Notre Dame Football Power Rankings: Cheeseburgers, Stats, Long Islands, and Special Teams

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are 5-1, ranked #8 in the nation, and sitting around eating cheeseburgers this week. What lies ahead, 2 hours and 47 minutes Northeast, is the large shitbox that serves as the home of the Michigan Wolverines.

But we will get to that soon enough...

It’s been a few weeks, so let’s just get right to it:

1. Asmar Bilal

No Notre Dame player was more dismissed than Asmar as we came out of spring and through fall camp. It wasn’t really about if he would be supplanted as a starter — but when, and by whom. Bilal is now the team’s third leading tackler with 35 and 5 TFL’s ( Alohi Gilman is the team leader with 38). He has been damn good this year, and has shown more instinct and grit than at any other point in his career. He’s a grown up assassin.

2. Pac-12 Refs

In the pantheon of officiating crews for college football — Pac 12 crews are on Mars. Year after year they prove themselves to be even more incompetent than the ACC crews, and year after year... we keep letting them in our house. It takes guts, and I guess Notre Dame has them.

3. Brian Polian

Notre Dame’s special teams this season have been... wait for it... good. Jonathan Doerer’s performance against USC brought forth great praise by many, and it was well deserved. Brian Polian, however, has been under fire for a lot of Notre Dame’s poor special team play over the years — and he seems to have that shit straightened out. The Irish have been using a lot of their frontline guys this year and it’s paying dividends. Even the fumbled Michael Young kickoff return was a thing of beauty if Young hadn’t punched the ball out of his own hand.

4. Streaking

Notre Dame has some impressive streaks going on right now:

• 3 straight wins over Southern Cal. The longest such streak since the legendary Bob Davie took care of business from 1999-2001.
• 15 straight wins inside Notre Dame Stadium.
• 20 straight games the Irish held their opponent to 30 points or less.
• 22 straight redzone scores. The Irish are perfect in 2019 at 22-22 with 19 for TD.

5. Graphic that shows the offense is good

6. Notre Dame remains petty AF

Notre Dame continues to place the opposing band in the upper bowl and right next to the jumbotron — and I love it. Notre Dame isn’t exactly an intimidating place for opposing teams to play, but at least the band is uncomfortable. Is it petty? Absolutely — and that’ why I love it. Some don’t like it, and I just can’t hang with them. You ain’t my style bro.

7. Cheeseburger rankings revisited

It’s the bye week and we haven’t talked enough about cheeseburgers (or much else because avoiding a burnout/meltdown is a smart move). I continue to stand by my Top 5.

8. LIGHT GRACE HALL UP BOYS!

Notre Dame currently has the #1 ranked recruiting class according to Rivals. Enjoy this one (for right now).

9. A stat and a story you need in your life (unrelated items... maybe)

So... Notre Dame’s pass blocking is pretty good:

You can call him, “Pat from Long Island”

10. TONY JONES JUNIOR Y’ALL

In no way could I NOT put Tony Jones Jr. in this story. With a 6 game stat line of 80 carries for 567 yards (7 ypc) and 4 touchdowns sets Jones up for a 1000 yard season — which NO ONE predicted. He is “the hot hand” right now, so even with the Return of Jafar, I’m falling for Tony’s carpet ride wish.

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Yes... the site has been slow this week. This was an unplanned plan masterfully produced by Budweiser, fatherhood, and sweet SWEET procrastination. Obviously things will get back to normal soon.

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