I have wondered this since last year. I feel the team is more aggressive and plays with more confidence away from Notre Dame Stadium. Perhaps we played the better teams on the schedule to date at home (Michigan, Stanford, BYU), but the team just seemed fiercer in Dublin, Chicago and East Lansing.

Last year we jumped on Michigan (sigh), Purdue and Maryland early in the games, but we did start slowly against Wake Forest and Pitt. Even in the Stanford game we pushed them hard early but got ground down as the game went on.

In 2010 we jumped out of the gate quickly at MSU even though we lost late. We jumped on BC, Army and USC early. The less said about the Navy game, the better, but that was the only away game we played badly at.

It is for this reason that I feel confident the team will play well at Norman and pull the upset on Oklahoma. But it begs the question: Why is the team so tight at home? Is it the formalities of the weekend events or just being in front of all your classmates and friends that does this? I hope Coach Kelly can get this figured out.