This Week: The Notre Dame College football team travels to Slippery Rock Univeristy for an NCAA Football Playoffs Quarterfinal contest on Saturday, December 7. Kickoff for the Super Region 1 Championship is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. 

Records: Notre Dame is 12-1 (9-1 MEC) after a 20-17 road win at Kutztown in the Second Round of the NCAA Playoffs. Slippery Rock is 12-0 (7-0 PSAC) after defeating Shepherd 51-30.

Coaches Corner: Mike Jacobs is in his fourth year as the head coach of the NDC football program. He has an overall record of 41-7 (36-5 MEC). Jacobs was named MEC Coach of the Year in both 2018 and 2019. Shawn Lutz is also in his fourth season at Slippery Rock, and has also been named Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2019 (PSAC West). He currently holds a record of 38-10

Rankings: Notre Dame was ranked No. 13 in the AFCA Coaches' Poll released November 18. This was the Falcons 20th-straight week in the top 25. Slippery Rock was ranked No. 8 in the poll. NDC earned a No. 3 seed in the Super Region 1 playoff positioning while SRU earned the No. 1 seed. This is NDC's first game of 2019 playing a higher-ranked opponent based on the AFCA poll.

Series History: A rematch of the 2018 NCAA Quarterfinal, the Falcons and Rock meet again in the Super Region 1 Championship this Saturday. Last season, NDC won the only contest between the two programs to earn a 1-0 record against Slippery Rock, and advance to the NCAA Semifinals. SRU went up 3-0 early before Notre Dame scored two-straight touchdowns, including a 22-yard run by Jaleel McLaughlin, to go up 14-3. The teams traded passing TDs, both within the final 2:06 of the first half, to make it 21-10 in favor of the Falcons at halftime. The home game for Notre Dame was highlighted just before the half with a 52-yard pass from Chris Brimm to Marvelle Ross with 22 seconds on the clock. Slippery Rock scored the only points in the second half on a 19-yard run, but was unable to catch up to the lead built by NDC. The Falcons won 21-17. McLaughlin finished the game with 172 yards rushing while Ross led both teams with 122 yards receiving. SRU quarterback, Roland Rivers III threw for 177 yards, one touchdown and one interception. The NDC defense was able to record four sacks.

Playoff History: Last season, Notre Dame earned an NCAA Playoff berth for the first time in program history. The Falcons earned the No. 1 seed in 2018, giving them a first-round bye. NDC went on to defeat Hillsdale (19-14) and Slippery Rock (21-17) to win the region before falling at Valdosta State (30-24) in the NCAA Semifinals. This year NDC earned the No. 3 seed and won its First Round game against West Chester as well as its Second Round game at Kutztown. The Kutztown win gave the Falcons their first ever road playoff victory. Head Coach Mike Jacobs is now 4-1 in the postseason, including 3-0 at home and 3-0 against teams in the PSAC (overall, Jacobs is 4-0 against PSAC schools during his tenure). Slippery Rock earned its eighth NCAA DII Playoff appearance in 2019, and its second under head coach Shawn Lutz. SRU is now 8-7 in the playoffs, including 0-2 against MEC teams.

Noting the Falcons: For the second-straight week, Notre Dame secured a playoff win as time expired. In the First Round, the NDC defense held tough against West Chester in the Golden Rams final drive of the game, stopping WCU at the one-yard line twice before time expired on the final play. In the Second Round, Notre Dame hit a 30-yard field goal to go up by three as the clock ran down to zero. Notre Dame has now won all four of its Super Region 1 Playoff games. The Falcons keep things close in the postseason as each of their five playoff contests have been decided by one possession. With scores differentials of five, four, -six, seven and three, the average margin is just five points.

Noting the Rock: The Slippery Rock offense is one of the most potent in NCAA Division II. Overall, SRU ranks fifth in total offense with 6,128 yards. Led by senior quarterback Roland Rivers III, who ranks first in pass efficiency (189.70) and passing touchdowns (44), the Rock also rank second in scoring offense with 47.3 points per game. With 311 first downs this season (fifth in DII), a third-down conversion rate of 52.3 percent (third in DII) and just 13 turnovers lost (17th in DII), the Slippery Rock offense has been difficult to get off the field. The only thing that has slowed SRU down this season is their ability to draw penalties. Slippery Rock is the most penalized team in Division II with 135 penalties and 1,264 penalty yards, both worst in the country. The Rock is one of just two teams in the nation to average over 100 yards of penalties per game.


Jacobs vs Slippery Rock: Notre Dame head coach Mike Jacobs spent six seasons as a defensive lineman coach at Cal (Pa.) and during that time faced Slippery Rock six times. The Vulcans won in '08, '09 and '10 before losing the following three seasons. Jacobs left Cal with a 3-3 record against the Rock, and after last season's playoff victory, he is 4-3 in games coached against SRU.

Given the Greene Light: Two games into the NCAA Division II Playoffs, senior running back Ladennyawn Greene has yet to be brought down behind the line of scrimmage. He leads the Falcons this postseason with 226 yards and two touchdowns. With 28 carries over the first two rounds, Greene has not been stopped in the backfield. His last loss of yards came in the first quarter of NDC's Week 11 game at West Virginia State. Since then he has 36-straight attempts without a loss of yards. Over those 36 carries, he has gained 247 yards for an average of 6.9 yards per attempt.

Breaking Ground: In just his sophomore season, running back Jaleel McLaughlin is continuing to break records at the program, conference and national levels. This season McLaughlin has not only become the second-ever DII player to rush for back-to-back 2,000-yard seasons, but he was also the first (at any NCAA level) to do so in his freshman and sophomore years. McLaughlin broke the MEC rushing record, and continues to set a new pace with every yard gained. Last week he became the conference leader in yet another category. McLaughlin is now tied for the most 100-yard rushing game in the MEC with 23. After tying the freshman record of 12 games gaining 100 or more yards last season, he has added 11 this year to tie the Mountain East mark (the NCAA record is 37). McLaughlin also became the third player in conference history to gain over 5,000 career all-purose yards after NDC wide receiver Marvelle Ross was the second to do it earlier this season. McLaughlin now needs just 164 yards to break the Notre Dame rushing record of 4,774 set by Pedro Powell.

Century Mark: Linebackers Nathan Moore and Guam Lee have now both surpassed 100 tackles on the season, becoming the third and fourth players in program history to record more than 100 stops in a single season. They are the first teammates to do it in the same year at NDC as they have combined for 213 total tackles. Accounting for assisted tackles, at least on of the duo has been in on 156 of NDC's 725 defensive stops this season (21.5 percent).

By the Numbers

4: Interceptions hauled in by the Notre Dame defense against West Chester last week. That tied the program record set in 2014 at Fairmont State.

45: Passes defended by defensive back Jeffrey Thomas. Thomas needs just three more to break the Mountain East Conference record.

2,190: Rushing yards gained by Jaleel McLaughlin this season, ranking 14th in the Division II single-season rushing records. McLaughlin's 2,421 yards last season was fourth-most.

5,206: All-purpose yards gained by Marvelle Ross this season, which broke the NDC program record last week.