Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com MARCH 2018 9 UNDER THE DOME 4 Notre Dame men's basketball recruits in the 2018 haul that received a rankings boost in the January Ri- vals150 release. Northfield (Mass.) Mt. Hermon forward Nate Laszewski elevated to No. 66 from No. 70. Mars (Pa.) High guard Robby Carmody jumped five spots to No. 82, while averaging 35.4 and 12.8 rebounds per game. Washington (D.C.) Gonzaga guard Prentiss Hubb is up one spot to No. 83, despite being out for the season with a knee injury. Upper Arlington (Ohio) High School guard Dane Goodwin moved up six spots to No. 100, giving the Irish four top-100 signees. Goodwin was named MVP of a tourna- ment in Jefferson City, Mo., after averaging 32.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game while shooting 61.8 percent from the field in the three-game event. The fifth member — Marlborough (Mass.) High forward Chris Doherty — remains outside of the Rivals150. 16 Consecutive wins by the Notre Dame hockey team — a program record — over an 87-day stretch from Oct. 27, 2017 to Jan. 21, 2018, when it fell to Wisconsin. Dating back to the 1993-94 season, Notre Dame is only the third team with a winning streak of at least 16 games, joining Boston College in 2011-12 (19 wins) and Harvard in 2016-17 (16 wins). The previous program record of 15 occurred in 1983-84 when the Irish competed merely under club status. 23 Points the Notre Dame women's basketball team trailed by (37-14) in the first half versus No. 6 Tennessee Jan. 18, before rallying to an 84-70 victory. It was the single largest comeback win in the pro- gram's history, eclipsing the 18-point margin it trailed by versus Duke on Nov. 26, 2011. The men's team rallied from a 20-point deficit at Vil- lanova on Feb. 18, 2012, to win 74-70 in overtime. The largest comeback triumph in football was 22 points — 34-12 with 7:37 left in the fourth quarter versus Houston in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1979. The rally against the Volunteers tied for the fifth best in Division I women's basket- ball history. Ironically, Tennessee football's largest comeback ever came in 1991 at Notre Dame, a 35-34 victory after trailing by 24 points (31-7). 24 Age of Charlie Weis Jr., hired as head coach Lane Kiffin's new offen- sive coordinator at Florida Atlantic University. The son of 2005-09 Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis served as an offensive assistant with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons in 2017 after originally joining Kiffin's staff as tight ends coach, and was an Alabama offensive analyst in 2015-16, where he worked under Kiffin. Weis Jr. is the youngest coordinator in the Football Bowl Subdivision. 33/1 Odds given by Bovada for Notre Dame to win the College Football Playoff next January, tying it with seven other schools for 15th place, including four of its 2018 opponents. The Alabama dynasty, which has won five of the last nine national titles, is tops at 11/4, followed by Clemson (6/1), Georgia (15/2) and Ohio State (15/2). Despite an 8-5 finish in 2017, Michigan — which will play at Notre Dame Sept. 1 to open the season for both teams — is No. 5 at 9/1, with a third Big Ten member, Penn State, right behind at 11/1. Tied with Notre Dame at 15th are 2018 Fighting Irish opponents Stanford (Sept. 29), Virginia Tech (Oct. 6), Florida State (Nov. 10) and USC (Nov. 24). 98.9 Regular-season grade from Pro Football Focus for sixth-year NFL safety HARRISON SMITH, who played at Notre Dame from 2007-11 before becoming a first- round pick of the Minnesota Vikings. That was the highest grade ever recorded by a safety in the 12 years PFF has graded every single play. The next closest was San Diego's Eric Weddle in 2012 (94.7), followed by Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu in 2011 (93.8). 8.713 Million viewers who tuned into the Citrus Bowl between Notre Dame and LSU Jan. 1 on ABC — making it the most-watched non-College Football Playoff or Big Six Bowl among the 36 Football Bowl Subdivision games played, per Sports Media Watch. The most-watched contest was the CFP National Cham- pionship on ESPN between Alabama and Georgia that attracted 28.4 million viewers. BY THE NUMBERS ✦ Sponsored by: NotreDameTickets.com PHOTO COURTESY MINNESOTA VIKINGS