:: Notre Dame Football: Irish Game Day ::
Preview: Notre Dame Heads to Boston College
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update Oct. 2, 2010
Intro - Notre Dame Thus Far - Notre Dame on Defense - Notre Dame on Offense - Herzlich Cancer Survivor - Special Teams Mixing Bowl - Will Notre Dame Rework Its Approach to Brutal Scheduling? - Notre Dame leads ND-BC Series - Should ND-BC Game be Moved to NFL Stadium in Foxboro? - Related Articles - Resource Links
Notre Dame's season hanging in the balance, the Fighting Irish head to first-year Head Coach Brian Kelly's hometown to play for the Frank Leahy Memorial Bowl against Boston College, the only other Catholic school in Div. I-A/FBS.
At 1-3, Notre Dame needs 6 more wins to be bowl eligible, 5 wins to be on the bowl bubble, with only 8 games left on the schedule.
Boston College, at 2-1, beat easier opponents Weber State and Kent State before getting shut out by Virginia Tech 19-0.
BC has a top-10 rushing defense, and an historically opportunistic pass defense. On offense the Eagles will be breaking in a yet-to-be-named new starter at quarterback, possibly a hot-shot rookie prospect.
Notre Dame Thus Far
The Irish beat a then-good Purdue team (before Purdue later got decimated by injuries), and had two barn-burners against now-nationally-ranked Michigan and Michigan State, before getting embarrased by Stanford.
Against Stanford, Notre Dame did not get out-gained by much, but allowed Stanford to convert a shocking number of third downs, especially earlier on. The Cardinal sustained seven drives long enough to get points, with five field goals and two touchdowns.
And while Notre Dame did not give up a long touchdown run, as it did against Michigan and Michigan State, towards the end against Stanford an inconsistent Dayne Crist gave up a pick-six to a Stanford linebacker who also had just scored on offense.
The Notre Dame ground game started lagging against Stanford, and their tight end, the nation's best, got shut down as a receiver just two weeks after a 95-yard touchdown catch. Michael Floyd, expected to have an All-American season as a wide-out, is being largely productive and workmanlike but not electric.
Notre Dame on Defense
After playing three currently-ranked teams in four games, Notre Dame's defense is #103 out of #120 in Div. I-A/FBS, with the rushing defense about the same. Their scoring defense is a bit higher, at #85, and pass-effiency defense has a #69 ranking. Against Stanford, Notre Dame gave up around 400 yards, but the defense did not give up a long touchdown as it had the previous two games.
The issue with Stanford was the Cardinal's ability to sustain drives and get at least some points from field goals. The Notre Dame defense previously had done fairly well on third down, then hemorrhaged third down conversions against Stanford to allow drives to be sustained.
One interesting question of the Irish defense is, who is running it, and who is dialing up the game plans and play-calling? Brian Kelly started out as a defensive coach, and Defensive Coordinator Bob Diaco is in only his second season as a defensive coordinator, although back at Central Michigan he was a co-coordinator with Kelly.
For their part, Boston College has decided to bench starting quarterback Dave Shinskie after the shut-out loss to Virginia Tech, when Shinskie was below 50% with his completion rate, and threw two interceptions.
BC Head Coach Frank Spaziani has been close-the-vest about whether he goes with Mike Marscovetra or hot-shot rookie recruit Chase Rettig. The media seems to lean towards a hunch of Rettig.
On the ground, junior running back Montel Harris did rush for 111 yards on 19 carries against Virginia Tech, at 5.8 yards per carry. Harris was also BC's top receiver.
So Notre Dame will have to buckle down to stop the run game, while also pressuring whoever steps in as the new starting quarterback.
One problem is, if Rettig is the quarterbacl, and if Rettig, with his size, raw talent and flash, can be a freshman sensation out of the gate, there's often a rookie honeymoon where the opposing team is caught a bit off-guard because they have no previous history to go off of, in terms of studying the player's tendencies and so forth.
Irish linebacker Manti Te'o, who seems to make the most of every week to make big strides, is now the #1 tackler in Div. I-A/FBS, after 21 tackles against Stanford.
Notre Dame's secondary, paced by Darrin Walls, newly healthy Jamoris Slaughter, Gary Gray, and others, seems to be dialing up its game a bit, and did get two interceptions against Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, who seldom throws any picks at all.
As long as Notre Dame can multi-task to stop the run, a strong defensive line, a ferocious linebacker corps, and a secondary stepping up its game might spell trouble for a rookie BC QB-starter.
The real questions might be focus and intensity, and whether bread-and-butter coach Brian Kelly has figured out that he needs to tell Notre Dame its players don't have time for pageantry until they get back above .500, and tells his team they need 10 hours of sleep a night until they get back above .500. The author still is trying to figure out if he was correct thinking Notre Dame took a red-eye flight back from San Antonio last year, setting up literally days of sleep deprivation resulting in being a step slow against the grinding Navy rushing attack.
And, as challenging as Notre Dame academics are, unless the ND AD stops scheduling the regular season like a never-ending string of bowl games, they're going to have to drop to 12 credits in the fall, or whatever the minimum is now, and load up in the summer, and move tougher classes to the spring. Nobody cares if Notre Dame has five mid-terms and seven special projects before the spring game and looks sluggish against itself.
Overall, BC is only ranked #92 in the Div. I-A/FBS in total offense, despite two easy opponents thus far. So if Notre Dame comes at them with intensity, the Irish defense might have a strong day, as long as they can stop Harris. But the wild card is what happens with the new BC quarterback, and whether the Irish can pounce on him early, and shake him, whoever he is, in his new role as starter.
Notre Dame on Offense
Notre Dame actually has a top-10 passing offense nationally, but was inconsistent against Stanford and threw a pick-six while throwing for more than 300 yards. It's easy to forget, as poised and impressive as he often is, that Dayne Crist is in just his first several games seeing significant college-level game action.
And against Stanford, Notre Dame's previously surging running game yielded only 44 yards net rushing, around 2 yards per carry factoring in sacks. So the Irish
BC is in the top-10 in rushing defense nationally, top-40 for total defense and scoring defense, top-50 for pass efficiency defense.
Against Virginia Tech, the BC defense limited the Hokies to 106 yards on the ground, with the leading Virginia Tech rusher having 67 yards at 4.2 yards per carry, and the next two rushers having only 1 to 2 yards per carry, apparently including the #2 rusher being the Virginia Tech quarterback, who gave up some sacks.
For Notre Dame, big senior running back Robert Hughes moves back into the #2 slot at halfback. Hughes started out as a fullback in Charlie Weis's NFL-style pro-set offense, before becoming more of a heavy-halfback.
The BK Spread does not have a fullback in its base formation, and had moved Cierre Wood into the #2-spot at halfback.
Interestingly, despite the supposed fast pace and formation-versatility of the BK Spread, while Notre Dame has thrown to seven receivers in a given game, it has not used running back-by-committee. Lou Holtz, and perhaps Weis, rotated carries among more running backs than Kelly has.
Part of that might be that the quarterback can run more in the BK spread than in Weis's pro-set. And Holtz simply had more running plays to begin win, about 60 runs against Florida State in the Game of the Century, for example.
But after ripping of a big, runaway-freight train run-after-catch against Stanford, Huges is back in the two-deep.
Actually, with Crist looking a bit inconsistent against Stanford, impeding drives at times, one would expect Kelly should try to get a bit more creative with how he delivers the ball, and the variety of players he delivers it to.
Short passes, screens, or middle-screens to wide-outs might produce interesting results, especially if Theo Riddick or Floyd are worked into that kind of game.
And remember, Crist, as great he looks at times, including the 95-yard strike against Michigan, is still a rookie starter who had only limited play at the college level before this year.
Boston College has a recent history of giving up yardage with its passing defense, but playing bend-don't-break and getting timely turnovers. And against Virginia Tech, BC allowed the Hokie quarterback to complete about three-fourths of his passes, for 238 yards, but had an interception and did not give up a passing touchdown.
So a key for Notre Dame might be to take advantage of the passing yards that are there, but avoid the interceptions. This might make for an unpredictable game if Dayne Crist, with his strong arm but comparative inexperience and at-times inconsistency, is not careful.
On the ground, given BC's toughness, it could be tough going for Notre Dame, and the Irish might need harder runners like Hughes, and a bit more running back-by-committee.
Herzlich Cancer Survivor
An added dimension to the human drama of the game is cancer-survivor Mark Herzlich being back in the action for the Eagles after an heroic recovery.
Former Notre Dame coach Weis apparently was one of many people being very supportive of Herzlich in his ordeal.
Special Teams Mixing Bowl
Notre Dame has a Mr. Dependable in kicker David Ruffer, a former academic transfer from William and Mary who, like George Gipp, never played organized football in high school.
Ruffer started out playing dormitory football in Notre Dame's full-pads intramural league before being allowed to come out for the varsity.
In 2010, Ruffer is a perfect 7 of 7 on the year with field goals, after securing the starting spot on place-kicks just days before the opening game against Purdue.
Boston College is #2 in the country in punting, but near the bottom in its return game.
For its part, Notre Dame is mixing up its return game, adding freshman wide-out speedster Bennett Jackson to the mix as a kick-off return man.
Irish fans will remember Jackson's eye-popping speed as a kick-off gunner securing deep-tackle after deep-tackle against Purdue.
Wide-out John Goodman also is stepping up as a punt returner.
Notre Dame has had flashes of brilliance and flashes of disappointment with its return game, from week to week.
And it will be a test of Kelly's coaching creativity to figure out how to get great athletes out there with the ball in their hands at the right moments.
There also has been an issue of experience at times, with kicks being taken out of the end zone that should not have been. Good coaching, and the right players back there, should see a return to greater Irish effectiveness.
Will Notre Dame Rework Its Approach to Brutal Scheduling?
Overall, Notre Dame appears to require a redialing of how they address their attrition from their non-stop, week-to-week, in-season bowl game adventures.
It might just be that, while the students, alumni and fans enjoy the pageantry that is Notre Dame, the team might not have time for that until they're back above .500.
And they might need to move some of their courseload to a heavier summer and spring, and give up some of the special luncheons, and so forth, and get 10 hours of sleep a night, until they are back above .500. It might be difficult for young athletes who feel highly charged and invincible to address limitations, but that's what coaches are for.
When Dan Devine led #5-Notre Dame to a blowout win over an undefeated #1-ranked Texas in a bowl game, with the Irish jumping up to #1 and a consensus national title, Devine reportedly risked offending alumni by secretly moving the team at the last minute to a different hotel, where nobody knew where they were, and they could relax, rest up, and prepare in peace. Notre Dame, again, won the national title.
As mentioned above, the real questions at this point, along with player development from week-to-week, might be focus and intensity. With that, is the question of whether bread-and-butter coach Brian Kelly has figured out that he needs to tell Notre Dame its players don't have time for pageantry until they get back above .500, and tells his team they need 10 hours of sleep a night until they get back above .500. The author still is trying to figure out if he was correct thinking Notre Dame took a red-eye flight back from San Antonio last year, setting up days of sleep deprivation resulting in being a step slow against the grinding Navy rushing attack.
And, as challenging as Notre Dame academics are, unless the ND AD stops scheduling the regular season like a never-ending string of bowl games, they're going to have to drop to 12 credits in the fall, or whatever the minimum is now, and load up in the summer, and move tougher classes to the spring. Nobody cares if Notre Dame has three mid-terms before the spring game and looks sluggish against itself.
(Yes, thought that was worth saying twice. More later.)
Notre Dame leads Boston College series, Eagles stronger in more recent years
Notre Dame leads its series with Boston College 10-9 in what, thus far, has been a 19-game series dating back to the Dan Devine era in 1975, and included a Liberty Bowl win for Gerry Faust, but was not played more regularly until the Lou Holtz era.
Boston College, however, quietly backed its way into winning 7 of the last 9 meetings, setting up some big institutional memory issues akin to Michigan State, Charlie Weis and Jimmy Clausen helped alleviate with a dramatic 20-16 win last year at Notre Dame that went down to the wire.
1975: Notre Dame 17 - Boston College 3
1983: Notre Dame 19 - Boston College 18 (Liberty Bowl)
1987: Notre Dame 32 - Boston College 25
1992: Notre Dame 54 - Boston College 7
1993: Boston College 41 - Notre Dame 39
1994: Boston College 30 - Notre Dame 11
1995: Notre Dame 20 - Boston College 10
1996: Notre Dame 48 - Boston College 21
1997: Notre Dame 52 - Boston College 20
1998: Notre Dame 31 - Boston College 26
1999: Boston College 31 - Notre Dame 29
2000: Notre Dame 28 - Boston College 16
2001: Boston College 21 - Notre Dame 17
2002: Boston College 14 - Notre Dame 7
2003: Boston College 27 - Notre Dame 25
2004: Boston College 24 - Notre Dame 23
2007: Boston College 27 - Notre Dame 14
2008: Boston College 20 - Notre Dame 0
2009: Notre Dame 20 - Boston College 16
Rollicking history of Notre Dame - Boston College football rivalry
The Notre Dame-Boston College series began during Dan Devine's first year, when the Irish played BC at the stadium in Foxboro. Boston College apparently was proud to simply schedule the championship-winning Irish and hang with them to some degree, in a 17-3 Notre Dame win.
About a decade later, in 1983 when Boston College was building up a stronger footing for their modern program around Doug Flutie, but before Flutie won a Heisman, Notre Dame beat Boston College in the Liberty Bowl, Gerry Faust's only bowl win.
The field was frozen and treacherous, both teams scored three touchdowns, and Notre Dame won because their kicker made a single extra point early on. After that, at least one kicker wiped out on the slippery field while trying to make a kick. Both teams stopped attempting place-kicks and failed on two-point conversion attempts. So Notre Dame won by a point over a Doug Flutie-led Boston College in a bowl game.
Much more significantly with respect to bad blood, after a Notre Dame win in 1987, the teams met in 1992 with both Notre Dame and Boston College in the top-10. Boston College apparently was feeling as if they had worked their way into the upper tier of respectability.
Notre Dame absolutely hammered Boston College, 54-7. In addition to tough defense, the Irish brought a high-powered offense featuring Rick Mirer, Jerome Bettis, and Heisman contender Reggie Brooks. Brooks, a stocky, powerful back with deceptive speed and subtle, quick-shifting agility, had a penchant for ripping off huge open-field runs and long, jaw-dropping touchdowns. (In fact, Brooks would do the same against Southern Cal and other teams that year, on his way to finishing fifth for the Heisman.)
Boston College apparently took the experience personally, and marked Notre Dame for a grudge match. It was in the next season, 1993, that Boston College, full of righteous rage, staged the huge upset over the then-#1 Irish, freshly wearied from their Game of the Century victory over previously #1 Florida State a week earlier.
Down by three touchdowns, Notre Dame actually rallied for 22 points in the last half of the fourth quarter, to take the lead with a few minutes to go, also capitalizing on Boston College turnovers to hold Boston College scoreless during that stretch. Boston College responded with a drive for a game-winning field-goal, which itself saw a near-interception veritably bounce off the chest and hands of a Notre Dame linebacker.
Those two games marked the beginning of a fairly annual match-up between Notre Dame and Boston College, broken only by a hiatus during Notre Dame's best two years in recent memory, Charlie Weis's first two seasons.
Boston College did follow up the 1993 upset with another win over Notre Dame in 1994, 30-11. But 1994 was a rebuilding year, when Notre Dame went 6-5-1. At the same time Notre Dame was no slouch that year, mainly losing reasonably competitive games against good opponents. The Irish also went to the Fiesta Bowl, under then-existing Bowl Coalition rules, with a 6-4-1 record after tying Southern Cal; the Irish would lose the Fiesta Bowl by 17 points to a top-5 Colorado.
Overall in 1990's, however, Notre Dame was 5-3 against Boston College, and then won again in 2000, to be 6-3 in the series from 1992 to 2000.
In 1998 at Chestnut Hill, towards the end of the game, Boston College All-American running back Mike Cloud ran the ball four times inside the Notre Dame 4 without getting into the end zone. On fourth-and-ballgame, Notre Dame safety Deke Cooper made a tackle for a loss in the backfield to preserve a 31-26 victory for the Irish.
Then Boston College began a Quiet Streak that sort of snuck up on the Irish.
First, in 2001, Bob Davie lost to BC, just by four points, 21-17. It was his final year before getting let go.
Then, there was Willingham's first year, 2002. The Irish, in the top-5, once again having secured a stunning win over a good Florida State team, had no depth at quarterback and were playing a former walk-on as their signal-caller. Notre Dame ended up losing to BC 14-7 on a freakish turnover, run back for the deciding score.
Then in 2003 Willingham, in one of Notre Dame's worst seasons for blow-out losses in school history, lost to Boston College -- by two points, 27-25.
In Willingham's 2004 final season, when Notre Dame struggled to stay above .500 and Willingham was let go for not rebuilding a Notre Dame program now with its weakest foundations in more than a century, Willingham lost to Boston College again -- by one point, 24-23. The Irish had actually backed themselves into a top-25 ranking at the time, despite the program's weak footings, before the one-point loss to Boston College.
So, at this point, Boston College had a four-game winning streak over Notre Dame, by a combination of narrow losses and freakish happenstance.
But, as with Michigan State and its own streaks involving Notre Dame, Boston College did win the games.
The next time the two teams played was Charlie Weis's third season, the year with ugly win-loss record when Notre Dame made the balloon payment for the big Davie-Willingham downturn that had left the roster and the program's foundations in a shambles.
Ironically, the Notre Dame team that went 3-9 actually did not lose big to Boston College, even though the Eagles were ranked #4 in the country at the time. The final score was 27-13. But by now the streak was at 5 games.
In 2008, Notre Dame was still rebuilding somewhat. And quarterback Jimmy Clausen had the flu, and Notre Dame apparently did not want to burn a year of eligibility for Dayne Crist. Boston College beat Notre Dame 17-0 in one of the few decisive wins by Boston College in the series. To be fair, the Notre Dame defense acquitted itself well, only giving up 10 points. It seems the Irish defense might already have considered itself rebuilt at the time.
So the streak quietly became six games.
In 2009, Notre Dame regained control of the series when it pulled out a thriller at Notre Dame, winning 20-16.
Jimmy Clausen threw for 246 yards and two touchdowns, including what turned out to be the game-winner halfway through the fourth quarter, a 36-yard touchdown pass to Belitnekoff Award winner Golden Tate. On the day Tate had two touchdowns on 11 catches for 128 receiving yards.
Notre Dame's defense, maligned later in the season, was impressive, shutting down the run and securing five turnovers, including a Brian Smith interception at the Notre Dame 22 to seal the win for the Irish at about the 1:40 mark in the final quarter.
Should Boston College play Notre Dame at the NFL stadium in Foxboro?
When Notre Dame reportedly was attemptiong to negotiate an initially 10-game series with Connecticut, and asking UCONN to host Notre Dame at NFL stadia in the New York City or Boston areas, the Connecticut legislature brought up the fact that Notre Dame had been willing to play Boston College at smaller stadium when raising cane over UCONN not hosting at its fairly new regular home field.
(There were other issues at stake, including the fact that UCONN is a state school, that the NFL stadia in question were out-of-state, the investment in UCONN's news stadium, and bad blood over the New England Patriots, whose stadium is in Foxboro, flirting with the idea of moving to Connecticut and then backging out. But the Notre Dame-Boston College games came up in the political debate, and Notre Dame has indeed reportedly sought opportunities to set up games with opponents willing to do what Navy does regularly, which is to move their home game with the Irish to a major venue like an NFL stadium.)
- Back to the Top -
Leprechaun Express Related Articles
:: Next Up: Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Boston College Eagles
Chestnut Hill
~ Oct. 2 - ABC/ESPN-2 Regional Split
Irish Game Day, Notre Dame vs. Boston College ... check back for updates and news/resource links ...
:: Notre Dame vs. Boston College Depth Charts [HTML]
Notre Dame vs. Boston College depth charts, in complementary dual-column format - Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update, Sept, 28, 2010
:: Notre Dame Has Must-Win Game at Boston College; Irish Season Tipping in the Balance
One loose definition of a "must-win" game is that, if you win it helps, and if you lose it's a catastrophe. Notre Dame faces a must-win game at Boston College, its season one-third over and its record dangling at 1-3 ... - Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update Sept. 30, 2010
:: Frank Leahy: Legendary Notre Dame coach also set the bar at Boston College
... second-winningest coach in college football, third-winningest at Notre Dame at 87-11-9, also went 20-2 at Boston College ....
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update, Oct. 23, 2009
- Back to the Top -
:: TELEVISION: ABC/ESPN-2 coverage map [blue region has ND-BC on ABC, yellow region has ND-BC on ESPN-2]
:: Notre Dame vs. Boston College Game Notes [PDF]
:: Notre Dame vs. Boston College Game Week - UND.com
:: Notre Dame 2010 statistical summary - NCAA database
:: Notre Dame Roster
:: Notre Dame Football official site - UND.com
:: Boston College statistics - NCAA database
:: Boston College Football official site
:: Notre Dame Football 2010 Media Guide (Table of Contents, PDF sections)
:: Notre Dame Football 2010 Media Guide (Table of Contents, Flash)
Keywords: Notre Dame Football,Brian Kelly, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Boston College
Leprechaun Express Site Map Main Divisions
Home | Newswire | Game Day | Depth Chart | Schedule | Irish Lore | Recruiting |
© 2007-2012 All Rights Reserved
While founded and directed by a Notre Dame alumnus, this site itself has no official affiliation with, or licensure from, the University of Notre Dame du Lac. It does recommend you also visit the official Notre Dame Athletics site at www.und.com. Go Irish!
Steven C. Welsh, Editor and Contributor
Steven C. Welsh, Web Design and Graphic Design
