Tag: Football Bowl Subdivision

Notre Dame lands Rhode Island transfer defensive back Antonio Carter

Quite the get for the Irish’s secondary.

[autotag]Benjamin Morrison[/autotag] might be developing into a star, but Notre Dame always can use some depth in its secondary. Once Rhode Island defensive back [autotag]Antonio Carter[/autotag] entered the transfer portal in April, the Irish were among many Football Bowl Subdivision teams interested. They officially made their offer May 5, and Florida and LSU followed over the next few days. Finally, Carter was ready to make his decision, and it was good news for the Irish:

Carter started 21 of the Rams’ 22 games over the past two seasons and played in all of them. During that period, he recorded 105 tackles, broke up 17 passes, had 5.5 tackles for loss, forced three fumbles, recovered another three fumbles and had one interception. Basically, he did everything expected of a defensive back, and he was ready to see what he can do at the top tier of college football. Here’s hoping he can at least approach what he did in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

College football’s 10 most hated teams – according to one fan

Not every team is likeable for some people.

The more popular and successful your team is, the more likely it is to get on other people’s nerves. It might be jealousy, or it might be the way your team goes about its business that just rubs people the wrong way. Whatever the case, your team isn’t going to win everybody over no matter what happens. The sooner you accept that some people simply hate your team, the better.

Big Game Boomer is known among college football fans on Twitter for making one list after another. Everything from rankings to representatives for every Football Bowl Subdivision School is involved, and everything both on and off the field is up for consideration when these lists are made.

With spring practices and the NFL draft behind us, now is the time for Big Game Boomer to come up with arguably the 10 most hated college football programs. Naturally, this list is subjective, and you might have a different one. But here are the 10 programs most likely to tick people off.

And of course, the Fighting Irish made his list.

Chick-fil-A named Notre Dame’s most popular chain restaurant

Do you agree with this?

Sure, it’s nice to support a local restaurant, but sometimes, you need something that can be prepared quickly. That’s when fast food and chain restaurants come into play. Twitter user and college football map and list aficionado Big Game Boomer just compiled a list of what he believes to be the most popular chain restaurant for each Football Bowl Subdivision school. Chick-fil-A is the winner for Notre Dame:

This might not a be a surprise for some of you. After all, there’s a Chick-fil-A located inside the Duncan Student Center, which is not far from Notre Dame Stadium. There also are a few locations in the area surrounding the university. Plus, it probably isn’t hurt on most game days since the Irish almost always play on Saturdays and not Sundays, when Chick-fil-A notoriously always closes.

Have you ever stopped at a Chick-fil-A before, during or after a game? Or do you have higher standards when it comes to food and football? That’s a poll that really needs to be conducted among Irish fans.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbz1mmy7gev0xbr player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=]

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Big Game Boomer names Vince Vaughn Notre Dame’s biggest celebrity fan

Ugh.

We’ve mentioned Big Game Boomer a few times before. Most recently, he ruffled a few feathers when he called Purdue the best college football team in the state of Indiana. Now, he’s listing what he believes is the most famous celebrity fan for every Football Bowl Subdivision School. For Notre Dame, he lists Vince Vaughn:

Excuse me while I go puke. No, really. That’s how much I don’t care for Vince Vaughn. I know he’s a huge Irish fan, and I know he was one of the players in “Rudy”, but this really makes me wish Regis Philbin still was alive.

Ever since I saw Vaughn’s pretentious character in “Old School”, I haven’t cared for anything he’s done. I can’t even bring myself to sit down and watch all of “Wedding Crashers” because that’s how strongly I feel about this. If you like him, great, but for me, Vaughn’s Irish fandom is something I wish didn’t exist.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Tennessee State’s all-time records against FBS programs

Get to know the Irish’s 2023 home opener opponent a bit.

Notre Dame has announced that its 2023 home opener will be played against Tennessee State, a Historically Black College and University. On the surface, it’s a great opportunity for a lesser-known program to receive national exposure. However, it also will be the first time the Irish have played a Football Championship Subdivision opponent. The reaction to this news within the fan base mostly has been lukewarm at best and outright negative at worst.

Notre Dame presently is the only Football Bowl Subdivision opponent the Tigers have scheduled for the future. That makes the decision either more of a headscratcher from the Irish’s point of view or it merely makes the Irish an outlier. Either way, the Tigers don’t get to play FBS schools very much, so you better believe they will be hyped for the opportunity. In the spirit of that, let’s take a look at how they have done against teams from college football’s top level:

FBS teams Notre Dame has losing record against

The Irish don’t lead every head-to-head matchup.

As winning a tradition that Notre Dame has, that tradition hasn’t always shined through. In fact, there are some schools that the Irish have lost to more times than they’ve beaten. A few other teams have beaten the Irish the only time they’ve faced them, and still others have more than one victory without having lost at all. Given how big the Irish are in more ways than one, that’s a sense of pride for anyone.

Who are the lucky few that can say with certitude that they have the upper hand on Notre Dame? For our purposes, we’ll narrow it down to the programs currently competing at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. Quick shoutout to the teams that never will have to worry about losing this distinction because they either don’t play in the Irish’s division anymore or they no longer exist. Those programs are Yale, Knox, Chicago and Great Lakes Navy.

Now, here are the FBS programs that have true bragging rights over the Irish:

Tale of the Tape: Starting Quarterbacks – Jack Coan vs. Graham Mertz

Two quarterbacks with strong arms but no running capabilities.

The quarterback battle between Notre Dane and Wisconsin has to be one of the most anticipated in college football this season. Not long ago, Jack Coan was starting for these Badgers, and he has not missed a beat with the Irish. He has the advantage in almost everything with this matchup, albeit with the Irish having played one more game. Even if these teams had played an even number of games to this point, this comparison probably wouldn’t look much different.

The Badgers are in their second season with Graham Mertz as their starting quarterback, and he kind of has been underwhelming. You would expect a Football Bowl Subdivision quarterback on a ranked team to have at least one touchdown pass through two games, but that’s not the case with Mertz. He won’t score on the ground, either, because he and Coan are equally incapable of running the ball themselves. He will have to outperform Coan to give the Badgers a real chance in this one.

Notre Dame part of tough nonconference schedules for Power Five teams

The Irish will be part of tough schedules for some teams this year.

Any team that has Notre Dame on its nonconference schedule automatically receives a bump in the strength of that schedule. Even during seasons in which the Irish struggle, there at least is a bump interest for that game. Either way, any matchup with the Irish is serious business.

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has released a piece comparing nonconference schedules for the entire Football Bowl Subdivision. For the Power Five conferences and the AAC, he lists the nonconference schedules for the teams he believes have the toughest and weakest in those conferences. Notre Dame pops up in the toughest nonconference schedule for Georgia Tech in the ACC, USC in the Pac-12, and Cincinnati in the AAC. In fact, Palm ranks the Yellow Jackets as having the fifth toughest nonconference schedule in all of the FBS.

Here are the other nonconference opponents for all the teams that have the Irish on their schedules:

  • Georgia Tech: Georgia, Northern Illinois, Kennesaw State
  • USC: BYU, San Jose State
  • Cincinnati: Indiana, Miami (Ohio), Murray State

Brian Kelly ranked 85th on ESPN coaches-as-players list

What do you think of this ranking?

Notre Dame has had only six former college football players serve as head coach and none for a couple of generations. However, every college football coach was a player at some point, right? How else would someone understand the game so well? Brian Kelly indeed has playing experience as seen in a new piece for ESPN+ subscribers.

Adam Rittenberg has taken all 130 head coaches in the Football Bowl Subdivision and ranked them as players. Brian Kelly comes in at 85th on the list. Before you throw up your hands and say that’s too low, remember that Kelly attended a school that only had a club football team at the time. Assumption in Worcester, Massachusetts has since fielded a team that competes in Division II.

Kelly was a memorable player for Assumption. His 314 tackles were a program record. He also earned a pair of all-league honors and was a captain. Clearly, his leadership skills were evident at a young age.

Rittenberg ranks former Notre Dame player and current Louisiana Tech coach Skip Holtz at 98th on the list. The son of Lou Holtz, he played 11 games for the Irish in 1986 after playing two years at Holy Cross. mostly playing on special teams and also servicing as a backup receiver. He carried the ball once that season and gained a single yard on that attempt.

Big Game Boomer puts Notre Dame in second tier of college football

Do you agree with how the Irish are tiered?

Twitter user Big Game Boomer has decided to separate every Football Bowl Subdivision team into tiers. The very best are in the first tier, the teams slightly worse than that are in the second tier and so on. To no one’s surprise, the top tier is home to Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. Then, he has Notre Dame as one of the teams in the second tier of college football’s highest level:

As you can see, Boomer has Notre Dame on the same level as LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon and Boise State. Whatever order you want to put that in, it shows that in at least one person’s opinion, the Irish have one of the nine best teams in the nation. As far as the tiers themselves, he reemphasizes how the Irish have been great but not unstoppable in recent years. Perhaps in the near future, the Irish finally will be able to get over the hump it hasn’t been able to for some time now.