Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/90407
UNDER THE DOME It's crunch time in college football. Two months of bumps and bruises have accumulated for every team in the country, and those who are best suited to fight through them will have an upper hand in December when bowl selec- tion committees meet to schedule their annual pairings. During Brian Kelly's three seasons at Notre Dame, he has emphasized his CHARTING THE IRISH goal for the Irish to finish stronger than they start. He's lived up to his word so far. Notre Dame has lost only one game in November, last year's 28-14 season finale against Stanford. As the coach's finest month begins, we take a look at the calendar to see how his teams and the Notre Dame program have progressed throughout each season during the last decade. SEPTEMBER Wins Winning Pct.: Score Margin: 68.2% 434 Kelly 30 Notre Dame 7 Kelly at 58.3% 62 Notre Dame 56.6% 59 30 Wins OCTOBER Wins Winning Pct.: Score Margin: Kelly 34 79.1 521 Notre Dame 10 Kelly at 83.3 187 Notre Dame 72.9 413 35 NOVEMBER Winning Pct.: Score Margin: Kelly 34 82.9 588 Notre Dame 6 Kelly at 85.7 72 Notre Dame 58.1 199 25 Valley State, Kelly has helped his teams improve their winning percentage each month as the season goes on during his time at Notre Dame. October has typically been Notre Dame's strongest month in the past decade, with the Irish winning 72.9 percent of their games in that month as opposed to less than 60 percent in September and November. That middle of the season strength has not completely changed under Kelly. Notre Dame has outscored its opponents by 187 points under Kelly in October, which is significantly more than either of the other two regular-season months. Like he did at previous stops at Cincinnati, Central Michigan and Grand