The Irish Illustrated team has its finger on the pulse of Notre Dame transfer portal news, recruiting, coaching staff moves and more after the Irish lost to Ohio State in the CFP National Championship

The Notre Dame football program came up just short on Monday night in the College Football Playoff national title game against Ohio State. Still, it was a fantastic season, especially after an early upset loss to Northern Illinois in South Bend.

With the news that Notre Dame football defensive coordinator Al Golden was taking the Cincinnati Bengals DC position, it left the Irish with a fairly sizable hole that needed to be filled.

The Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator job has been open for more than two weeks now, but there hasn't been much movement on a possible hiring and now we know why: The team was waiting for Notre Dame to finish its season.

Notre Dame (14-2) led the nation with 33 takeaways, scored six defensive touchdowns and led all Power Four teams in turnover margin (plus-18).

Ohio State and Notre Dame are two of the biggest brands in college football, but the television ratings weren’t exactly indicative of that. The game had 22.1 million viewers, and peaked with 26.1 million viewers in the 8:30-8:45 p.

ESPN announced an average of 22.1 million viewers tuned in to watch Ohio State beat Notre Dame 34-23 in championship game for the College Football