Duranko
151 articles
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see in the Pinstripe Bowl?
A rested, healed, motivated Fighting Irish Squad scored early, never trailed and beat Rutgers 29-16. The Irish offense controlled the Scarlet Knight defense, the ND defense manhandled the…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Stanford?
A powerful Stanford team defeated the Irish 27-20, concluding the Irish season at 8-4. The fulcrum of the game was Stanford’s outrushing the Irish 261-65. Out there among the…
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Duranko’s Digest – What Did We See on Notre Dame Senior Day?
The Fighting Irish played their most balanced game of the year on Senior Day, winning 23-13. The Irish scored touchdowns on their first two possessions, and after allowing BYU’s…
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A Historical Look at the ACC, Notre Dame’s New Conference Cousins
With the bye week blues in full swing, today we bring you a look at the historical evolution of the ACC conference and how Notre Dame’s schedule will…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see in Pittsbrugh?
Five HUGE mistakes, each self-inflicted, compounded to help Notre Dame lose to a game, gritty Pitt Panther squad 28-21. The Irish offense is not yet eploxsive enough to overcome…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Navy?
Notre Dame survived a defensive performance dreadful in design and, at best, mediocre in execution using a dramatic late stop to outpoint Navy 38-34. The previous week against…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Air Force?
Up there in the wild blue yonder, where the air is crisp yet fragrant with alpine firs, Tommy Rees and his sure-handed wingmen went Enola Gay on the…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against USC?
FIGHTING IRISH. That's what we saw. And that is an empirical, technical description, not a mere nickname or wish.
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State of the Notre Dame Program
Here we will attempt to evaluate the state of the Notre Dame Football Program in mid-October 2013 as if it were a private enterprise or business.
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Duranko’s Digest: What Did We See in Arlington?
In an unconventional game with unconventional twists and turns, the Irish eked out a nerve-wracking 34-30 victory over Arizona State’s Sun Devils, in Notre Dame’s third consecutive outing…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Oklahoma
In the year’s worst performance, the chickens came home to roost as five critical Irish errors enabled a 35-21 Oklahoma victory. Since the bowl game against FSU, the Notre…
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Duranko’s Digest: What Did We See Against Michigan State?
True Grit. Rooster Cogburn would have loved this game. A gritty bunch of players led by a gritty coach with a gritty game plane beat a gritty band…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see in West Lafayette?
The Irish began the game with a 24 minute nap. At the nine minute mark of the 2d quarter, “mighty” Purdue had a 10-0 lead and had out-gained…
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Duranko’s Digest: What Did We See in Ann Arbor?
We saw a frustrating end to a 13 game regular season winning streak, as the Irish fell 41-30. During that streak we had grown comfortable relying on a…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Temple?
The Notre Dame 2013 team came roaring out of the tunnel and in the first five minutes of the game were as breathtaking and elegant as Alex Flanagan,…
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Notre Dame’s 1943 National Championship
Frank Leahy replaced the beloved Elmer Layden as Irish head coach in 1941. Leahy had, as a schoolboy in Winner, South Dakota, written a letter to Knute Rockne…
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Notre Dame’s 1949 National Championship
Weren't the Irish unbeaten in 1948? Well, yes, but wtih a tie against USC in the last game. The 1948 Irish were 9-0-1 and outscored opponents by a…
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Notre Dame’s 1947 National Championship – Its Best Ever?
We continue our summer trip down memory lane by looking back at Notre Dame’s 1947 National Championship – the third won under the guidance of Frank Leahy and…
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Notre Dame’s 1946 National Championship
1946 was morning in America. After making Japanese rubble bounce with a Fat Man and a Little Boy, victory was assured. Japan had followed Italy and Germany to…
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Notre Dame’s 1930 National Championship
The Irish had won it all in ’29, and unlike ’24, there were many key veterans returning for the 1930 campaign. All-Americas Carideo and Schwartz were returning, joined…
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Notre Dame’s 1929 National Championship
As the never-ending off-season finally draws close to ending, we continue to look back at great moments in Notre Dame football history to get everyone through the final…
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Duranko’s Digest: Ranking ND’s Opponents, Degree of Difficulty
A look at Notre Dame's 2013 schedule.
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Post Spring ’13 – Notre Dame’s BCS Caliber Units
Notre Dame’s best units, quelle surprise, are on defense. (3) CORNERBACK Two returning starters in Bennett Jackson, on a collision course with the 2014 NFL draft, and…
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Post Spring ’13 – Notre Dame’s New Year’s Day Caliber Units
Last edition we rated the following as Bowl Caliber Units – (9) RB, (8) Safety, and (7) OL. There are three units that are New Year’s Day Bowl…
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Post Spring ’13 – Rating Notre Dame’s Position Units
With spring practice now behind us, we will rate the units according to a four tier rating system: BCS Game Caliber, New Year’s Day Bowl Caliber, Bowl Game Caliber, Stay Home.…
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Duranko’s Digest: The Strange Saga of Notre Dame Quarterback Transfers
The fortcoming departure of Gunner Kiel triggers synapses of quarterbacks who left Notre Dame in the past.
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Duranko’s Digest: Ara’s critical first spring practice
With spring practice little more than a fortnight away, we ought examine one of the most critical Spring practices ever conducted at Notre Dame.
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The History of the #3 Jersey for Notre Dame Football
It seems that the number "3," that number of Ruthian power and strength, has always been the number of the "chosen one" at Notre Dame.
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Duranko’s Digest: Beyond 12-1; What’s Next?
Chuck Martin, as usual, was correct. Upon arriving in South Bend from Grand Valley State he remarked, and this is a paraphrase, "It's interesting and a challenge to…
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Duranko’s Digest: Defensive Personnel 2013
Duranko takes a look at the 2013 Notre Dame defense.
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Duranko’s Digest: 2013 Offensive Personnel Analysis
Duranko breaks down the 2013 Notre Dame offense.
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Duranko’s Digest: 2013 Schedule – A Peek Ahead
On the 2013 schedule, we lose Miami, Wake Forest and Boston College and add Temple, Air Force and Arizona State. Recruiting is not finished, player injuries and attrition…
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Duranko’s Digest: 42-14, The taste of ashes. What’s Next?
Alabama, the better team, won. A numbing, total defeat after twelve wondrous victories. But it was the correct football result. The fantasies, the possibilities began in Dublin: "…
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Duranko’s Digest: ’66, ’73,’77, ’88 Notre Dame’s National Championship DNA
November, 1965 saw a lot of long faces in the Notre Dame football fan base. Ara had burst onto the scene, the unwashed phenomenon, in '64.
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Duranko’s Digest: Year End Outlook, State of the Irish
This is an evaluation of the long-term outlook of the Notre Dame football program. It attempts to answer the question “Was 2012 a one-hit wonder or are the…
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Duranko’s Digest: Notre Dame – Alabama Preview
We’ll get into matchup elements below, but let’s first examine four significant data trends that will, largely, be ignored by the sports entertainment hype industry wearing the “journalism”…
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Duranko’s Digest: Deja vu (all over again) “Southern speed will bury ND in the bowl!”
And a stroll down bowl memory lane. Background: Ernie Nevers, who played for Pop Warner, yep the guy they named youth football after ran for Warner at Stanford…
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Duranko’s Digest: Awards Edition
What did we see in the Coliseum? Deliverance, redemption, sanctuary! Establishing functional control from the game’s opening drive, the Irish drove 66 yards in 9 plays for a…
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Duranko’s Digest – What We Saw Against Wake
At last! Exerting total domination from the opening whistle, the Irish efficiently built a 31-0 halftime lead enroute to the 38-0 final tally against Wake Forest. The maturing offense, a…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Boston College?
While we had cognitive dissonance over Alabama’s loss to A&M, and while dreaming dreams and seeing visions of BCS glory, we saw an excellent, big swift, skilled Notre…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Pitt?
We saw a gritty Notre Dame that is better at winning games than looking pretty. We saw an Irish team that plays better outside of Indiana (Navy,…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against Oklahoma?
In a magnificent performance against the best football team on its regular season schedule, the Irish moved to a glistening 8-0. As if heeding the call of Jim…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see against BYU?
The Fighting Irish moved to 7-0 by defeating two opponents. The first was a game Cougars team, going all out for a signature win. The second, more daunting…
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Duranko’s Digest: What Did We See Against Stanford?
A wet, ugly duckling of a game, a pigskin Elephant Man, initially repulsive, grotesque and difficult to look at. Then it revealed itself: noble, virtuous, elegant, classically beautiful.…
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Duranko’s Digest: What did we see in Soldier Field?
Beside the ghosts of Dick Butkus, Sweetness Payton and Dave Duerson, still a Notre Dame man! Blending a seemingly improved offense with the front seven led defense, the…
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Duranko’s Digest: State of the Irish
With four games behind us, it’s time for a more strategic view with the first trimester of the season complete. Assume this is an “offsite” meeting for some…
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Duranko’s Digest: What We Saw Against Michigan
The Irish moved into the week off with a 4-0 record after dispatching Michigan on a memorable Saturday night in South Bend. In the last two weeks Notre…
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Duranko’s Digest: What We Saw in East Lansing?
Spearheaded by a brutal, dominating defense, augmented by an opportunistic offense, Notre Dame moved to 3-0 against gritty Michigan State. The Irish, moving up in class, were able…
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Duranko’s Digest: Purdue v. Notre Dame
What did we see on Saturday. A rock-ribbed defense and a heroic late game relief stint delivered by Tommy Rees led the Irish to a nerve-wracking win over…
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Duranko’s Digest: What We Learned Dublin
The Fighting Irish put on a powerful, dominating, athletic display against the Naval Academy in Dublin. The Notre Dame offense was able to use the fulcrum of overpowering…