Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com SEPT. 19, 2020 9 UNDER THE DOME 1 NFL Stadium Notre Dame will play in this season after originally schedul- ing a school-record five, present or former. The games versus Wisconsin (Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis.) and USC (Los Angeles Coliseum) were canceled, while ACC outings to Georgia Tech (Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta) and Wake Forest (Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.) were switched to the school's on-campus location. The lone such venue this year will be Heinz Field versus Pittsburgh Oct. 24. 5 Players on the 2020 Notre Dame roster who are from Florida as the Fighting Irish prepare to face the University of South Florida. Alphabetically, they are: junior wide receiver Kevin Austin (Fort Lauderdale), currently recovering from a broken foot; senior guard Dillan Gibbons (Clearwater); junior tight end George Takacs (Na- ples); senior linebacker Drew White (Boca Raton) and junior wide receiver Joe Wilkins Jr. (North Fort Myers). 6 Home games for the Fighting Irish this sea- son — and five of the opponents won on their last visit to Notre Dame Stadium prior to the 2020 campaign. Duke had stunned the Irish in 2016 (38-35), while South Florida shocked them in the 2011 season opener (23-20). The other three were Louisville in 2014 (31-28), Clem- son in 1979 (16-10) and Syracuse in 2008 (24-23). The lone home game this year in which Notre Dame won its previous home meeting is versus Florida State Oct. 13. The Irish routed the Seminoles 42-13 on Senior Day in 2018. 7 National college football writers on the CBS Sports panel, with six predicting a Notre Dame-Clemson rematch in the ACC championship game to be played either Dec. 12 or Dec. 19 in Charlotte, N.C. The Fighting Irish will host the Associated Press preseason No. 1 Tigers Nov. 7. Three of the reporters (Dennis Dodd, Chip Patterson and David Cobb) picked a Notre Dame victory on that day. Unless Clemson loses beforehand, it would be the first Irish win over a top-five team since vanquishing No. 3 Michigan in 2005. 12 Color commentators/game analysts Notre Dame has now had on NBC in its 30th year of exclusively covering Fighting Irish home games. Former NFL head coach and Super Bowl champion TONY DUNGY made it an even dozen with his debut during the season opener versus Duke Sept. 12. Chronologically, his predecessors were: multiple Super Bowl champion coach Bill Walsh (1991), Cris Collinsworth (1992-94), with Todd Christensen (1993), Bob Trumpy (1993 and 1995-97) and Randy Cross (1994-96) mixed in, Paul McGuire (1995), Phil Simms (1995), Beasley Reece (1996), Pat Haden (1998-2009), Mike Mayock (2010-14) and Doug Flutie (2014-19). 45 Consecutive weeks Notre Dame has been ranked by the Associated Press as it entered the 2020 season. That is the seventh-longest current streak, behind Alabama (196), Ohio State (131), Clemson (85), Oklahoma (60), Penn State (57) and Georgia (49). 330 Listed weight of senior left guard Aaron Banks, making him easily the largest player on the 2020 Notre Dame roster, with fifth-year senior right guard Tommy Kraemer next at 317. Banks and Quenton Nelson (2014-17) are the second-largest listed recruits in head coach Brian Kelly's 11 seasons, behind 2010-13 nose tackle Louis Nix (342). Interestingly, ESPN's Bill Connelly had Banks among his Top 10 Particularly Fun Players To Watch, noting: "This list needed some beef. Banks is enormous, mean and spry — he'll pancake block you on one play, then snuff out your best pass-rush move on the next." ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO COURTESY NBC SPORTS