Notre Dame Football: The Boston College Hangover

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish emphatically took care of business on Saturday against the Boston College Eagles with a 40-7 win. It was another Senior Day win for Brian Kelly as he and the Irish are now 8-2 during his time in South Bend.

Here are just a few thoughts on a Monday afternoon.

Not a fan of the throwback uniforms

Before we go any further, I want to make it clear that Notre Dame’s uniforms weren’t even in the same universe that the Yankee Pinstripe uniforms will forever rule — they were quite pleasant. Still... I’m not the biggest fan of them for several reasons:

• I’m still a bit mad that my Frank Leahy theory wasn’t what actually happened. Again... missed opportunity.
• The gold pants were basically the same color as the 2011 uniforms — not 1988.
• Just about every bit of it seemed like a lazy effort.

They weren’t bad, but I assume (maybe unreasonably) that these could have been a lot better. The black shoes were dope though.

Flutie Report

I stayed true to my word and watched the game on NBC with Mike Tirico and Doug Flutie and recorded the NBCSN broadcast with Jessica Smetana, Daelin Hayes, Darius Walker, and the radio crew. I have to be brutally honest here... Flutie was fine.

Maybe Flutie adjusted his style (or whatever) due to the whole Fan Feed thing, but it was as normal and flat of a broadcast as I’ve seen during his time with NBC.

The Fan Feed was a success as far as I can tell. NBC has wanted to make Notre Dame football games something more unique for the viewers at home, and failed miseraly with the sky cam. I fully believe that the massive positive feedback (as well as some constructive criticism) will allow NBC to do this more in the future.

So... well played everyone.

Home field things

Maybe the most talked about stat from Saturday’s game was that Notre Dame finished their home schedule by extending its winning streak inside Notre Dame Stadium to 18 games. The Irish have not lost at home since that battle against the Georgia Bulldogs in week two of 2017. Naturally, fans have to wonder how much longer this can last.

Next year, the Irish play this home schedule:

• 9/12 Arkansas Razorback
• 9/19 Western Michigan Broncos
• 10/10 Stanford Cardinal
• 10/31 Duke Blue Devils
• 11/7 Clemson Tigers
• 11/21 Louisville Cardinals

It’s reasonable to think that Notre Dame could be on a 22 game winning streak once Clemson comes to town. It could very well be one of the great college football games of the 2020 season.

Come back Ian

There was a debate during the offseason about if Ian Book returns in 2020 — would it hurt the Irish in the long run because of the consequences that comes with such a decision (namely the possibility of Phil Jurkovec transferring)?

My answer was that I didn’t care about 2021. The best thing possible for 2020 is a Book return. Notre Dame will likely return its entire starting offensive line, all tight ends (even Cole Kmet) , and quite a few weapons at wide receiver. All of Notre Dame’s running backs are eligible to return in 2020, but more importantly — Chris Tyree will be enrolled in school.

So there’s a lot there.

Book gave the “we’ll see” answer after the Boston College Game, but most outlets are sitting around 90% convinced he returns. My thought... yes please.

Ready to kill a tree

One game left and I’m extremely excited that it’s the Stanford Cardinal. I’m ready to end the bullshit that has plagued Notre Dame in Palo Alto in their last 5 trips out there. I’m ready to chop the tree down, cut it up, split it, and set ablaze using a chemical fire.

This game won’t mean much to anyone outside of the Notre Dame bubble, but I guarantee you this means a ton to Brian Kelly, the team, and to most fans that I consider to be a friend.

BURN THE TREES TO THE GROUND.