The ESPN college football bowl season picks up with the Pinstripe Bowl from Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish taking on the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a classic matchup and the game will be starting up at 12 pm noon on TV and will be streaming online from the WatchESPN website and is not the first time that ND has played in a baseball stadium and gives Brian Kelly a chance to end the season on a high note.
Tommy Rees comes into the game after tossing for 199 yards against Stanford in the regular season finale, but he also had two picks in the game and Notre Dame ended up losing after making a comeback in the fourth quarter and he had two turnovers late in the game that ended things and the team lost 27-20 on the day to the Cardinal. Stanford now heads to the Rose Bowl and ND is in the Pinstripe Bowl after being in the national championship game last season. One of the biggest reasons for the fall off was the loss of Everett Golson for academic issues and now he is set to return to the team next season after taking them to the national title game against Alabama.
Notre Dame is ranked in the top 25 this season in the final spot after being one of the best teams in the nation late year and now they play against Rutgers in the bowl game after previously facing off against the Crimson Tide for the national championship last season. The Irish come into the game ranked in the top 25 at number 25 in the AP poll and they are 8-4 on the season and the defense ranks 31st in the nation in scoring with 22 points allowed per game and the offense has been solid, scoring nearly 30 points per game and the team comes in having lost two of the past three games and their last win was a victory against BYU in a close game at home and the two games around it were losses, both on the road against Pitt first before falling against number eight ranked Stanford and now they will face off against Michigan State in the BCS.
Check here for the Notre Dame and Rutgers live coverage.
Notre Dame had some nice wins this season against Arizona State while they were ranked as well as Michigan State and now that victory over the Spartans looks very good, as they are in the BCS and will be playing against Stanford and that was a quality win for Notre Dame, but they followed that up with a tough loss against Oklahoma and now the Sooners will be playing in the Sugar Bowl against the Alabama Crimson Tide and that could be one of the best BCS games on the schedule and after losing that game, the Irish won four straight games before losing to Pitt and now the team has Rutgers on the schedule.
Notre Dame comes into the Pinstripe Bowl over a Big 12 team after the conference ran out of bowl eligible schools and the Irish lucked out that Oklahoma defeated Oklahoma State, getting themselves into a BCS game and out of the equation. Rutgers comes into the game having lost three of four and they got into the postseason with a win over USF and that game saw Paul James rush for over 110 yards and he also scored two touchdowns in the bowl eligible clinching victory.
