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Notre Dame-Virginia Tech: 10 To 1

Notre Dame tries to improve to 5-6 today on Senior Day while keeping its bowl hopes alive.
Notre Dame tries to improve to 5-6 today on Senior Day while keeping its bowl hopes alive. (Bill Panzica)

10 In the 10 games 4-6 Notre Dame has played this year, the winning team rushed for more yards each time. Virginia Tech (7-3) enters the game averaging 186.1 yards rushing per game, while Notre Dame is at 160.6 after a season high 261 versus Army West Point last week.


9 This will be the ninth time under head coach Brian Kelly the Irish will host a first-time visitor to Notre Dame Stadium, and his record is 5-3 in the previous eight. The Irish defeated Western Michigan and Utah in 2010, Wake Forest in 2012, Temple in 2013 and UMass in 2015. The three losses were to Tulsa (2010), South Florida (2011) and Louisville (2014).

Since the opening of Notre Dame Stadium in 1930, Notre Dame is 59-13-1 versus first-time visitors, and four of the losses have come since 2009 when including UConn that season. Kelly has the most such defeats by an Irish coach with three.


8 Teams left among the 64 Power 5 Conference schools that Notre Dame has yet to play. With Virginia Tech added today, the Irish have now played everyone in the ACC, Big 10 and Pac-12. It still has to play four teams from the Big 12 (Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech) and four more from the SEC (Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky and Mississippi State) to complete the set.


7 This will be the seventh Senior Day under Kelly, who is 5-1 in these contests. The victories were No. 15 Utah in 2010 (28-3), Boston College 2011 (16-14), Wake Forest 2012 (38-0) and 2015 (28-7), and Brigham Young 2013 (23-13). The loss was to Louisville in 2014 (31-28).


6 Losses this year by Notre Dame that have come by a total of 29 points, or 4.8 per game, and none by more than eight points. The only other two teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision this year that have lost more than four games by eight or less points are Oregon State and Texas Tech with five apiece.


5 Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente, in his first year with the Hokies, is the fifth-youngest Power Five coach at age 40. The four ahead of him are Iowa State’s Matt Campbell (36), Texas Tech’s Kliff Kingsbury (37), Maryland’s D.J. Durkin (38) and Missouri’s Barry Odom (39).


4 On Senior Day, Notre Dame is attempting to avoid a fourth loss at home this season. The only other two times that occurred in one season were 1960 (1-4) and 2007 (1-6). This year the Irish have lost at home to Michigan State, Duke and Stanford.


3 Common opponents faced by Notre Dame and Virginia Tech. The Irish defeated Syracuse (50-33) and Miami (30-27), but lost to Duke (38-35). The Hokies won against Miami (37-16) and Duke (24-21), but lost at Syracuse (31-17).


2 Notre Dame has yet to win two games in a row this season, and is attempting to avoid becoming the first Irish team to do that since the 2-8 squad in 1960 (even the 3-9 and 2-7 Notre Dame teams in 2007 and 1963, respectively, had a two-game winning streak). Virginia Tech is coming off a 30-22 loss to Georgia Tech but has not been defeated two straight this season.


1 Against first-year head coaches at a school, Kelly is 13-4 at Notre Dame, including USC interim coaches Ed Orgeron and Clay Helton in 2013 and 2015, respectively. This year he is 2-0 so far with wins against Syracuse’s Dino Babers and Miami’s Mark Richt. He will try to complete the hat trick this season versus Fuente.

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