Syracuse has hit the skids. After going 10-3 in 2018 and finishing the season with a No. 15 ranking, the Orange have gone 6-16. It’s been an injury-plagued season for the Orange. Syracuse is down to its fourth-string running back and third-string quarterback. 

On offense, their top two running backs, Abdul Adams and Jarveon Howard opted out due to Covid-19. On defense, veteran linebacker Tyrell Richards and defensive lineman Cooper Dawson opted out. 

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Playing football for Notre Dame comes with a tremendous amount of pressure. It’s a storied program, with weekly nationally televised games and an international fan base. I caught up with former quarterback Malik Zaire to discuss what it’s like to play for the Fighting Irish and the challenges he faced during his time in the program. 

In regards to Notre Dame’s 12-7 win against unranked Lousiville in October, Zaire said, “It’s definitely a lot of pressure that you put on yourself as an offense to perform. There are hidden gems in the offense, and it can be pretty frustrating only to score 7 points.”

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As the Irish travel this Saturday to Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, for a road game against Boston College, they’re entering into what the modern lexicon refers to as a trap game. A trap game is when a stronger opponent overlooks a weaker one for those unfamiliar with the term, resulting in the better team losing. 

What better setting for a trap game than against the Boston College Eagles in the Holy War? 

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This Saturday, the #4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish are hosting the #1 Clemson Tigers in what is undoubtedly the game of the year. The Tigers will be without their star quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, who contracted COVID-19.

Before becoming the consensus number one overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft, Lawrence was a freshman phenomenon who unseated a 19-2 senior quarterback from the starting role. He went on to lead the Tigers to their second national championship, under Dabo Swinney.

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Did you know Georgia Tech once won a game 222-0? They were up 126-0 at halftime, and their coach decided they needed to score 96 more points — he was a jerk. That man’s name? John Heisman. 

Yes, that Heisman. Did you know that the most prestigious college football award given for “outstanding performance which best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity” is named after a guy who was a backup offensive lineman and was notorious for running up the score on opponents? His 1918 Georgia Tech football team lost one game and eclipsed 100 points three different times. They outscored opponents 466-32.

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There’s a financial theory that asset prices and historical returns eventually will revert to the long-run mean or average level of the entire dataset. It’s called mean reversion. Louisville football is proving this theory correct in 2020.

Expectations were high for the Cardinals this season following a better than expected 2019 season. Under first-year head coach Scott Satterfield, the Cardinals finished second in the ACC Atlantic with an 8-5 record. Louisville hired Satterfield following the firing of the entire coaching staff following a 2-10 season in 2018. 

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This year some bowl games have been canceled; most notably the Redbox Bowl. It’s going to be a challenging year without the prestige and excitement of the Redbox Bowl, but this Saturday, Notre Dame and Florida State will play in another obscure bowl game: the COVID-19 Recovery Bowl. 

Florida State’s new head coach, Mike Norvell, tested positive for coronavirus on September 19, and was thus unable to attend the shellacking Miami put on his Seminoles in person. While sitting at home, Norvell watched the Miami Hurricanes coast to a 52-10 victory over his team.

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Notre Dame did not have a player selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. 2021 will likely be no different. But similar to 2020, Notre Dame will be well represented. There are eight players on the team who can expect to hear their name called or sign onto an NFL team in 2021.

The second of three bye weeks (we’ll probably have some more of those, now that the state of Indiana has decided to go full re-opening) is the perfect time to look at who those top prospects are.

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Notre Dame did not have a player selected in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. 2021 will likely be no different. But similar to 2020, Notre Dame will be well represented. There are eight players on the team who can expect to hear their name called or sign onto an NFL team in 2021. 

The second of three bye weeks (we’ll probably have some more of those, now that the state of Indiana has decided to go full re-opening) is the perfect time to look at who those top prospects are.

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When the University of South Florida visit #7 Notre Dame on Saturday, it’ll be game filled with familiarities. USF rookie head coach Jeff Scott was Clemson’s co-offensive coordinator from 2015-2019. While calling plays for the Tigers, he oversaw an offense that made the College Football Playoff every year; winning the national championship in 2016 and 2018.

You might recall the Cotton Bowl semifinal in the latter year. Scott’s offensive coordinator is likely the only coordinator younger than Notre Dame’s Tommy Rees in all of Division 1 football. Charlie Weis Jr., 27, is the youngest on the staff and in certain circles considered a coaching prodigy.

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“We hadn’t played spring ball, and we didn’t play in December. If he [Tyler James] was expecting that we were going to come out like a shiny new car, he’s been reading too much internet chatter.”

-Brian Kelly 

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