Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/998819
12 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW UNDER THE DOME BY THE NUMBERS 9 Seasons associate head coach/defen‑ sive line coach MIKE ELSTON has been with head coach Brian Kelly. He is the lone remaining assistant from his original staff hired in 2010. Since the start of Blue & Gold Illustrated in 1981, Gerry Faust's first season as head coach, that ties 1988‑96 offensive line coach Joe Moore for the longest stint at Notre Dame by a football assistant. The longest tenure over consecutive years as an on‑field assistant are 17 apiece by 1964‑80 defensive line coach Joe Yonto and 1969‑85 lineback‑ ers coach George Kelly, both Notre Dame graduates. Yonto and Kelly both moved to administrative positions in the office later, although Yonto also returned for a two‑ year stint as the defensive line coach in Lou Holtz's first two seasons in 1986‑87. Notre Dame home games in the month of September, a first in the school's football history. It also will be the first time since 2000 that the first three games of the season will be at home. The flip side is there will be only one home game apiece in the months of October (Pitt, Oct. 13) and November (Florida State, Nov. 10), and five of the last seven games will involve some travel. That's because the Nov. 17 contest versus Syracuse, originally scheduled for home, turned into the Shamrock Series game to be played at Yankee Stadium. 4 5-0 Record Notre Dame owns in night games at home versus the University of Michigan, this year's Sept. 1 season opener scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. The Wolverines were the first night game ever at home for the Fighting Irish in 1982, a 23‑17 Irish triumph. Notre Dame also vanquished Michigan under the lights in the 1988 (19‑17) and 1990 (28‑24) open ‑ ers, the former resulting in the most recent national title. Two more such victories at night and at home were added in 2012 (13‑6) and 2014 (31‑0), mean ‑ ing Michigan has not scored a touchdown in its last eight quarters of play in night games at Notre Dame. Interestingly, the Wolverines are 6‑5‑1 at Notre Dame Stadium when the games are played in the daytime. Notre Dame's record in its last 18 true road games — meaning on the opponent's home field and not a neutral site — dating back to November 2013. The four such road games this year are Wake Forest (Sept. 22), Vir‑ ginia Tech (Oct. 6), Northwestern (Nov. 3) and USC (Nov. 24), with Navy (at San Di‑ ego Oct. 27) and Syracuse (at Yankee Sta‑ dium Nov. 17) designated as neutral sites. 6-12 20 Turnovers forced by the Notre Dame defense — 10 fumbles and 10 interceptions — last season to finish tied for 50th nationally in that category. It im‑ proved from the 14 in 2016 (104th in the country). The problem was after generating 19 during the 8‑1 start, it had only one over the final four games in which it was 2‑2 and eked out 24‑17 and 21‑17 wins versus Navy and LSU, respectively. The most turnovers forced by Notre Dame in head coach Brian Kelly's eight seasons was 25 in year one back in 2010. To be in the College Football Playoff hunt, Notre Dame could use getting back to the two‑ dozen level — and in timely spots. PHOTO BY ANGELA DRISKELL The only football season — until now — that Notre Dame played two games in California the same year. Head coach Brian Kelly's squad will travel to play Navy in San Diego Oct. 27. A month later on Nov. 25, the Fighting Irish will be in Los Angeles to face archrival USC in the regular‑season finale. Oddly, Notre Dame in 2007 was 2‑0 in the state of California and 1‑9 in the 10 other games. The two victories in the Golden State were against UCLA (20‑6) in the Rose Bowl following an 0‑5 start, and then in the finale at Stanford (21‑14) when Jim Harbaugh was the first‑year head coach of the Cardinal. 2007