Preview: Notre Dame Fighting Irish V Miami Hurricanes - the Sun Bowl

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are going bowling. They are set to square off against the University of Miami in the 77th Hyundai Sun Bowl in El-Paso Texas on New Year’s Eve, Friday, December 31st at 2 PM EST.

The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS. It will be an event of high drama and excitement. This was not lost on the fans as tickets sold out in 21 hours making it the fastest sellout in Sun Bowl history.

The Sun Bowl is the one of the oldest bowl games (tied for second with the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl) behind the Rose Bowl.  The game is to be played at Sun Bowl stadium on the campus of the University of Texas El-Paso.

First year Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly is excited about participating in the Bowl game. “We are thrilled about getting Notre Dame back to a bowl game, especially one with tradition like the Hyundai Sun Bowl,” Kelly was quoted as saying in a press conference after the bowl announcement. “Following our victory at USC, we internally targeted the Sun Bowl as a great game for us because of the national exposure the game receives and the top-notch opponent we will face in Miami.”

These two teams are no strangers as their rivalry dates back to 1955. Notre Dame leads the series 15-7-1. The Fighting Irish and the Hurricanes last faced off on Oct. 20 1990 resulting in an Irish 29-20 win. This rivalry has been reignited with three more games planned after this year’s bowl clash. The next scheduled matchup will be  at Soldiers Stadium in Chicago in 2012 and then a home and home series in 2016-2017. This year’s Hyundai Sun Bowl marks the first time Notre Dame and Miami will meet in a bowl game.

Without further ado ladies and gentleman here’s the final Notre Dame Football Preview of the year.

Notre Dame Offense

The theme here for Notre Dame has been the The Replacements. (not to be confused with the 2000 football movie starring Keanu Reeves and Jon Favreau) Dynamic Freshman QB Tommy Rees (905 yards, 131.87%, 10 TD, 8 INT) has more than filled in for the injured starting QB Dayne Crist (2,033 yards, 129.34%, 15 TD, 7 INT). In fact Rees is only one TD off of the Fighting Irish rookie record of 11 TDs thrown by a freshman held by Matt LoVecchio.  He has led the team to three straight victories including big wins over then #15 ranked Utah 28-3 and rival USC 20-16. In place of injured RB Armando Allen Jr. (514 yards, 4.8 yards per carry, 2 TD)  RB Cierre Wood (522 yards, 4.9 yards per carry, 2 TD)  came to the rescue. Wood should have an easy time running on Miami’s weak run defense.

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Nster.com