. 11 Players on the 2017 Notre Dame football roster from the state of California. Only Illinois with 14 has more repre- sentation. The 11 include sophomore quarterback Ian Book (El Dorado Hills), senior captain and wide receiver Austin Webster (Beverly Hills), junior wide receivers EQUANIMEOUS ST. BROWN (Ana- heim) and C.J. Sanders (Granada Hills), sophomore wideout Javon McKinley (Corona) and freshman guard Aaron Banks (Alameda) on offense. The defense has freshman safety Jordan Genmark Heath (San Diego) and sophomore rover D.J. Morgan (Norwalk). Walk-ons contributing to the program are freshman quarterback J.D. Carney (San Diego), senior offensive lineman Sam Bush (Newport Beach) and senior defensive lineman Ryan Kilander (Rancho Santa Margarita). 21-19 Career record of head coach Brian Kelly against the Associated Press top 25 entering the USC game Oct. 21, but he is only 11-15 at Notre Dame. He was 10-3 at the University of Cincinnati from 2007-09 and 0-1 at Central Michigan from 2004-06. Still, his winning percentage of .525 in such games ranks eighth among Football Bowl Subdivision coaches. The top three are Ohio State's Urban Meyer at .700 (35-15), Alabama's Nick Saban at .658 (73-38) and Stanford's David Shaw at .645 (20-11). 72 Consecutive years Notre Dame and USC will have met in football when the two square off Oct. 21. The series was interrupted from 1943-45 during World War II, and only Navy's 90 consecutive games versus the Irish since 1927 is longer. The third longest current streak among Notre Dame opponents is 20 by Stanford, which has played the Irish every season since 1997. The third longest overall was Purdue's 69 from 1946-2014. 1,845 Victories in Notre Dame men's basketball his- tory, which ranks ninth in the NCAA. Eighty two have come the past three seasons, the most ever at the school in a three- year span. Under head coach Mike Brey, who began his 18th season when practice opened Oct. 2, Notre Dame has moved from No. 12 to No. 9 on the all-time wins chart. BY THE NUMBERS ✦ Sponsored by: NotreDameTickets.com PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA