Tag: NCAA football

Notre Dame football stunned by Northern Illinois in home opener

The Irish are upset

Notre Dame football wasn’t the best team on the field against Northern Illinois, as the Huskies came into Notre Dame Stadium and upset the No. 5 team in a nation 16-14.

The Irish managed to account for just 267 offensive yards to 388 for NIU. Notre Dame lost the turnover battle 2-0, and couldn’t get off the field during a 11-play, 31-yard drive that ate up 5-minutes and 34-second off the clock.

While there was still 31-seconds left in the game when the Irish got the ball back, they watched a Mitch Jeter 62-yard field goal fall get blocked to stave off the upset. This will be one that many will remember, but for obviously the wrong reasons.

https://twitter.com/On3sports/status/1832551517640855739

The loss evens Notre Dame’s record at 1-1, as they will undoubtably fall in the rankings.

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Another one of Notre Dame’s upcoming ranked opponent goes down

Not great for the Irish

It’s been quite the season for Georgia Tech, Notre Dame football’s opponent on October 19th.

In just three games they’ll have ridden a rollercoaster, as in their season opener in Dublin, Ireland, they upset then No. 10 Florida State. They’d go on to defeat Georgia State with and getting ranked in the AP Poll at No. 23.

A road contest with Syracuse was next, but it didn’t go well for the Yellow Jackets, as they would fall 31-28. It’s yet another blow to the Irish’s schedule, as now yet another opponent most likely will lose their ranking. It’s already happened to the Seminoles, who have started the season 0-2.

Sep 7, 2024; Syracuse, New York, USA; Syracuse Orange wide receiver Trebor Pena (2) scores a touchdown as Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets defensive back Ahmari Harvey (3) makes a tackle in the first quarter at JMA Wireless Dome. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

The Irish still have a few ranked opponent that remain on their schedule, USC and Louisville, so there will still be a few challenges ahead.

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Every EA NCAA Football cover star since 1993 (including College Football 25!)

The future of EA’s college football series may be uncertain, but for now, here’s a walk through 20 years of NCAA Football cover stars.

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Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2023 and has been updated.

EA’s NCAA Football cover stars operated on a different principle for a while compared to the spotlight athletes in other sports games. NCAA rules forbade college athletes from appearing on the cover, so you nearly always saw an NFL rookie sporting their jersey from a few years previously – usually with at least one trophy or high recognition under their belt as well. EA wasn’t afraid to get a bit silly with the NCAA franchise either. At one point, the publisher honored the community’s voice and made a mascot the star of an NCAA game.

The franchise came to a messy end in 2014, as licensing issues and debates over the appropriate use of player likenesses brought EA’s college football days to a halt.

But now? We’re so back. Here’s a walk through 20 years of NCAA Football cover stars and a look at College Football 25.

MORE COLLEGE FOOTBALL 25: 

Experts expect Notre Dame to cruise over Northern Illinois

It’s no surprise that the experts think Notre Dame will smoothly sail past NIU this week.

Notre Dame hosts Northern Illinois in its season opener on Saturday, and the experts are united — the No. 5 Fighting Irish are likely to avoid an upset and cruise over the Huskies.

Any potential for a letdown following the Irish’s season-opening win at Texas A&M seems to be small.

CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has the Irish covering the 28.5-point spread, saying that he can’t foresee the Huskies coming within four touchdowns of Notre Dame. Palm also points out that “If Notre Dame wants to be a playoff contender with its relatively soft schedule, it needs to send messages in games like this”, and he expects that the Irish will send that message while not looking ahead to instate rival Purdue in Week 3.

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Watch Notre Dame’s highlights of its road win over Texas A&M

Re-live the Irish’s huge road win over the Aggies

While not many thought that Notre Dame football could go into Kyle Field and defeat Texas A&M, they did just that.

The Irish came up clutch in the fourth quarter, scoring 10 of its 23 points to close out the game. It wasn’t just the Jeremiyah Love touchdown to seal the deal, Notre Dame was making plays all game even if the score might now have shown it.

It’s a big win for the program, one that is among the best of the first week of college football. Head coach [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] gets a signature win for the year, one that could propel the Irish to the College football playoff.

Aug 31, 2024; College Station, Texas, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish quarterback Riley Leonard (13) speaks during a post game interview at Kyle Field against the Texas A&M Aggies. Mandatory Credit: Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports

Re-live all the action right here on ESPN’s YouTube page.

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Notre Dame football lands a massive road win against Texas A&M

The Irish took over late in the fourth quarter

For three and-a-half quarters, Notre Dame and Texas A&M played to a very competitive 13-13 tie.

After the Aggies tied the game each team alternated possession without another score, then the Irish took over with just over 6-minutes left in the game. They drove 8-play for 85-yards in 4-minutes and 29-seconds to take a 20-13 lead on a Jeremiyah Love touchdown run.

They then stopped A&M’s next drive after just four plays and used the great field position to seal the deal with a Mitch Jeter 46-yard field goal. The road win starts the Irish’s season on a huge note, as they only have two more top-25 opponents left on the schedule.

Win No. 1 on the year will be a huge part of Notre Dame’s College Football Playoff resume. It’s the biggest win of Marcus Freeman’s tenure, the first win over a ranked SEC team in 20-years.

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The NCAA could be making changes to the transfer portal windows

What do you think of this proposed change?

According to multiple reports, the NCAA is considering getting rid of the spring transfer portal window.

If this is approved, there would only be about a month, from December 9th to January 7th, for players to choose to attend a different school. Honestly, this makes plenty of sense, as I believe that the NCAA rushed through adopting the new transfer rules.

Having a window open in the spring just seemed to cause major problems for many schools, as plenty of tampering was happening across the country. In fact, Iowa’s head coach Kirk Ferentz was just suspended a game for illegally contacting Cade McNamara while he was still at Michigan.

The rule, if it passes, would go into effect immediately, which would be a big change from how this past offseason went.

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EA Sports College Football 25 marks Duke football team as one of the worst in the ACC

With the long-awaited EA Sports College Football 25 now finally on the shelves, check out how good the developers think the Blue Devils are.

EA Sports College Football 25 is finally in the libraries of the biggest sports fans in the world, and we have an official answer for how good the developers think Manny Diaz’s team is.

As of release weekend on July 19, the Duke Blue Devils are an 80 overall in the long-awaited game, granting them a two-star rating on the program prestige scale.

The overall, a solid ‘B-‘, is more than respectable on paper, but it leaves the Blue Devils looking up at a lot of the rest of the ACC. No team in the conference earned less than an 80, and the Blue Devils sit tied with Pittsburgh, Virginia, and Georgia Tech as the four worst teams in the ACC.

Those three teams combined to win 13 games last season, including 3-9 records for the Panthers and Cavaliers. Duke, of course, went 8-5.

Duke fans already got a sneak peek at Wallace Wade Stadium when the Blue Devils made a brief appearance in the trailer months ago.