Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 27, 2017 9 UNDER THE DOME 5 Players signed by the Notre Dame men's basketball program during the Nov. 8-15 early signing period with the addition of 6-7 forward Chris Doherty from Marlborough, Mass. It elevated the Fighting Irish to No. 3 in the overall class ratings by ESPN, behind fellow ACC members North Caro- lina and Duke. Notre Dame's haul was also rated No. 7 by 247Sports and No. 9 by Rivals. It marked the first time in head coach Mike Brey's 18 seasons the Irish signed five high school players in one class. It was the first time that Notre Dame inked five players since 1991, Digger Phelps' final season as head coach. That year, the Irish brought in center Nathion Gilmore, forwards Billy Tay- lor and Malik Russell, and guards Jason Williams and Lamarr Justice. Gilmore and Russell would transfer to Texas and South Carolina, respectively. 6 Walk-on football players honored on Senior Day in what likely was their final home game at Notre Dame. Alphabetically, they were offensive lineman Sam Bush, tight end Chris Bury, wide receivers Keenan Centlivre and Grant Hammann, defensive lineman Ryan Kilander and kicker Sam Kohler. 7 Scholarship seniors or fifth-year seniors who are out of eligibility after the 2017 sea- son and were honored on Senior Day Nov. 18. The fifth-year seniors were tight end Durham Smythe, offensive linemen Mike McGlinchey and Hunter Bivin, and receiver Cam Smith. Those are out of eligibility after four seasons were defensive end Andrew Trumbetti, and linebackers Greer Martini and Nyles Morgan. 13 Scholarship seniors honored on Senior Day versus Navy who still have a year of eligi- bility remaining in 2018. All won't return, but alphabetically here are the candidates: offensive guard Alex Bars, defensive tackle Jonathan Bonner, offensive guard Jimmy Byrne, defensive end Jay Hayes, nose tackle Peter Mokwuah, center Sam Mustipher, left guard Quenton Nelson, punter Tyler Newsome, rover Drue Tranquill, quarterback/holder Montgomery VanGorder, cornerback Nick Watkins, wide receiver Austin Webster and tight end Nic Weishar. Look for a breakdown in the next edition of Blue & Gold Il- lustrated on the most likely to return for a fifth season. 37 Notre Dame women's basketball players who have eclipsed 1,000 career points after junior guard Arike Ogunbowale reached that mile- stone in the opener of the 2017-18 campaign versus Mount St. Mary's Nov. 11. She began the year with a pair of team-high 21-point efforts for the No. 6 Irish in victories against Mount St. Mary's and Western Kentucky. She also was named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 30. The Milwaukee native already had been named a preseason All-ACC selection, espnW's 15th-best player in the country and an Ann Meyers Drysdale Award top-20 watch list candidate. 47 Lott IMPACT Candidates at the start of the 2017 football season that were pared down to nine semifinalists this month. Among them is Notre Dame senior rover DRUE TRANQUILL. IMPACT is the acronym for a top defensive player in college who embodies Integrity, Maturity, Performance, Academics, Community and Tenacity. A mechani- cal engineering major, Tranquill earned Academic All-America honors last season and through 10 games this year was third in tackles (62), tied for second in tackles for loss (6.5) and first in fumble recoveries (three) for the Irish. The winner will be announced Dec. 10, live on the CBS Sports Network at 8:30 p.m. EST. 265-84 Notre Dame has been outscored by this margin — an average of 20 points — in its last nine trips to the city of Miami, from 1981 to the 41-8 defeat against the Hurricanes Nov. 11. The Irish are 1-8 in those nine outings, with the lone victory occurring on Jan. 1, 1990, 21-6 versus No. 1 Colorado in the Orange Bowl. BY THE NUMBERS ✦ Sponsored by: NotreDameTickets.com PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA