Tag: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

BREAKING: The Big Ten is back and how it effects the Irish

A report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the Big Ten held a vote on Sunday and it looks like they will play fall football after all.

A rollercoaster offseason for the Big Ten is finally coming to a supposed end. Reports today after a revote by Chancellors and Presidents of the 14 schools have the conference looking at starting to play October 17.

After commissioner Kevin Warren “postponed” fall sports less than a week after releasing the reworked fall football schedule, there were plenty of objections to his decision. Warren cited uncertainty more than actual facts which led to an uproar among student-athletes, their parents, coaches, athletic directors, lawyers and fans.

Rumors of revisiting starting a fall football season began last week, but the vote finally occurred this morning leading to the change. As for the Irish view of this, it isn’t great. There is one school in the Big Ten that should contend for a College Football Playoff spot, Ohio State.

That would mean one less spot for Notre Dame to get into the final four, the margin for error just reduced significantly. Now the Irish most likely have to finish the year as an undefeated or one-loss ACC Champion to ensure a spot in the CFP.

Irish drop in ESPN Power Rankings but how far?

After the first week of “Power Five” games, there was some movement inside ESPN week 2 College Football Power Rankings.

Heading into their opener against Duke, Notre Dame was fifth in ESPN’s Power Rankings. After a lackluster performance against the Blue Devils where the offense was slugging to get going, the Irish dropped down two spots to seventh.

Honestly this shouldn’t come as a surprise. It was Oklahoma and Texas jumping the Irish after both their quarterbacks had impressive debuts. For the Longhorns it was Sam Ehlinger, who has seemingly been there forever, torching UTEP for 426 yards and 5 touchdowns with no picks.

The Sooners had a first-year starter at quarterback in Spencer Rattler, who unlike his 3 predecessors, will actually start more than just one year for Lincoln Riley. Rattler was very impressive as he was 14/17 for 290 yards and 4 touchdowns, no picks, in just a half of work.

Chris Low pointed out the star of the Irish offense yesterday, Kyren Williams, saying “the Irish will be looking for additional impact players on offense, and sophomore running back Kyren Williams has all the tools to be one of those guys.” It certainly was nice to see Williams make noise but the offense needs to find other options as well. The offense can not get one-dimensional.

If the Irish offense looked a bit mome competent, they probably wouldn’t have been jumped by both teams, but that wasn’t the case. Ian Book struggled early, but find a decent groove in the second half. There is still a lot to be desired from the 3rd year starter.

The good news is that the season is young and the Irish won’t be challenged much until the face Clemson on October 24, the eighth game of the season. It would have been nice to be viewed better but the talent is there. The Irish just need to translate it over from the practice field to Saturday’s.

Chirp chirp, best Notre Dame tweets, 2nd half edition

Take a look at the best Notre Dame Football tweets in the second half in their season opening win against Duke.

The second half began with Notre Dame getting some bad injury news, as transfer Bennett Skowronek was ruled out of the remainder of the game. It wasn’t bad as the Irish traded scores with Duke in the 3rd quarter before taking the game over in the 4th and getting a solid 27-13 win over Duke.

Watch: Book to Davis to extend Notre Dame’s lead to 24-13 over Duke

Check out the Irish answering a Duke touchdown with their own, to retake an 11-point lead.

The Irish looked like they were going to let Duke back into the game, as the Blue Devils used just over 2 minutes and went 39 yards to close the gap to 17-13. A big Notre Dame drive ended with quarterback Ian Book finding wide receiver Avery Davis for a touchdown to extend the lead to 24-13.

The Irish have a little over 10 minutes to win their season opening contest against Duke.

Watch: Williams scores again, extends Irish lead to 17-6 over Duke

Check out Kyren Williams score his second touchdown of the game.

Kyren Williams earned the start at running back, and it is paying off today. Through a little over 2 quarters of football, Williams has run for 91 yards on 17 carries. Take a look at his second touchdown, this one going for 26 yards on 4th-and-1.

The running back has a chance to have a very solid opening game. Expect Williams continue to add on to his current rushing total.

Chirp chirp: Best Notre Dame tweets, half time edition

Take a look at some of the best Notre Dame tweets through halftime of their game against Duke.

It was not quite the first half that we wanted to see out of our Irish. Ian Book has looked rattled, but the defense has looked very good. Notre Dame holds onto a slim lead of 10-6 over Duke. Take a look at some of the best Notre Dame Football related tweets through halftime of the game against Duke.

BREAKING: Irish extend head coach Brian Kelly

Notre Dame has extended head coach Brian Kelly in the middle of their 2020 season opening game.

Well happy season opener to Brian Kelly. The Irish haven’t looked good for the first 15 minutes, but Kelly has done enough in his tenure to be extended through 2024 according to a report from Pete Sampson.

We will have more on this developing story soon.

Watch: Brian Kelly speaks before Duke game

See what Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly told Sydney Sims prior to the game.

Notre Dame’s head coach Brian Kelly met with on-air host Sydney Sims and spoke about what the season means to the Irish. Listen below to what Kelly had to say.

“The excitement is real,” Kelly said. He couldn’t be more correct. Let’s go Irish!

Notre Dame/Duke: Lenzy out, Buck LB latest

We’re quickly approaching kickoff of the 2020 season for Notre Dame and we’ve got quite the story already developing. According to those in the press box, Braden Lenzy did not participate in pregame warmups. Instead it was freshman Xavier Watts …

We’re quickly approaching kickoff of the 2020 season for Notre Dame and we’ve got quite the story already developing.

According to those in the press box, Braden Lenzy did not participate in pregame warmups. Instead it was freshman Xavier Watts getting reps with the second team offense, where Lenzy was listed on the depth chart earlier in the week.

No word on Lenzy’s reason for not being dressed but we’ll work to find out more.

Also worth noting is Marist Liufau getting the first team reps. He was listed alongside Shayne Simon atop the depth chart earlier this week.

Stay tuned to FIW for all the latest in regards to Notre Dame and Duke as we’ll have you covered all afternoon and season long.

Weather watch: What to expect in South Bend today

Find out what kind of weather to expect during Notre Dame’s season opener against Duke in South Bend.

It’s finally game day and while we would all love a perfect 65 degrees with sun shining down on Notre Dame Stadium, that’s not what we’re going to get. Yet again 2020 rains down, this time literally.

While the game against Duke will get started off cloudy and a nice 70 degrees, the humidity is high and expect rain soon after kickoff if it hasn’t started by then. According to weather.com, at 1pm the precipitation expected is just 25% but at 2pm it rises to 35% then at 3pm, it’s at 60%. It gets pretty grim after 4pm with 85% chance of rain. Once it begins to shower, don’t expect it to stop for the remainder of the game.

There was this report from Pete Sampson however, that there are protocols set that could put a halt to the game after it has started.

A rainy opener shouldn’t put a damper on Notre Dame’s first game in ACC competition. It’s not ideal football weather but Irish Football is back and we’re all excited it’s finally here.