Notre Dame By The Numbers In 2017: 15 To 11
15 Games will have passed after this year’s opener versus Temple since Notre Dame has posted victories in back-to-back games. That last happened in November 2015 versus Wake Forest (28-7) and Boston College (19-16). That is second in the team's history and two short of the school record 17 set in 1958-59 with such a drought. Last year was only the fourth time the Irish didn’t post consecutive wins in one season, with 2-8 campaigns in 1956 and 1960 and a 3-5-1 mark in 1933 the others.
14 Teams that have won on their first visit to Notre Dame Stadium (opened in 1930) — with five of them alarmingly occurring since 2009. That group is comprised of Connecticut (2009), Tulsa (2010), South Florida (2011), Louisville (2014) and Virginia Tech (2016). The Irish will host three first-time visitors at Notre Dame Stadium this year: Georgia (Sept. 9), Miami (Ohio) (Sept. 30) and North Carolina State (Oct. 28).
13 In its last 13 true road games — meaning on the opponent’s home field and not a neutral site — Notre Dame is 3-10, dating back to November 2013. The five such road games this year are Boston College (Sept. 16), Michigan State (Sept. 23), North Carolina (Oct. 7), Miami (Nov. 11) and Stanford (Nov. 25).
12 Mike Elko this winter became the 12th coach to hold the defensive coordinator title at Notre Dame since 1990, the year Barry Alvarez, after a glorious reign in 1988-89, was hired as the new head coach at Wisconsin and is now the athletics director there. It began with Gary Darnell (1990-91) and included the interim role for Greg Hudson the final eight games of 2016, with much assistance from current defensive line coach Mike Elston.
11 Of the 12 Notre Dame games last year, 11 saw the winning team finish with more rushing yardage. The one exception was the 34-31 loss to Virginia Tech in the 11th week. The Irish finished with 200 yards on the ground — highlighted by a 67-yard touchdown by Josh Adams — to the Hokies’ 152.
Tomorrow: 10 to 6.
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