Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: WAKE FOREST sons make it through four or five sea- sons at Notre Dame. In an interview with the Chicago Tri- bune, Te'o's father, Brian, said he had recommended to his son to turn pro, but was extremely moved by his re- sponse that money is not his driving force. "More than anything, he wanted This has been a year in Notre Dame football history that has seen the end- ing to a number of nagging streaks: • On Sept. 15, Notre Dame put a halt ENDING ANOTHER STREAK to walk around that stadium one last time, whether it was in pads or on crutches," Brian Te'o said. "He said he would walk and give his final good- byes. He couldn't see himself declar- ing for the NFL and not having that opportunity to say goodbye to Notre Dame. From listening to him … that boy truly loves Notre Dame." The younger Te'o said he was in deep prayer in the days prior to the decision. "For me to leave my junior year would mean I'm not finishing some- thing," he said. "I came here to do something. I don't really know what that is, but I know it was the right thing to come back." In his first game at Notre Dame, Te'o to its school-record nine-game losing streak to top-10 ranked teams with a 20-3 victory at No. 10 Michigan State. • On Sept. 22 and Oct. 6, victories versus Michigan and Stanford, re- spectively, snapped three-game los- ing streaks to each, and prevented the Notre Dame class of 2013 from be- coming the first to graduate with an 0-4 record against the Wolverines and Cardinal. • The 29-26 triple-overtime victory against Pitt gave Notre Dame its first nine-game winning streak and 9-0 start since 1993, a span of 19 years. It also provided it an excellent chance to become the first Irish team since 1993 not to lose a minimum of three games during the season. Now against Wake Forest, the Irish saw the Fighting Irish record a 35-0 shutout of Nevada to open the 2009 season. A shutout is always difficult to achieve, but in his final game at Notre Dame Stadium, Te'o and his cohorts will face a Wake Forest offense that during its 5-4 start ranked 97th in scoring offense (21.7 points per game), 103rd in passing efficiency (116.4 rat- ing), 107th in rushing offense (112.3 yards per game), and 107th in total offense (323.6 yards per game) among 120 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. will attempt to record their first per- fect record at home since 1998, which came under second-year head coach Bob Davie. The 13-year drought at home from 1999-2011 easily eclipsed the previous school record of eight consecutive sea- sons from 1956-63, prior to first-year head coach Ara Parseghian's "Resur- rection" campaign in 1964. For Notre Dame to return to its elite status, one of the first tasks at hand was to protect its home turf for an en- tire season. It wasn't until former Notre Dame head coach Frank Leahy's final season in 1953 that the Irish regularly began