Notre Dame-LSU: 10-To-1 Countdown
10 Victories Notre Dame is shooting for against LSU, which has become the base line of a good or respectable season for the Fighting Irish. In the 18 years from 1994 through 2011 it happened only twice — 10-3 in 2002 and 2006, with huge bowl losses. Achieving it a third time in six years after 12-1 (2012) and 10-3 (2015, after another big bowl loss) would at least provide some discernible and encouraging, but not necessarily fulfilling, progress.
9 Since the 1994 football season, Notre Dame has lost nine straight games played in January, seven of them major bowls and two Jan. 1 Gator Bowls. The football team's most recent victory in the month was 24-21 versus 10-1 Texas A&M in the Jan. 1, 1994 Cotton Bowl.
8 Turnovers by LSU this season (four fumbles, four interceptions), which is tied for first in the nation this season with Alabama for the fewest in the country. In 2000, Note Dame tied the single-season NCAA record with only eight turnovers during an 11-game regular season, but then had three in the 41-9 bowl loss to Oregon State.
This season Notre Dame had eight turnovers in the last three games alone, compared to the opponent’s one, while going 1-2. In the previous six contests the Irish had only two turnovers.
7 This is Notre Dame’s seventh bowl game under head coach Brian Kelly, who is 3-3 in these outings. The wins came in the 2010 Sun Bowl versus Miami (33-17), the 2013 Pinstripe Bowl versus Rutgers (29-16), and the 2014 Music City Bowl versus No. 22 LSU (31-28).
The defeats came against No. 25 Florida State in the 2011 Champs Sports Bowl (18-14), No. 2 Alabama in the 2013 BCS Championship (42-14) and No. 7 Ohio State in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl (44-28).
A win over No. 16 LSU (per the Associated Press) in the Citrus Bowl would be versus the highest ranked opponent since the 24-21 conquest of No. 7 Texas A&M in the Jan. 1, 1994 Cotton Bowl.
6 The Irish have lost six straight games in the state of Florida dating back to the Jan. 1, 2003 Gator Bowl against NC State (Jacksonville). Since then they have also lost in Orlando in the 2011 Champs Sports Bowl to Florida State (18-14), the 2013 BCS Championship in Miami to Alabama (42-14), the infamous setback in Tallahassee to FSU in 2014 (31-27), at Jacksonville again versus Navy in 2016 (28-27), and the fiasco at Miami this November (41-8).
5 Junior running back Josh Adams ranks No. 5 on Notre Dame’s all-time rushing chart and needs 96 yards on the ground versus LSU to eclipse Darius Walker at No. 4.
With his 1,386 rushing yards this season Adams technically needs only 52 against the Tigers to surpass Vagas Ferguson’s single season school standard of 1,437 set in 1979. However, if you include the bowl games (which weren’t until 2002), the top two marks at Notre Dame would be Allen Pinkett’s 1,505 in 1983 and Reggie Brooks’ 1,458 in 1992.
4 This is the fourth time the Fighting Irish and Tigers are meeting in a bowl game, a school record for a Notre Dame opponent. The Irish had also played Alabama, Colorado, Texas and Texas A&M three times in the postseason.
Notre Dame won the last such meeting against LSU, 31-28 in the 2014 Music City Bowl, but lost to the Tigers in the 2007 Sugar Bowl (41-14) and 1997 Independence Bowl (27-9).
3 With a victory against LSU, No. 14-ranked Notre Dame could move into the final Associated Press Top 10 for only the third time since 1994 (after doing so in five of six seasons from 1988-93). The other two were No. 9 in 2005 and No. 4 in 2012.
Three teams between Nos. 7-13 have already lost, and a fourth in a matchup between Auburn and UCF will as well, which could land the Irish at No. 10 with a win.
2 This will be LSU head coach Ed Orgeron’s second game as head coach versus Notre Dame. The first was as the interim coach for USC in 2013, a 14-10 loss at Notre Dame Stadium.
The two teams also will be without three starting figures in two specific areas. The Irish will be minus Nos. 2-4 pass catchers Chase Claypool (injury), Kevin Stepherson (suspension) and Alize Mack (suspension). Meanwhile, the LSU linebacker corps will be sans edge rusher supreme Arden Keys, a projected first-round pick, outside linebacker Corey Thompson (injury) and inside linebacker Donnie Alexander (injury).
1 Notre Dame’s offensive line won the Joe Moore Award as the nation’s No. 1 unit, previously won by Alabama in 2015 and Iowa in 2016. The Irish offensive line controlled the game with 263 yards rushing in the 2014 Music City Bowl win versus LSU and might need to do the same this time. Notre Dame ranks No. 7 nationally in rushing (279.1 yards per game) while LSU is No. 21 against the run (126.4 yards per contest).
In the final three games, the Irish rushed for an average of 142.0 yards and 3.8 yards per carry.
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