Analysis
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12 Plays that Defined Notre Dame Football in 2012
As the final days of 2012 wind down and we inch closer and closer to Notre Dame’s showdown with Alabama for the BCS Championship, today we look back at the…
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Duranko’s Digest: Year End Outlook, State of the Irish
This is an evaluation of the long-term outlook of the Notre Dame football program. It attempts to answer the question “Was 2012 a one-hit wonder or are the Irish back?”…
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Report Card – Championship Edition Part II
In the prior article we graded out the Irish offense and what they should be able to accomplish on the field against the Crimson Tide defense in the BCS National…
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Duranko’s Digest: Notre Dame – Alabama Preview
We’ll get into matchup elements below, but let’s first examine four significant data trends that will, largely, be ignored by the sports entertainment hype industry wearing the “journalism” mask. (1)…
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Report Card, Championship Edition
In just a little under a month’s time the Fighting Irish will take the field for the last time as the collective group that Notre Dame fans have come to…
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Thank You, Seniors
Notre Dame honored this year’s seniors with a great video last night. This year’s class has done a lot for Notre Dame over the last four years in bringing the…
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Duranko’s Digest: Deja vu (all over again) “Southern speed will bury ND in the bowl!”
And a stroll down bowl memory lane. Background: Ernie Nevers, who played for Pop Warner, yep the guy they named youth football after ran for Warner at Stanford in the…
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Unfamiliar No More
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly hugged an assistant coach and Irish players stormed the field in celebration over ND’s 22-13 victory against USC, cementing a spot in the national…
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Destiny or Coincidence?
Growing up in an Irish Catholic family and attending Catholic schools, superstition is all too familiar. I heard every legend and lore there is to hear, from a bird flying…
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What I’m Thankful For – Notre Dame Edition
With the holiday season almost upon us, it is a time to reflect and make note of the things we are thankful for. It’s easy during the year to focus…
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Duranko’s Digest – What We Saw Against Wake
At last! Exerting total domination from the opening whistle, the Irish efficiently built a 31-0 halftime lead enroute to the 38-0 final tally against Wake Forest. The maturing offense, a far worthier…
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All Business
November for college football has lots of different meanings. For many programs it means the final games of the year, and the thoughts and dreams of next season. For others…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Boston College?
While we had cognitive dissonance over Alabama’s loss to A&M, and while dreaming dreams and seeing visions of BCS glory, we saw an excellent, big swift, skilled Notre Dame team,…
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Reality Check for Notre Dame Fans
It was ugly. It was hard to watch and even harder to stomach, and it’s abundantly clear adjustments have to be made moving forward. Based on Notre Dame’s triple overtime…
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5 Things I Didn’t Like: Pitt ’12
In wrapping up the Pitt game, here is a quicker than usual look at the 5 things I didn’t like seeing out of the Irish this past weekend. Mike Mayock’s…
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5 Things I Liked: Pitt ’12
While there may have been a lot to not like about last weekend’s win over Pitt – we’ll get to that later – there was still more than enough to…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Pitt?
We saw a gritty Notre Dame that is better at winning games than looking pretty. We saw an Irish team that plays better outside of Indiana (Navy, Michigan State,…
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Initial Analysis: Notre Dame 29, Pitt 26
Wow. Never expected to be writing about a Notre Dame victory this morning when the Irish entered yesterday’s fourth quarter down 14 points, but I never expected the game to…
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Culture Change Leads to National Identity
One of the most difficult tasks a coach has when taking over an underperforming program is changing its culture. While a clichéd phrase used far too often in sports, it’s…
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What’s Next for Notre Dame?
As The Irish walked off the field in Norman on Saturday night they had accomplished something very few thought they could. By doing so they had finally secured the “statement…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Oklahoma?
In a magnificent performance against the best football team on its regular season schedule, the Irish moved to a glistening 8-0. As if heeding the call of Jim Morrison, the…
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5 Things I Liked: Oklahoma ’12
I thought about renaming the title of this weekly column to 5 Things I Loved instead of Liked, because I absolutely loved what I saw last night out of the…
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Initial Analysis: Notre Dame 30, Oklahoma 13
Wow. It’s the morning after and I am honestly still having trouble putting into words my thoughts about this game, this team, and this season. It has been just about…
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5 Things I Didn’t Like: BYU ’12
Sorry for the delay in this week’s 5 things I didn’t like – I may have under estimated how much running a 5k, 10k, and half marathon all within about…
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5 Things I Liked: BYU ’12
Notre Dame squeaked out a three point victory on Saturday in a sloppy game in which they made more than their fair share of mistakes. The Irish were able to…
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