Duranko’s Digest
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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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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 come 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 will occur,…
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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: " Your young…
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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 Irish back?”…
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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” mask. (1)…
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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 in the…
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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 far worthier…
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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 Dame team,…
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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, Michigan State,…
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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 Morrison, the…
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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 opponent was…
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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. The Irish…
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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 Irish first…
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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 company you…
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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 Dame has…
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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 to handle…
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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 gritty Purdue…
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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 the Navy…
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