Tight end Troy Niklas (85) scoring a touchdown last week against the Oklahoma Sooners. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Notre Dame Meets #22 Arizona State Saturday In Texas

Oct. 1, 2013

Game Notes Get Acrobat Reader | Gameweek Central

DATE

– Saturday, October 5, 2013

TIME

– 6:42 p.m. CT

SITE (CAPACITY)

– AT&T Stadium (72,000); Arlington, Texas

Television

– NBC national telecast with Tom Hammond (play-by-play), Mike Mayock (analysis), Alex Flanagan (sideline), Rob Hyland (producer) and Pierre Moossa (director).

RADIO

– IMG College Sports is the exclusive national rights-holder for Irish football radio broadcasts. IMG College manages, produces and syndicates the Irish national football radio network. Notre Dame games will be broadcast by Don Criqui (play-by-play), former Irish great Allen Pinkett (analysis) and Jeff Jeffers (sideline). This broadcast can be heard live on both SIRIUS and XM Satellite Radio (channel 129).

– All games can be heard in South Bend on News & Sports Radio 96.1 FM & 960 AM WSBT.

TICKETS

– Notre Dame has played in front of sellout crowds in 260 of its previous 302 games (.861) overall. Notre Dame has played before 631 sellouts in 903 total games (.699) since 1930.

– Saturday’s game has yet to sell out.

Web Sites

– Notre Dame (UND.com), Arizona State (TheSunDevils.com)

POLLS

– Notre Dame is unranked in either the Associated Press poll and USA Today Coaches’ poll. Arizona State, on the other hand, is ranked No. 22 and No. 24.

Real-Time Stats

– Live in-game stats will be provided through CBS College Sports via UND.com.

SERIES INFO

– Notre Dame and Arizona State have only met twice. The Irish captured back-to-back meetings in 1998 and 1999. Notre Dame traveled to Tempe and upended the Sun Devils, 28-9, in ’98. Arizona State traveled to South Bend in ’99 and we soundly beaten, 48-17.

– More on the series is available on pages 2-6.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

– Notre Dame will make its first-ever appearance at AT&T Stadium Saturday against Arizona State, and the Irish enter the contest with a stellar won-loss record all-time in NFL stadiums.

– Notre Dame is a combined 71-21-3 (.763) all-time in games played in NFL stadiums, including a 20-7-2 (.724) mark in games played in current NFL stadiums.

– Notre Dame has won nine of its last 10 regular season games at an NFL stadium, dating back to the 1995 season.

12 Notre Dame is 12-0 under Brian Kelly when it does not commit a turnover in the contest. (Page 9)

11 Notre Dame has a winning series record against 11 of the Pac-12 teams. Most of those games (84) have come versus USC (44-35-5), while 27 other matchups have come against Stanford (18-9). (Page 3)

10 Notre Dame has played 18 games decided by a TD or less since the arrival of Brian Kelly in 2010. The Irish went 2-5 in the first seven games, but have since gone 10-1. (Page 14)

9 Notre Dame has won nine of its last 10 regular season games at an NFL stadium, dating back to the 1995 season. (Page 10)

8 Senior QB Tommy Rees has registered eight completions of at least 32 yards. Irish signal callers recorded 11 such passes all of last year. (Page 16-18)

7 Notre Dame has won seven consecutive games under head coach Brian Kelly when the game was decided by a TD or less. He is tied with Ara Parseghian for third on the all-time Notre Dame list. (Page 14)

6 Senior WR TJ Jones has 136 career receptions. He needs five catches to move into sixth on the all-time Notre Dame receptions list. Jones would surpass the output of former All-American tight end Tyler Eifert (140, 2009-12). (Page 22)

5 Notre Dame has allowed an average of 18.57 points/game over the last four seasons combined, which would rank as the fifth-best average from a BCS automatically-qualifying conference. (Page 23)

4 Brian Kelly is one of four FBS coaches that have guided their respective schools to multiple undefeated regular seasons since 2009. (Page 12)

3 Notre Dame has won three consecutive meetings with Michigan State for the first time since 1992-94.

2 Among college coaches with at least five years of service or 50 victories at a school that was classified as a major college, only one head coach ever reached 200 career victories at a younger age than Brian Kelly. (Page 12)

1 Notre Dame has lost just one time in 28 games under Brian Kelly when the Irish hold their opponent to 20 or fewer points. In fact, Kelly’s teams have won 70 of its last 71 games when allowing 20 points or less. (Page 12)

0 No FBS defense has allowed fewer rushing touchdowns than the 16 by Notre Dame over the last 35 games. Alabama has also limited its opponents to 16. (Page 24)