This Week: The Notre Dame College football team will host the University of Charleston tomorrow, October 27, in its final regular season home game of the year. The 12 p.m. kickoff will start a contest that could end with NDC locking up the Mountain East Conference Championship. Senior Day honors will begin at 11:30 a.m.

Records: Notre Dame College is 8-0 (8-0 MEC) after a 41-0 shutout victory at West Virginia Wesleyan last week. Charleston won 24-10 at home against UVa-Wise last week to improve its record to 5-3 (5-2 MEC).

Coaches Corner: Mike Jacobs is in his third year as the head coach of the NDC football program. He has an overall record of 25-5 (24-4 MEC). Pat Kirkland is 45-29 (34-22 MEC) in his career at Charleston. It is Kirkland's seventh season at UC.

Rankings: Notre Dame is ranked No. 14 in the October 22 AFCA Coaches' Poll. The team held strong at No. 14 as there was only one change in the top 18 of the poll. NDC debuted at No. 23 on September 24 before moving up to 20, 17 and then 14.

Series History: The Golden Eagles currently lead the series 3-2, but the Falcons are 2-0 since head coach Mike Jacobs took over. Jacobs made a statement in his debut game in 2016 as Notre Dame beat Charleston 44-17 at home. The contest was much closer last season as NDC won 17-12 on the road after taking a 14-3 lead in the first half.

Noting the Falcons: Last week at West Virginia Wesleyan, Notre Dame ran for 325 yards while holding the Bobcats to -5 yards rush- ing. The Falcons have made their rushing attack and defense combo well known since Mike Jacobs took over the NDC program prior to the 2016 season. Since then there have been five instances of teams outrushing opponents by over 300 yards in a single game. Of those five instances, four have come at the hands of Notre Dame. Last season, the Falcons out-ran West Virginia State by 315 yards. This season, NDC has accomplished this feat three times in its games against West Virginia Wesleyan (330), Concord (388) and West Liberty (429). No other team in MEC history has out-gained a conference opponent on the ground by more than 350 yards, something Notre Dame has done twice this year. West Virginia State is the only other team since 2016 to execute this achievement (WVSU out-ran Concord by 334 yards in their contest this year). Prior to Jacobs being named head coach, only two other teams had met this mark: Concord in 2015 against UVaWise (336) and Charleston in 2014 against Urbana (314). Notre Dame is the only program in the MEC to do this more than once.

Noting the Golden Eagles: Charleston is similar to Notre Dame in its rush defense as the Golden Ealges have allowed the second-fewest yards on the ground in the MEC (690) behind NDC (611). UC has done this mainly due to their ability to get stops in the backfield. Their 371 yards lost rushing is tied for most in the leage with UVa-Wise. The Charleston offense is also used to seeing stops behind the line of scrimmage, though, as they have lost 401 yards rushing this year. No other team in the MEC has lost more than 331 yards on the ground. UC's 1,383 net yards rushing does rank fourth in the MEC, however.

By the Numbers

2: Players in the MEC with more than 15 punt return attempts. Mar- velle Ross leads the conference with 17 returns, 353 yards and 3 TDs. Charleston's Kane Roush is second in the leage in return attempts at 15, but ranks sixth in punt return yards at 108.

2: Games this season NDC has not gained a turnover (Fairmont State, Wesleyan). After the Fairmont State game, Notre Dame forced five turn- overs against Urbana with two fumble recoveries and three interceptions.

3: Games this season NDC has not forced a fumble (Concord, Fairmont State, Wesleyan). Previously, in the games following those zero sum contests, NDC has forced and recovered at least two fumbles.

31: Yards rushing needed by Jaleel McLaughlin to break the NDC single-season record set by Pedro Powell in 2012. McLaughlin currently has 1,427 yards. Powell's mark stands at 1,457.