This Week: The Notre Dame College football team hosts Slippery Rock in the NCAA Division II Football Quarterfinals on Saturday, December 1, at 12 p.m. 

Records: Notre Dame College is 12-0 after completing a perfect 11-0 regular season and defeating Hillsdale in the Second Round of the NCAA Division II Playoffs 19-14. Slippery Rock is 11-2 after making the playoffs with a 9-2 record and winning at LIU Post 20-14 in the First Round and at New Haven 59-20 in the Second Round.

Coaches Corner: Mike Jacobs is in his third year as the head coach of the NDC football program. He has an overall record of 29-5. Shawn Lutz is also in his third season at the helm of his team at Slippery Rock. Lutz holds a record of 26-9.

Rankings: Notre Dame was ranked No. 11 in the November 12 AFCA Coaches' Poll. The team moved up two spots after being ranked No. 13 last week. NDC debuted at No. 23 on September 24 before moving up to 20, 17, 14, 14, and 13. The Falcons are also the top ranked team in the Super Region One for the third-straight week. Slippery Rock received votes in the final rankings.

Series History: This is the first game in which these teams will meet.

Falcons Road to Quarterfinals: Notre Dame started its season off with a 35-33 upset against the reigning Mountain East Conference Champions, No. 16 Shepherd. The upset win jump started NDC's unde- feated regular season on its way to becoming just the third team in MEC history to win the conference title. The Falcons won multiple shootouts in the first half of the season, with exciting wins against West Virginia State (33-31) and Fairmont State (24-21). After defeating FSU, who would later finish second in the conference, Notre Dame would go on a role defensively, holding opponents to an average 9.8 points per game in its final five regular-season games. The Falcons have also establish themselves as comeback artists, winning four games after trailing at halftime and four after trailing to start the fourth quarter. NDC was the top-ranked team in each of the regional rankings that came out throughout the end of the season before earning the top seed and first-round bye when the NCAA announced the field. In the Second Round, NDC got off to a 10-0 start before giving up 14-straight points in the third quarter to trail by four heading into the final 15 minutes. The Falcons scored nine points in less than three minutes to end the game and win 19-14.

Jacobs Versus the Rock: During head coach Mike Jacobs time as an assistant coach at Cal. Pa., he played Slippery Rock six times, splitting the series 3-3. Jacobs started off strong against the Rock as he and the Vulcans won in 2008, 2009 and 2010, but the tides changed in his last three seasons at Cal. Pa. as Slippery Rock took its turn to win three straight in 2011, 2012 and 2013. Also during Jacobs time at California, he went 6-4 in the playoffs, which included a 2-0 record in the Regional Championship. Now, as a head coach, he will look to stay perfect in Quar- terfinal competition.

The Rock's Road to the Quarterfinals: Slippery Rock lost its second game of the season in a close 25-21 game at Shippensburg to start the year off 1-1. After that Week 2 loss, the Rock went on an eight-game winning streak that included all seven of their conference games. During that span of wins, only one game was closer than 15 points. The close win was a statement as Slippery Rock defeated No. 14 Indiana (Pa.) on the road 30-27. The Rock would only lose one other game prior to the NCAA Division II Playoffs. In the PSAC Championship, SRU lost 33-10 to West Chester at home. Slippery Rock kept up with its upset winning ways on the road in the playoffs, defeating No. 13 LIU Post 20-14 and New Haven 59-20 away from home. As the No. 7 seed in the Super Region 1, SRU had beaten the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds.

Second Half Opening Drives: Notre Dame has won the pregame coin toss eight times this season and chosen to defer to the second half seven of those eight times. Overall, due to Concord electing to receive in the first half in Week 4, the Falcons have started off with the ball in the third quarter eight times. NDC has scored on six of those eight second-half opening drives. Of the eight times opponents have started the first half receiving a kick, the Notre Dame defense has held its ground to not allow any points on opening drives in the first quarter.

Red Hot Red Zone Defense: Notre Dame finished the season as the top-ranked red-zone defense in the nation, stopping opponents on half of all attempts inside the 20-yard line. The Falcons stopped offenses 15 times on 30 attempts throughout the year. The defense stopped teams six times on missed field goals, four times with interceptions, three times forcing fumbles and twice on downs in the regular season. NDC kept this going in its first playoff game against Hillsdale, stopping the Chargers on three of their four red zone attempts. Hillsdale lost two fumbles on the one-yard line in the contest and ran out of time in the fourth quarter on their third attempt.

Playoff History: This is the first NCAA postseason appearance for the Notre Dame football program, but it is the seventh for Slippery Rock. The Rock have made the playoffs four times in the last seix seasons after earning a spot in the postseason three years straight from 2013-15. Prior to this season, SRU was 0-6 on the road in the playoffs, but the Rock have won two this year. Overall, Slippery Rock holds a 7-6 record in the Division II playoffs.

Something Old, Something New: The Slippery Rock football played its first game in 1898, 24 years before Notre Dame College was established in 1922 and 112 years before NDC sported an official football team in 2010. The Falcons had a club team in 2009.

Breakin' All the Rules: After playing the second-least penalized team in Division II last week (Hillsdale has just 37 penalties prior to the game), Notre Dame welcomes the most penalized team in the DII ranks. Not only does Slippery Rocks 129 penalties and 1,298 penalty yards lead Division II, but they lead the entire NCAA. The Rock are the only team in Division I, II or III to have more than 120 penalties and 1,200 penalty yards. SRU has given up 41 first downs on penalties this season. The second-most penalized team in Division II, Bowie State (120 penalites), also made the playoffs and won in the First Round before losing 66-16 to Valdosta State last week.

Trial Run: There is a pattern to Slippery Rock's two losses this season. Both came in the only two games SRU failed to gain 100 yards on the ground. In their loss to Shippensburg, the Rock were helf to just 45 yards rushing, and in their loss to West Chester, SRU gained only 98 yards running the ball. This week, Slippery Rock will be going up against the second-best rush defense in Division II as the Falcons have only allowed an average of 62.6 yards per game rushing. The Falcons have only allowed their opponents to run for more than 100 yards three times this season against West Virginia State (150), Fairmont State (117) and Urbana (156). Eight times this year, NDC has help opponents to fewer than 60 yards on the ground. In the last five games played by Notre Dame, the Falcons opponents have ran for these marks: -5, 37, 53, 52 and -2 (a 27.0 yard-per-game average).

In the 10 games Slippery Rock has gained over 100 yards rushing, they have had a long of over 20 yards. In the two games they were held under 100 yards their longest rush was 11 against Shippensburg and 15 against West Chester. Notre Dame has only allowed a run over 20 yards twice this season.

Total Offense, Total Defense: Notre Dame (462.8) and Slippery Rock (463.5) are the 18th and 17th ranked offenses in Division II by total yardage per game, respectively. Just 0.7 yards apart, these teams are two of just 19 in DII to gain over 460 yards per game. The programs are also right next to each other in total defense. Slippery Rock allows 329.6 yards per game while NDC allows 329.8.

Forcing Punts: Both defenses have force their opponents to punt 75 times this season. NDC has a total of 444 punt return yards while SRU has 445. But Notre Dame has only returned 29 punts compared to Slippery Rock's 38.

Fumbling: Slippery Rock has fumbled 26 times this season, but has only lost eight of those fumbles; likewise the SRU opponents have fumbled 26 times, losing only nine. When opponents fumble against Notre Dame, the Falcons recover the ball 78.3 percent of the time (18 of 23). NDC's 18 fumble recoveries leads all of Division I and II.

By the Numbers

1,000: Yards receiving eclipsed by junior Marvelle Ross. Ross is just the second player in NDC history to record over 1,000 yards receiving after Mitchell Shegos did it three times ('14, '15, '16).

2,000: Yards rushing eclipsed by true-freshman running back Jaleel McLaughlin last week. McLaughlin is the first in Notre Dame and Mountain East Confererence history to break that mark. McLaughlin's 2,074 yards is most by a freshman in DII history, breaking Joique Bell's 2,065 set in 2006.

2,462: All-purpose yards gained by Joique Bell in 2006, setting the totalyards record for a freshman in a single season. Jaleel McLaughlin cur- rently has 2,305, a 157-yard difference.

4,112: All-purpose yards gained by teammates Brian Shay and Chet Pobolish of Emporia State in 1996, setting the record for most all-purpose yards gained by two teammates. Marvelle Ross and Jaleel McLaughlin are currently combined for 3,973 yards, a 139-yard difference.