How Notre Dame's 2014 Opponents faired in Bowl appearances.

The fact that 8 of Notre Dame's 12 (over 66%) 2014 opponents made bowl appearances this year goes to show the strength of the Irish's schedule.  

Rice beat Fresno State in the Hawaiian Bowl 30-6.  The Irish beat Rice 48-17.

Stanford beat Maryland in the Foster Farms Bowl 45-21.  The Irish beat Stanford 17-14.

North Carolina lost to Rutgers in the Quick Lane Bowl 40-21.  The Irish beat  North Carolina 50-43.

Florida State lost to Oregon in the Rose Bowl 59-20.  The Irish lost Florida State 31-27.

Navy beat San Diego State 17-16 in Poinsettia Bowl.  The Irish beat Navy 49-39.

Arizona State beat Duke 36-31 in the Hyundai Sun Bowl.  The Irish lost to Arizona State 55-31.

Louisville lost to Georgia 37-14 in the Belk Bowl.  The Irish lost to Louisville 31-28.

USC beat Nebraska 45-42 in the National University Holiday Bowl.  The Irish lost to USC 49-14.

What Irish Fans have to look forward to in 2015.

Running backs; with Greg Bryant (3 more years of eligibility) and Terean Folston (2 more years of eligibility) coming back.

A real quarterback competition; after Malik Zaire's Music City Bowl performance Golson will again have pressure  to perform.  Either way competition should bring out the best in the Irish signal callers.

The Defensive Backfield; with the return of KeiVarar Russell Notre Dame's pass defense improves immediately and with experience gained this season by Devin Butler, Cole Luke, Max Redfield, Drue Tranquill and  Matthias Farley coming back for one more season.

Linebackers; Jaylon Smith (2nd team AP All American), Nyles Morgan (Sporting News Freshman All American) and defensive leader Joe Schmidt should be one of the best in the country.  Add the return of Jarrett Grace and up and coming Kolin Hill, James Onwualu, and Martni Greer the line backing corps will have good depth too.

 

Defensive Line; First off I believe Sheldon Day will be back an knowing experienced players like  Jarron Jones and Isaac Rochelle will be lines up with him we look good right away.  The Irish will have a youth movement along the defensive line with Andrew Trumbetti, Grant Blankenship, Daniel Cage, Jay Hayes and Jhonny Williams.  Depth will be provided by Jacob Matuska and the return of Ishaq Williams.

 

Offensive Line; the biggest problem the Irish will have next season with the O-line is limiting to five players.  Returning players will include; Steve Elmer, Nick Martin, Mike McGlinchey, Matt Hegarty and Ronnie Stanley.  There is a full stable of young talent that will be hard to keep off the field; Hunter Bivin, Jimmy Byrne, John Montelus, Sam Mustipher and Quenton Nelson.  Without a doubt the Irish Offensive Line had their best performance of the year in the Music City Bowl.

 

Stars of the Game...Music City Bowl

Malik Zaire; 12 for 15 passing, 96 yards and a touchdown.  22 carries for 96 yards (4.4 yards per rush) and a touchdown in his first career start.  Zaire became the first left-handed starting quarterback in Irish history.

William Fuller; 5 catches for 57 yards and one touchdown his 15th of the season, tying the Notre Dame single season record set by Jeff Samardzija in 2005 and matched by Rhema McKnight in 2006 and Golden Tate in 2009.  Fuller ended the season with 1,094 receiving yards, surpassing Golden Tate's 1,080 in 2008 for Notre Dame's sophomore record. Fuller also set sophomore benchmarks this year for receptions (82) and receiving TDs (15).

Kyle Brindza; 4 for 4 on extra points, 4 punts with 3 within the 20 yard line and 1 VERY BIG 32 yard game winning field goal extending his school record to 57 career field goals.  Brindza completes his Notre Dame career with 288 points, third-best in school history and second among kickers.

Who to watch.

Whether you like it or not this Bowl game is a part of next season, if not for momentum for insight to the possible future.  With a very large number of players coming back for the 2015 season some have more to show than others.  Here are some of the players Irish fans will want to pay particular attention to on Tuesday afternoon.

Malik Zaire

Malik Zaire.  This is kind of a no-brainer with there be a potential true quarterback competition this spring and heading into the fall.  One half of this is the poor performance, or at least a lack of production from Golson the other is what can Zaire really do?   His high school highlight tape looks good, there were good reports from summer camp and the few times we have seen him play there has been some positive results.  If the future of the Irish even if it's not until 2016 we need to see more of Zaire in real game action.

Nyles Morgan

Nyles Morgan.  Morgan was going to be the future of middle linebackers in South Bend, but after injuries to the linebacker crew the future came sooner than later for Morgan.  The plan was to redshirt but that did not happen and Morgan looked like what he was; super talented but inexperienced at the collegiate level.  I wish he could have saved a year of eligibility, learned the system and combined his talent with what he learned.  I am excited to see what he has learned with the extra bowl practices.

Mike McGlichey

Mike McGlinchey.  Physically he is a perfect specimen for an offensive tackle.  After redshirting last season it was only a matter of time before he saw the field in 2014.  It came later than some thought but he looked pretty damn good in limited action.  With a nagging back injury to Christian Lombard McGlinchey should see a lot of action this Tuesday.  The future of the offensive line looks bright and McGlinchey should be a big piece of it.

Freshman Defensive Linemen.  Coming into the season Andrew Tumbetti looked like he might be the only freshman D-lineman who was going to see action.  The Irish may have been thin along the defensive front and since Kelly has a history of playing freshmen if he feels they are ready I'm not overly surprised to see more freshman see the field especially after players got banged up.  The freshmen defensive lineman who did see action looked good and with the addition of bowl practices we should get a better insight to the future of Notre Dame's defensive line's future.  Jay Hayes, Grant Blakenship, Daniel Cage, Jhonny Williams, Jonathan Bonner and Peter Mokwuah should all get reps with the absence of Jarron Jones and a not 100% Sheldon Day.



Daniel Cage