Aug. 26, 2014
Game Notes 
| ND-Rice Gameweek Central | Coach Kelly Transcript
DATE
- Saturday, August 30, 2014
TIME
- 3:41 p.m. ET
SITE (CAPACITY)
- Notre Dame Stadium (80,795); Notre Dame, Ind.
TELEVISION
- NBC national telecast with Dan Hicks (play-by-play), Mike Mayock (analysis), Kathryn Tappen (sideline), Doug Flutie (sideline), Rob Hyland (producer) and Pierre Moossa (director).
- NBC Sports Network will also have live pre-game and post-game shows featuring Liam McHugh (host), Flutie (analyst) and Hines Ward (analyst).
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 to 117 affiliates by Don Criqui (play-by-play), former Irish great Allen Pinkett (analysis) and Jeff Jeffers (sideline). This broadcast can be heard live on SiriusXM Satellite Radio (channel 129).
- The broadcast will be preceded by a one hour pre-game show hosted by Criqui and Pinkett with interviews conducted by Jack Nolan.
- All games can be heard in South Bend on News & Sports Radio 96.1 FM & 960 AM WSBT and Sunny 101.5 FM.
TICKETS
- Saturday will be the 238th straight sellout at Notre Dame Stadium. Every home game since the final two home games in 1964 for the Irish has been a sellout except one – a 1973 Thanksgiving Day game vs. Air Force. Notre Dame has played in front of sellouts in 286 of its last 287 home games.
- Notre Dame has played in front of sellout crowds in 266 of its previous 310 games (.858) overall. Notre Dame has played before 637 sellouts in 911 total games (.699) since 1930.
WEBSITES/SOCIAL MEDIA
- Notre Dame (UND.com…@NDFootball), Rice (RiceOwls.com…@RiceFootball1)
POLLS
- Notre Dame is ranked No. 17 in both the Associated Press and Amway Coaches’ preseason polls. Rice is unranked in both polls.
REAL-TIME STATS
- Live in-game stats will be provided through CBS College Sports GameTracker via UND.com.
SERIES INFO
- Notre Dame leads the series with Rice 4-0, including a 2-0 record at Notre Dame Stadium.
- For more information on the series, turn to page four.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
- Saturday’s game is the home opener for the Irish and the 85th time Notre Dame Stadium has served as the venue. Notre Dame is 99-20-5 (.818) in its home openers, including 66-16-2 (.798) at Notre Dame Stadium.
COUNTDOWN TO KICKOFF
- 15 Senior K Kyle Brindza is nearly perfect (14 of 15) in game-winning, game-tying, overtime or fourth-quarter lead-extending field goals over his career.
- 14 Junior OL Ronnie Stanley will make his 14th career start Saturday, but it will be his debut at left tackle. Stanley will be the first Irish player other than Zack Martin to start at left tackle since Matt Romine on Oct. 16, 2010.
- 13 Notre Dame is 13-0 under Brian Kelly when it does not commit a turnover.
- 12 Brian Kelly is one of 12 coaches at contract bowl eligible schools who is at least .500 against AP-ranked teams at his current job.
- 11 Notre Dame boasts 11 student-athletes from the state of Texas.
- 10 Saturday’s opponent, Rice, is one of 27 schools in the Football Bowl Subdivision that won 10 or more games in 2013. Notre Dame will play six of them in 2014.
- 9 Notre Dame has allowed a combined average of 19.02 points/game over the last four years, which ranks as the ninth-best average over 2010-13 of any team in the FBS.
- 8 Eight freshmen can be found on Notre Dame’s season-opening offensive and defensive depth chart.
- 7 Saturday’s meeting between Notre Dame and Rice is one of seven matchups this weekend that features a pair of teams that both won at least nine games in 2013.
- 6 Sophomore RB Tarean Folston rushed for 470 yards as a freshman in 2013, which ranked as the sixth-best single-season total by a freshman in school history.
- 5 With a victory over Rice on Saturday, Notre Dame would improve its all-time record in the month of August to 5-0.
- 4 Notre Dame lost a fumble just four times in 2013, equaling Bowling Green, Utah, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin for the fewest in the nation.
- 3 Notre Dame’s running backs have lost three or fewer fumbles in each of the last four years. Irish running backs have lost just 10 fumbles since the start of 2010.
- 2 Since the start of 2011, Notre Dame has allowed just 25 rushing touchdowns – only Alabama has allowed fewer (21).
- 1 Brian Kelly is the first coach in Notre Dame history to lead the Irish to a bowl game in each of his first four seasons.
- 0 Brian Kelly has led Notre Dame to 37 victories over his first four seasons. No Irish coach has registered more wins over his first four years at the University.
–ND–