ND Team Celebrates Win Over Wake Forest

The boys at UND.COM were working late into the night capturing Coach Kelly's post game press conference, player interviews and locker room celebration (a pretty cool moment for the Golic family!).  A good win for the "beat up" Irish.  If you watch the entire post game media session -- you'll catch Coach Kelly take on a member of the media for a question asked about the Irish passing game...

LINK:  COACH KELLY POST GAME PRESSER

LINK:  IRISH PLAYER INTERVIEWS

LINK:  IRISH CELEBRATE VICTORY

ND Survives Wake Forest -- Injuries Pile Up!

Folks, the Irish are a "beat up" football team.  In this game, starting center Braxston Cave, starting linebacker Manti Teo, starting wide receiver TJ Jones -- all went out with injuries.  Aaron Lynch was hobbled -- the training staff is going to earn its pay this week!

Yet, Notre Dame played well enough to overcome a lackluster performance in the first half -- to win a game they trailed at halftime -- for the first time in Brian Kelly's tenure at Notre Dame.  Here's a quick look at what the media has to say just an hour after the game:

LINK:  CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

LINK:  ESPN BLOG

LINK:  SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE

First Photo Tweeted From Wake Forest Stadium

Here's a photo just "tweeted" from Notre Dame fan @Irishroundtable -- of the view from the parking lot of Wake Forest's football stadium.

Irish Player @ Home in Carolina -- Tweets Photo

University of Notre Dame sophomore linebacker Kendall Moore #8 -- just "tweeted" this photo of his family taken in the lobby of the team hotel in Winston-Salem.

Photo of the Day -- ND Hockey In Pink

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame are in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan tonight (Marquette) to play Northern Michigan University in a CCHA game.  @ND_Hockey "tweeted" this photo from the Irish locker room just five minutes ago...

This is ESPN's Preview of Today's Game

The folks at ESPN will be televising tonight's game between Notre Dame and Wake Forest at 8 PM ET on ESPN2.  Here's a look at the statistical match-up:

LINK:  NOTRE DAME vs. WAKE FOREST

OT -- This Could Get Real Ugly for Penn State

Shocking news out of Penn State territory this morning -- former long-time Nittany Lion defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse (that's Sandusky on the left in photo).  This is a sick man.

In addition, Penn State's Director of Athletics, Timothy Mark Curley was charged with perjury and is looking at the potential for SEVEN YEARS in JAIL!

UPDATE:  Curley was forced to resign last night (November 6th) by Penn State University's Board of Trustees.  Will Paterno be next?  I'm not holding by breath...

LINK:  PATERNO NOT CHARGED

LINK:  ABC NEWS COVERAGE

LINK:  GRAND JURY REPORT

Game Day! -- ND vs. Wake Forest Predictions

Opinions are free -- so there's plenty that have been expressed about tonight's PRIME TIME match-up between the Fighting Irish and the Deamon Deacons.

You can watch the game LIVE on ESPN2 tonight at 8 PM ET.  Here's a link to what all of the pundits have to say about tonight's contest:

LINK:  NOTRE DAME STUDENT NEWSPAPER

LINK:  WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL

LINK:  CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

LINK:  CHICAGO TRIBUNE

LINK:  CHICAGO TRIBUNE #2

LINK:  FAYETTVILLE OBSERVER

LINK:  NEWS & OBSERVER

LINK:  DAILY PRESS

LINK:  ESPN BLOG

LINK:  HAMPTON ROADS PILOT

Now How's This for a Work Assignment!

The Taj Mahal -- one of the "Seven Wonders of the World" turned to a University of Notre Dame associate professor and students four years ago to do some research.  The work will continue next year as they will return to do a 3-D scan of the mausoleum in January.  Here's a link to the story:

LINK:  NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOB

Leave it to the Wall Street Journal...

All of the focus this weekend is on the matchup between #1 LSU and #2 Alabama -- and on the field -- that is the game. 

Now, in the game called LIFE -- it might be argued that the real game of the weekend is taking place in Winston-Salem, NC -- where the Fighting Irish will take on the Deamon Deacons.  In an article published today, the WSJ ranks the academic prowess of the student-athletes involved in these respective games and these respective universities.  Special thanks to ND GO IRISH BLOG regular, Ken Devine -- for alerting me to this story!

LINK:  THE OTHER "TOP MATCHUP" IN AMERICA 

48 Hours Til' the Smallest Crowd...

...to see the GOLD HELMETS in person, in more than 400 games!

Took a lap around the web tonight to see what's being said about our IRISH and their game this Saturday night against Wake Forest.  For those of you still wondering where you'll find the game on TV here's the answer:  ND vs. Wake Forest, Saturday @ 8 PM ET on ESPN2.

LINK:  COACH KELLY AFTER PRACTICE

LINK:  WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL

LINK:  ESPN BLOG

LINK:  CHICAGO TRIBUNE

LINK:  NBC SPORTS

LINK:  OBSERVER

LINK:  NEWS SENTINEL

LINK:  FORT WAYNE JOURNAL GAZETTE

"Count On Me" -- Notre Dame Football Mantra

Apparently, Coach Kelly introduced a new rallying cry for his Fighting Irish this past week.  Here's a link to the Chicago Tribune story:

LINK:  COUNT ON ME

Coach Kelly Meets With Media After Practice

I'm quite sure there is not a college football coach in America who meets more frequently with the media than Coach Kelly.  Frankly, I love it -- but, I'm not sure it's the right thing for Coach.  Here's Coach Kelly talking about Saturday's game:

LINK:  KELLY WITH THE MEDIA

Wake Forest Week -- Players Meet With Media

Notre Dame football players met with the media today to talk about the football season, Coach Kelly's comments -- and about Saturday's game with Wake Forest.  Here are the links:

LINK:  MANTI TEO & HARRISON SMITH

LINK:  MIKE FLOYD

ESPN's Maisel & Wojo Talk Brian Kelly & ND

ESPN's College Football Podcast featured Ivan Maisel and Gene Wojciechowski talking Notre Dame's Brian Kelly.  Just click on the link below -- advance the podcast to 21:14 to find their discussion:

LINK:  COLLEGE FOOTBALL PODCAST

Wake Forest Week: Presser Coach Kelly

University of Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly spent more than 30 minutes today with the media to discuss Saturday night's prime-time matchup on ESPN2 with Wake Forest.  Here's a link to the press conference:

LINK:  COACH KELLY PRESS CONFERENCE

Smallest Crowd To See Irish In Last 400 Games!

This will be the case this Saturday night at 8 PM ET when the Fighting Irish make the trip to Winston-Salem, NC to play the Deamon Deacons of Wake Forest in their 31,000 seat stadium.  The last time the Irish played in front of a smaller crowd was in November of 1975 when the Miami Hurricanes only drew 24,944 game to the Orange Bowl in a game the Irish won 32 - 9.

So, I figure one or more of these three scenarios played out putting Wake Forest on our schedule:

1. The Irish had an opponent drop from the schedule in the last couple of years and the Irish had a tough time finding a team to play this specific Saturday.
2. The ACC, as part of a Bowl arrangement with the Big East -- negotiated a few football games against the Irish for their member schools.
3. And, Wake Forest agreed to pay Notre Dame between $800,000 to $1,000,000 to make the trip to North Carolina to play a game.

I went on a couple of the ticket sites this evening to see what tickets are going for -- thinking they would be close to $500 or more -- since there's very few seats and the Irish are in town...  Well, I was wrong -- you can buy tickets all day long for under $140 for this game.

Irish Connection -- The Navy Game

The folks at UND.COM had their cameras in the locker room and on the sideline during Saturday's 56 - 14 win over Navy.  You'll see Coach Kelly working on rebuilding the relationship with his players after a difficult week "inside" the Irish program.  Notre Dame fans will love this access!

LINK:  IRISH CONNECTION -- NAVY GAME

Getting DEFENSIVE About Notre Dame's "D"

The Irish have played well on defense for all but a quarter leading into last week's debacle with USC.  And you can add another well executed game by Notre Dame's defense in the 56 - 14 romp over Navy.  Here's what was most impressive:

NAVY OFFENSIVE STATS EACH WEEK:

• Delaware:  437 total yards of offense
• Western Kentucky:  510 total yards of offense
• South Carolina:  335 total yards of offense
• Air Force:  466 total yards of offense
• Southern Miss:  569 total yards of offense
• Rutgers:  305 total yards of offense
• East Carolina:  420 total yards of offense
• NOTRE DAME:  229 total yards of offense

Notre Dame's #1 defense gave up less than 175 yards to Navy in total offense in the game.  Navy's starting running back Alex Teich, who last year rushed for 210 yards of their 367 yards rushing that day had this to say about the Notre Dame defense -- who held him to 62 yards on 15 carries:

“You have to give those guys some credit,” Teich said. “Last year ... it was like night and day. Those guys just flat got after it.”

NBC Replay of Notre Dame's Big Win Over Navy

Irish fans would have never thought we'd hear "Navy's won three of the last four meetings" in the same sentence with Notre Dame.  Yet, that's been the case with our football program -- so, YES IT WAS NICE to see the Irish win BIG.  Here's a link to NBC's full game replay of Notre Dame vs. Navy.

LINK:  NOTRE DAME BEATS NAVY