Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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than Rees' 14 in 411 attempts. Two of them are Michigan's Denard Rob- inson (15 in 258 attempts) and Okla- homa's Landry Jones (15 in 562 tries), both of whom the Irish will face this season. TOTAL OFFENSE: 35TH (413.00) the Irish the last 12 seasons, but it is nullified by 29 turnovers — with a national-high eight in the red zone. The 2012 campaign was similar to This is the third-highest figure by the 1999 team that averaged 419.7 yards per game but finished 5-7, or the 2009 edition that amassed 451.75 yards per game but had a 6-6 ledger that cost head coach Charlie Weis his job. SCORING OFFENSE: 49TH (29.23) Dame scored 16, 14 and seven points on offense. It did not tally a touch- down in the final three quarters ver- sus BC, added a window dressing score in the regular-season finale at Stanford in the final minute when trailing 28-7, and the offense crossed the goal line only once in the Champs Sports Bowl setback to Florida State. Not since head coach Gerry Faust's In the final three games, Notre final season in 1985 did the Irish score fewer touchdowns in the final three games. Back then, it lost 36-6 at Penn State, 10-7 to LSU and 58-7 at Miami. RUSHING DEFENSE: 47TH (138.92) (142.15 yards allowed per game): nothing spectacular but not bad ei- ther. That will especially happen when facing triple-option teams such as Air Force or Navy. Next year, with the Irish expected Somewhat similar to last year to field a veteran, game-changing front seven, and facing Navy in the first game of the season, this area should be the team strength as the season progresses. PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE: 58TH (129.28) around the middle was the Irish could not generate interceptions. The eight they had in 13 contests were the second fewest for one season since at www.BLUEANDGOLD.com A main reason this was right Junior linebacker Manti Te'o will return next season to anchor an Irish defense that has improved statis- tically every year since he arrived. PHOTO BY JOE RAYMOND MARCH 2012 67 least the end of World War II, behind the seven during a 6-5-1 campaign in 1994. TOTAL DEFENSE: 30TH (344.69) in 2009 (397.75 yards allowed per game) to 50th in 2010 (357.23) to 20 spots better in 2011. Against the better teams … USC This area has improved from 86th totaled 443 yards, Stanford 429 and Michigan's Denard Robinson ac- counted for 446 by himself (338 pass- ing and 108 rushing). SCORING DEFENSE: 24TH (20.69) cal to 2010, when the Irish were 23rd with a figure of 20.23 points allowed per game. The lowest since former head coach Lou Holtz's departure in 1996 was 16.7 in 2002. Another stat that is almost identi- NET PUNTING: 102ND (34.55) pressive, junior Ben Turk punted well in the second half of the season, highlighted by an excellent effort in the bowl loss, where four of his seven punts were downed inside the 20 (the last at the 1-yard line), and his hang time versus the Seminoles was the best we've seen. While the overall figure is not im- PUNT RETURNS: 112TH (3.69) which was where they were posi- tioned after the regular season with three total yards. Eureka! The Irish didn't finish last, return on Florida State's first punt (the first time in eight games the Irish even attempted a return), Notre Dame moved up eight spots. KICK RETURNS: 36TH (22.88) touchdown returns against Michigan State and USC provided a huge boost to special teams this season. Freshman George Atkinson III's TURNOVER MARGIN: 118TH (MINUS-1.15) campaign, overshadowing or nulli- fying most everything else. The great teams avoid beating themselves, and no podiatrist could have cured how many times Notre Dame shot itself in the foot. It was a foremost reason why Notre Dame remained mired as a top 30-40 program. It wasn't just about committing 29 turnovers, but also having what we believe to be a school-record-low 14 takeaways — in 13 games, no less. ✦ Game. Set. Match. This stat defined the 2011 Irish Thanks to Michael Floyd's 41-yard