Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1547006
4 OCT. 10, 2026 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED TACKLING AN ISSUE In the game against Purdue, I was frustrated by some poor tackling, es- pecially by the DBs. It seemed the effort was less than I would expect, and it in- cluded Leonard Moore. No doubt he is a talented athlete and he has shown some bursts of that talent, but I didn't see that intensity in his play against Purdue. Hopefully we will see a better effort the rest of the year. Go Irish! Jack L. Schneider Marquette, Mich. Missed tackles are frustrating, Jack, especially when they give an opponent extra yards and extend drives. Moore's talent understandably raises expecta- tions, but we'd be careful about equat- ing a missed tackle with a lack of effort. Poor angles and technique can contrib- ute, too. Your broader point is fair: Notre Dame needs consistent, sound tackling from its secondary against tougher opponents ahead. BEAUTIFUL ANONYMITY The holder and long snapper are never mentioned in special teams. They only ever get bad press and I would like to see something positive said about them. Thanks for your time. Go Irish! Gertrude M. Vinci You make a fair point, Gertrude. BGI's late, great senior editor Lou Somogyi often espoused the same thinking. If a specialist does his job perfectly 50 times in a row, nobody knows his name. The very first time his name is spoken by a TV announcer or written in a headline, it is almost universally because of a mistake. On special teams, anonymity is the ulti- mate reward. We're happy to report that Notre Dame's primary long snapper, Joseph Vinci , and holder, Jasper Scaife, have remained "beautifully anonymous" dur- ing the Fighting Irish's 4-0 start in 2026. SIT TIGHT Ever since Michael Mayer graduated to the NFL, our tight end players play FAN FORUM BE HEARD! Send your letters to: steve.downey@on3.com or mail to: Blue & Gold Illustrated, P. O. Box 2331, Durham, NC 27702 Notre Dame's defensive line played at a very high level during the first four games of the 2026 season. As a result, one Irish fan posed the question, "Is this the best defensive line you have seen at Notre Dame?" on our message board at BlueandGold.com. Here is a sampling of some of the responses in that thread. TheDanoMan: I made this comment during the gameday thread, and saw some interesting answers. For me this is the best D-line I can recall seeing at ND. For context my first full season was '95 so I got into ND headed into the lean years. Deepwater: Since '95, maybe. It's your call and I respect that. But for me, there definitely have been better and quite a few of them before '95. But since you are talking since '95, I would still say that they have had a few better. 1999, 2001, 2002/3/4 were definitely better. There is no one close to Justin Tuck on this team. 2005, 2006, 2012. But anyway. I'm also looking at the offenses that ND is playing against. There are quite a few defensive lines that would look good playing against the offenses that ND has played against. So altogether, I would say there have been quite a few DLs since 1995 that are better than what they have now. o_CTIrish80: 1977 Natty team w/ Ross Browner & Willie Fry at DEs, Mike Calhoun & Ken Dike along w/ Bob Golic who would play middle guard lining up over the center was truly the best I ever saw. Maxwell21: 1993 was much better. twalsh: That was a different generation. Fry and Ross never came out of a competitive game. We'll use 5 or 6 edge guys in a competitive game these days. Today on the DL qual- ity depth is almost as important as your starters are. 4-4-3: 1. 66 — Hardy, Page, Duranko, Rhoads 2. 73 — Browner, Niehaus, Fanning, Fry 3. 71 — Patulski, Marx, Kadish, Swendsen CMcK406: Not as much star power yet, but that could change as the season rolls on and Traore, Young & Brewu get their moments to shine. o_tommy1380: I need to see them play a good team before I can really judge them. They look good now, but we'll have a better idea after Miami. Youarethe298?: 1966,1973 1977, 1988 lines were stacked with All-Amer- icans future NFL players, Alan Page Kevin Hardy 1966, Page is in the hall of fame 1973, Ross Browner, Jim Stock, Willie Fry, 1977 Golic, Browner, Fry 1988 Frank Stams, Chris Zorich, Bo Williams. This line is very good with a lot of studs Traore, Brew, Gray and the future stars already ascending Dunham, Young, Mukam etc. Also a big reason this line is looking great is new defensive line coach Partridge. Players marvel at his coaching, player development etc. Fuzzbucket43: I can't decide between '88 and '93. One had a CFB HOFer and the other had an NFL HOFer. Don't see any HOF along this year's line yet. This year's collec- tion is definitely the best since 2012 (I really liked Tuitt/Nix/Moore). LA Irish: Agree. They have to prove it against BYU, Miami, SMU, and anyone we play in the CFP to get votes as the best ever at ND. Reference the post by Youarethe298? re 1966, 1973, 1977 & 1988. This DL has talent, depth, and good coaching, so they can get there. Can they pressure other great teams this year without relying on a lot of blitz packages? Time will tell. SpaddyND: Besides the obvious, here are some others. Most underrated ND DL was 1992. They got after the QB with Flanigan, Gibson, McGill, Young, McDonald and Hamilton. They had 37 sacks in 11 regular season games that year. 1996 Notre Dame DL was also a very good one. With Wynn, Maiden and Dansby. Then you had Berry and Minor playing OLB. I think they sacked Tony Banks from MSU 8-10 times in that 1996 game. o_fedman: If you are talking about the greatest ND defensive line of all time and do not talk about the 1966 defensive line, then you do not know a damn thing about football. Alan Page, Pete Duranko and Kevin Hardy were all three All-Americans and all three had long successful NFL careers. The 4th member of that line was Tom Rhoads who went on to play two years in the NFL. The only other line I would compare to the 1966 bunch would be the 1973 line consisting of Ross Browner, Steve Niehaus, Mike Fanning and Willie Fry. FROM THE WEBSITE .com .com Notre Dame's defensive linemen combined for 18 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks in the first four games of the 2026 season. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MILLER