Vol.167No. 3
The ND vs. Pitt game featured the first female leprechaun to lead the football team.
Since the program’s inaugural season in 1989, Notre Dame softball has been a paragon of consistency, having won 30 or more games every year except for the canceled 2020 season.
The 11th-seeded men’s basketball team came close to earning a Sweet 16 berth, ultimately falling 59-53 to No. 3 seed Texas Tech in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.
Between 1996 and 2019, Notre Dame women’s basketball advanced to 24 straight NCAA tournaments, nine Final Fours and won two national championships.
The 2020-2021 Notre Dame hockey season ended in the heartbreaking fashion that only a pandemic could induce: a COVID-19 outbreak that forced the team to pull out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Confidence in the Notre Dame men’s basketball program was low heading into the 2021-2022 season.
When Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick hired Marcus Freeman, a move that became official in early December, he did so with the intention of continuity in mind.
As Marcus Freeman assumes his head coaching duties at the University of Notre Dame, his first staff is beginning to take shape. With the departure of any head coach comes several changes among the position coaches, and the same holds true for the Fighting Irish after former head coach Brian Kelly took the job at LSU. Several former coaches have since departed for other opportunities or have not been retained — running backs coach Lance Taylor took the offensive coordinator position at Louisville, defensive line coach Mike Elston left for his same job at Michigan, Brian Polian followed Kelly to LSU as the special teams coordinator and Del Alexander and Jeff Quinn were relieved of their duties leading the wide receivers and offensive line, respectively. Even with these losses, Fighting Irish fans have something to look forward to as Freeman and company announce the hirings of new position coaches who will bring a renewed energy to recruiting and the development of players already on campus. …
On the road in Charlottesville, Notre Dame continued to show marked improvement and moved to 9-1 with a 28-3 drubbing of the Cavaliers.
The Irish rushed for 249 yards behind strong performances from Kyren Williams and Logan Diggs, while Jack Coan added 132 yards and three passing touchdowns. Defensively, Notre Dame didn’t allow a score until the fourth quarter, when a field goal gave Virginia its only points of the game. …
It was 1975 and Notre Dame was playing Georgia Tech when Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger took the field for the final play. Almost 50 years later, Notre Dame’s matchup against Georgia Tech ended in another win for the Fighting Irish.
The Fighting Irish dominated against the Yellow Jackets in a 55-0 win on a particularly sunny day in November. At the time of the game, Georgia Tech had a record of 3-7 while Notre Dame was ranked No. 6 with a record of 9-1. The afternoon game began with a Jonathan Doerer field goal on the tail of a 25-yard opening drive. The Fighting Irish increased their lead to 10-0 less than five minutes into the game with a 43-yard interception return for a touchdown by linebacker Jack Kiser. …
A new era has dawned on Notre Dame football. With it comes hope and new expectations; expectations to finally win the “big game,” to reel in five-star talent, and to bring a national championship back to South Bend. While Brian Kelly completely reshaped the national perception of Notre Dame football, he was never able to win the “big game” and appease fans and alumni alike. There was great optimism that newly hired head coach Marcus Freeman would immediately expel that narrative in his first game at the helm. …
Notre Dame football is entering a new era. Marcus Freeman was named the Fighting Irish head coach after the sudden and controversial departure of longtime head coach Brian Kelly, who heads to LSU next year. Freeman inherits a program that is back in the national spotlight after just missing the College Football Playoff at No. 5 in the final College Football Playoff rankings. The football program is destined to see major changes, as Freeman is expected to bring a new energy to the surging Irish program. …
Between the end of the regular season and the Fiesta Bowl, the Irish had 35 days off. This over a month-long pause between games was a “pause” in name only for the Irish. Since they last played, Notre Dame flirted with a College Football Playoff berth, only to see their hopes dashed after an Alabama victory over Georgia in the SEC Championship all but guaranteed the Irish would be seeded fifth. The program endured the unexpected departure of head coach Brian Kelly, and righted the ship, hiring Marcus Freeman to take over the job. …
Notre Dame has long been associated with the NFL Draft. With nine picks in last year’s draft class, the university regained its crown as the school with the most picks in draft history and has seen at least one player drafted in all but one NFL Draft. Players come to Notre Dame with the dream of one day hearing their name called at the NFL Draft, and this year will be no different as several Irish players head to the draft with high aspirations. Whether it be bonafide stars selected in the first round or diamonds in the rough selected in the later rounds, Notre Dame will continue to be well represented in the NFL Draft come this spring. …
What was once a competitive rivalry that allowed Notre Dame to add a resume-building win in late November has turned into a tune-up game against a below .500 team annually. Stanford and Notre Dame have competed for the Legends Trophy since 1989 with few exceptions (Notre Dame did not play Stanford in 2020 due to the Pac 12’s rules regarding non-conference opponents), but the last three matchups have been Irish blowouts. …
On the chilly but sunny afternoon of Nov. 6, the 10th-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish faced the unranked Navy Midshipman in the 94th matchup of their long-standing rivalry. The Notre Dame-Navy rivalry commenced in 1927, and Notre Dame leads the series 79-13-1. Though rivals for quite some time, both teams have a deep respect for one another, something that is sure to continue well into the future. …
Atop ten matchup under the lights in South Bend — that is what the preseason rankings suggested this game would hold. However, North Carolina limped into South Bend after a disappointing 4-3 start to their season, finding themselves unranked and struggling to keep the season afloat. While North Carolina kept the game competitive, the Irish picked up their second win against the Tar Heels in as many seasons, 44-34. …
After the rivalry game was canceled during the 2020 season, Notre Dame once again faced USC in a battle for the Jeweled Shillelagh. The 31-16 game was Notre Dame’s second consecutive win and first at home since Cincinnati snapped the Irish’s 26-game winning streak in South Bend.
The rivalry, generally considered to be the greatest intersectional rivalry in college football, was first played in 1926. With a victory over the Trojans, Notre Dame increased their overall series lead to 48-36-5 and extended their series winning streak to four games beginning with a 2017 victory in Notre Dame Stadium. …
Lane Stadium could feel it. When Virginia Tech quarterback Braxton Burmeister hit paydirt on a 19-yard touchdown run to put his team up 29-21 with just under four minutes to play, Hokies’ fans sensed they had the Irish on the ropes.
The Irish offense had struggled all night against the Hokies, who were looking to improve to 4-1 and grab a signature upset in primetime. After a dismal first quarter, graduate transfer starter Jack Coan was pulled in favor of true freshman Tyler Buchner, whose dual-threat capabilities kept the Irish in the game. …
On a rainy October afternoon, No. 9 Notre Dame (4-0) and No. 7 Cincinnati (3-0) faced off aiming to maintain their undefeated seasons. Notre Dame lost not only their perfect record, but also their streak of 26 consecutive wins at home. To add to the burden, former head coach Brian Kelly spent the four years prior to his time at Notre Dame coaching the Bearcats. Newly appointed head coach Marcus Freeman also coached as defensive coordinator at Cincinnati for four years before being hired by Notre Dame. …
The 2021 home-away-from-home Shamrock Series took place quite close to South Bend this past September, as the Fighting Irish traveled just 90 miles to play at Soldier Field in downtown Chicago. Matching up against the Wisconsin Badgers, No. 12 Notre Dame headed into the game with an appetite to win what would be their 10th victory in the series since its inception in 2009. The Irish-Badger matchup had been long awaited after the 2020 game scheduled to be played at Lambeau Field was canceled and rescheduled for 2026. …
Question marks surrounded Notre Dame heading into their third game of the season. A scare against a non-Power Five opponent in Toledo the previous week, combined with quarterback controversy and poor offensive line play, led many to question the ceiling of this Irish team. While some of these questions remained unanswered, the Irish took care of business against the Boilermakers and clinched their 57th Shillelagh Trophy with a 27-13 win over their in-state rivals. …
After escaping by the skin of their teeth in Tallahassee, Notre Dame had their home opener against the Toledo Rockets on deck. For most fans, this seemed like an easy week, and who could blame any of them for believing as much? Sure, Notre Dame had struggled to establish a run game the week prior. Sure, they allowed too many big plays on defense. Sure, they had trouble protecting Jack Coan. But there was no way that a team from the Mid-American Conference could exploit those weaknesses. Notre Dame was poised for a huge bounce back week... until they weren’t. …
Recency bias. It affects all of us. That’s why it is difficult to remember anything that happened in this 2021-2022 Irish football season that does not include the departure of Brian Kelly, the hiring of Marcus Freeman and the collapse witnessed at the Fiesta Bowl.
Taking a step back though, one realizes this season, like any other, was filled with twists and turns. It featured the return of fans in the stands, a game day experience that many felt relieved and excited to partake in again. It featured Irish staples, with another strong season from the likes of Kyren Williams, Michael Mayer and Kyle Hamilton. It featured new faces, such as transfer quarterback Jack Coan and defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman. …
No one anticipated such chaos, other than the man wearing the purple shirt under his blue blazer the day he was asked about speculation regarding the USC job.
Brian Kelly — winner of more games (113) as the head coach of Notre Dame than Knute Rockne — led the Irish to a pair of playoff appearances in three seasons and 54 victories in the last five. He took Notre Dame to the front door of a national title before turning over the keys to Vice President and Director of Athletics Jack Swarbrick for a new set in Baton Rouge, La. …
The season-opening matchup at Florida State forced Notre Dame fans to consider how much their nerves could take. In a game that saw huge momentum shifts and several lead changes, the Irish secured the victory with a 41-yard field goal by Jonathan Doerer in overtime to cap a thrilling 41-38 road win to start the season. …
Each season, as Notre Dame becomes further and further removed from the school’s last national championship in 1988 under Lou Holtz, a common argument arises about whether the Fighting Irish should follow the example of nearly all of the other historical independents in major college football and join a conference. Whether the Irish have contended for a championship all season or not, the voices are the same after the team once again comes up short: Notre Dame puts itself at a competitive disadvantage by remaining an independent in football. …
Things had gotten so rough for Notre Dame football after a 4-8 campaign in 2016 that a group of alumni and fans paid for a full-page ad in The Observer calling for the firings of Irish athletic director Jack Swarbrick and head coach Brian Kelly. The ad cited a failure to uphold standards on and off the field and the confidence level in Kelly as “Zero.” …
Considered one of the best tight ends in the nation after receiving Freshman All-America honors, Michael Mayer is no stranger to play-making for the Irish, with 840 yards and seven touchdowns on the season. Mayer was a strength for the Irish offense, excelling in his ability to haul in tough catches, and was the top receiver in several of Notre Dame’s games this season.…
Sammi Fisher first fell in love with soccer watching her two older sisters, Jenna and Monica, perform on the pitch.
Your update on Irish sports.