One of the major sports news stories in recent weeks has been Texas
Tech basketball coach Bobby Knight's quest to become the winningest
coach in the history of major college basketball. As it stands, Knight
is tied with Dean Smith and his next victory will make him the first
major college coach to win as many as 880 games. Through the years
Knight has earned his fair share of critics, as well as fans, but he
has always seemed to have a degree of historical perspective about the
game of basketball, and the profession of coaching in general. It is
interesting to note, then, that Knight has been quoted in the past as
saying that he never saw a better coach anywhere than the great Ara
Parseghian.
Previous emails have discussed Parseghian's strong suits, particularly
his ability to place talented athletes into the positions in which
their skills would allow them to shine most brightly. Parseghian was a
masterful tactician as well, however, and frequently left opposing
coaches flummoxed with his game calling. One such game was one of the
biggest in Parseghian's amazing career at Notre Dame, the 1973 Sugar
Bowl.
Played on December 31, 1973 on the slippery artificial turf at old
Tulane Stadium, that year's Sugar Bowl staged a contest between #1
Alabama and #3 Notre Dame. With the national championship potentially
at stake for both teams, Parseghian and legendary Alabama coach Paul
"Bear" Bryant dug in for a titanic clash.
The game was hard-fought throughout, but the Irish game plan seemed to
keep the Crimson Tide off balance throughout the night. Irish return
man Al Hunter took a second quarter kickoff back 93 yards for a
touchdown, powering Notre Dame to a 14-10 halftime lead. After the
teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter, the Irish still led 21-17
going into the final period. Early in the fourth, Alabama HB Mike
Stock converted a 25-yard TD pass to backup QB Richard Todd, giving the
Tide a 23-21 lead. Their kicker missed the critical point after
touchdown, however, leaving N.D. trailing only by two points.
On the very next drive, the Irish converted a field goal to reclaim the
lead, 24-23, the sixth time the teams had traded the lead in the game.
On the following series, Alabama was forced to punt, but their punter
Greg Gantt boomed nearly a 70-yard punt to pin the Irish on their own
two-yard line late in the game. With the ball, the Irish gained eight
yards on their first two plays, leaving them third and two for a first
down and, presumably, a victory. On third down, however, a false start
was called, pushing the ball back five yards, giving the Irish a
prickly third and long on their own five-yard line.
At this point conventional wisdom would have dictated that the Irish
run the ball to set up a punt and then hope that the defense could hold
off the Tide offense. Instead, Parseghian called a brilliant pass
play. On a play-action pass designed to go to TE Dave Casper, Irish QB
Tom Clements hit a wide open WR Robin Weber for a 36-yard play with
2:12 remaining. The completion remains to this day one of the most
famous plays in N.D. football history. Near midfield, the Irish were
able to run off the remaining time on the clock and claim victory.
After the game, Parseghian stated that the penalty on the play previous
to Clements's famous pass was actually a blessing in disguise,
admitting that the Irish would have run the ball on third and short.
Bryant said that the Tide never even considered that the Irish would
throw from their own five-yard line on third and long, and he praised
Parseghian's perspicacity. As a result of N.D.'s hard fought victory,
they won the 1973 national championship, Parseghian's second in ten
seasons as Irish head coach.
Thirty-three years later, that 24-23 victory in the 1973 Sugar Bowl
still stands as one of N.D.'s defining victories. This week, the Irish
look to notch another defining victory as this year's group of seniors
looks to end the program's record eight game bowl losing streak. In
the program's fourth-ever trip to the Sugar Bowl, the Irish will find
on the opposing sideline a formidable foe in the #4 ranked Louisiana
State Tigers, a team that features one of the nation's great defenses,
as well as an offense led by QB JaMarcus Russell.
Notre Dame and Louisiana State have an interesting history on the
gridiron. The series started in 1970, when the #2 Irish hosted the #7
Tigers and won a defensive battle, 3-0. Since then the schools have
played eight additional times. Overall, the Irish hold a 5-4-0 record
in games played between the schools. More often than not, games in
this series have been close, with the winning team only having a
10-point margin of victory historically. In 1997, the Irish traveled
to #15 LSU and won, 24-6. Later that same season, the teams met again
in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport. The Tigers exacted revenge in
that game, winning 27-9 in front a partisan crowd of Tiger fans.
In the last game between these schools, in 1998, the Irish hosted the
Tigers at Notre Dame Stadium for the first time since 1986, winning
39-36. Irish fans will remember that Bob Davie's time management
incompetence was on display once again, as Jarious Jackson was forced
to take a safety late in the game to run out the clock. Jackson
sustained a knee injury on the play, forcing him out of the
season-ending game against Southern Cal, a game the Trojans won, 10-0.
Of interest is that this will be the third consecutive season in which
the Irish will appear in a bowl game. Notre Dame last accomplished the
feat when the Irish went to bowl games in nine consecutive seasons
between 1987 and 1995.
Other notes:
-Notre Dame has won eleven games in a season on five separate
occasions: 1973 (11-0), 1977 (11-1), 1988 (12-0), 1989 (12-1), and 1993
(11-1). Conversely, the Irish have finished with a 10-3 record only
twice: 1991 (the year in which the Irish last won the Sugar Bowl) and
2002.
-Notre Dame's record in bowl games stands at 13-14. The Irish have
lost eight consecutive bowl games, tying the NCAA record for bowl game
futility.
-Notre Dame's last bowl victory came on January 1, 1994 in the Cotton
Bowl following the 1993 season. In that game, the #4 Irish defeated #7
Texas A&M, 24-21. That victory capped an 11-1 season and a final #2
ranking for the Irish.
-Since the 1993 season, the Irish have finished only one season with a
victory in their final game. That game was 2001's 24-18 victory at
Purdue.
-The Irish have played in the Sugar Bowl on three previous occasions,
where they have garnered a 2-1 record. The victories came in the
aforementioned contest in late 1973, as well as in 1992, in which the
#18 Irish defeated the #3 Florida Gators, 39-28. Notre Dame's Sugar
Bowl loss came on January 1, 1981 in Dan Devine's final game as head
coach. The #7 Irish put up a gallant fight against eventual national
champion Georgia before the Herschel Walker-led Bulldogs prevailed,
17-10.
-Despite the illustrious histories of these two programs, Notre Dame
and Louisiana State have not played in a game in which both schools
were ranked since 1971. The schools are tied 1-1 in series games in
which both schools are ranked.
-These schools are not scheduled to meet again.
-With his 274-yard, 3-TD performance against Southern Cal, Irish QB
Brady Quinn now stands at #9 on the NCAA all-time TD passes list, and
#10 on the NCAA all-time passing yardage list.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college
football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand:
#3 Michigan's record stands at 860-281-36 for an all-time winning
percentage of .7460. The Wolverines face #8 Southern Cal in the Rose
Bowl on New Year's Day.
#11 Notre Dame's record stands at 821-268-42 for an all-time winning
percentage of .7445. The Irish face #4 Louisiana State in the Sugar
Bowl on January 3.
Michigan's lead stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
Brady Quinn and his classmates get one final appearance as football
players at Notre Dame in this season's Sugar Bowl. Here's hoping that
they go out as winners. The game kicks off at 8:00 E.S.T. on Fox next
Wednesday night. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Go Irish! Beat Tigers!
Big Mike
One additional note: condolences to the family of President Gerald
Ford, who passed away this week at the age of 93. A varsity football
player at Michigan, Ford was a student of Fielding Yost (no one's
perfect), and a star lineman on the gridiron. After graduating from
Michigan, he went on to serve as an assistant coach at Yale while
working on his law degree. In doing this, he turned down several
offers from professional teams. As president, he spoke at Notre Dame
in the spring of 1975 and was conferred an honorary doctorate on that
occasion. Later, after leaving the White House, he was granted an
Honorary Monogram from Notre Dame, certainly a unique privilege for a
former Michigan football player! The nation's longest-lived Chief
Executive, he was a humble servant of the American people and will be
missed.
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Friday, December 29, 2006
Thursday, December 07, 2006
The BCS
Since Notre Dame's regular season is complete, and we're still a few
weeks away from N.D.'s match-up with Louisiana State, this week the
focus turns to the Bowl Championship Series. This consortium of bowl
games and major football conferences has been a thorn in the side of
most college football fans since it debuted in 1998, replacing the Bowl
Alliance, which was a smaller version of the same system.
There seem to be two camps of college football fans. The first is
comprised of those who like the old system, where conference champions
were aligned to particular bowls and teams were matched up with little
regard for rankings. The chaos of New Year's Day, and the fact that
all the important games were played on that day, made it (for some) the
best day in sports. The other camp of college football fans thinks
there needs to be a championship tournament of some design to determine
a true national champion at season's end. Many Notre Dame fans in
particular seem to flock to this school of thought, as many think it
has become increasingly apparent that a widespread bias against the
Irish permeates the current system and will continue to undermine
N.D.'s ability to compete for the national title.
So, what might a system like this look like? Suspend your disbelief
for a few minutes, and discard considerations like the bowl game
traditions and so on.
Division I-A of the NCAA is comprised of 118 teams in 11 conferences. A
true national championship tournament should, theoretically at least,
give every team in Division I-A a chance to win the national
championship, just like in college basketball. The way to address this
would be to give each of the conference champions in Division I-A an
automatic berth into an NCAA-sanctioned college football tournament.
Since the 11 conference champions will not make for an even bracket, a
Selection Committee similar to the one the NCAA uses for its basketball
tournament would choose five at-large schools based upon a Ratings
Percentage Index (RPI) system comparable to the one used by the
selection committee in college basketball. (For those that don't know,
the RPI takes into account a team's own winning percentage, as well as
the winning percentage of its opponents and its opponents' opponents.)
Of course, there will be howls of protest from the teams who are passed
over for the final at-large spot, but I have less of a problem with a
team like 10-3 Arkansas being left out of the tournament, for example,
than an 11-1 Michigan squad not getting a shot at the national title in
the current system.
To facilitate a 16-team tournament, the NCAA would have to do several
things. First, they would have to take back the 12th game it gave to
schools, leaving teams to scale their schedules back to 10 or 11 games
in a season. Additionally, the NCAA could move the season up one
week, starting the weekend previous to Labor Day weekend, allowing the
regular season and conference championships to be completed by
Thanksgiving weekend. Then, a Division I-A championship tournament
sanctioned by the NCAA could commence during the first week of
December. During the first two weekends in December, games would be
staged at the home stadia of the higher-seeded teams in the bracket.
During the third week of December, the national semifinals could be
staged at any number of larger warm weather venues that the NCAA would
choose annually (e.g. the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and Dolphins Stadium
in Miami). Then, a bye would be provided (this could also be moved to
the third weekend, if final exams are a major concern) during the
fourth weekend in December. Finally, the national championship game
would be staged on January 1, at a venue determined by the NCAA (e.g.
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where this year's
BCS title game is being played).
So what would a bracket like this look like? To the best of my
knowledge, there is no official RPI system for college football right
now, so I used one of Jeff Sagarin's computer rankings to facilitate
the seeding of the teams for this year's "tournament." (Sagarin has
been doing computer rankings for years, and was selected for no other
reason than he's probably the best-known college football
statistician/computer ratings person.) The teams would be seeded as
such:
(1) Ohio State (12-0), Big Ten Champions
(2) Michigan (11-1), Big Ten (At-Large)
(3) Florida (12-1), SEC Champions
(4) Southern California (10-2), Pac-10 Champions
(5) Louisiana State (10-2), SEC (At-Large)
(6) Boise State (12-0), WAC Champions
(7) Auburn (10-2), SEC (At-Large)
(8) Wisconsin (11-1), Big Ten (At-Large)
(9) Notre Dame (10-2), Independent (At-Large)
(10) Louisville (11-1), Big East Champions
(11) Oklahoma (10-2), Big XII Champions
(12) Wake Forest (11-2), ACC Champions
(13) Brigham Young (10-2), MWC Champions
(14) Houston (10-3), Conference USA Champions
(15) Central Michigan (9-4), MAC Champions
(16) Troy (7-5), Sun Belt Champions
A bracket of this year's "tournament" is attached to this email.
One can imagine the possibilities for such a system. Imagine how much
money the networks would pay for such a spectacle. In 1999, CBS paid
the NCAA $6 billion to cover the NCAA basketball tournament for 11
years. Given the "buzz" that a college football tournament would
create, one wonders how much the NCAA and its member institutions could
derive from it. Furthermore, conferences would benefit from the added
interest and ratings for their championship games. It is clear that
the current system is in place because it lines the coffers of athletic
departments throughout the country. An overhaul to the system,
however, might make everyone more money, which will ultimately benefit
student-athletes and universities, which is what it is supposed to be
about anyway.
Fans would be big beneficiaries as well, as the college football
champion would finally be determined on the playing field. This year,
if Michigan made it through its side of the bracket to play Ohio State
again, no one could refute the fact that they had earned a rematch.
What college football fan would miss any of these games, knowing that
any game's outcome could potentially have a bearing upon their team's
path to the national championship?
At any rate, this certainly isn't the only possible answer, but it
would help to allay the yearly arguments about who deserves to play
where and so on. If nothing else, consider it more grist for the mill
as the controversy in college football continues.
In the coming weeks, I'll touch upon the upcoming BCS games, in
particular Notre Dame's big match-up with Louisiana State, a team the
Irish have not played since 1998.
Go Irish! Beat Tigers!
Big Mike
originally published December 6, 2006
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
weeks away from N.D.'s match-up with Louisiana State, this week the
focus turns to the Bowl Championship Series. This consortium of bowl
games and major football conferences has been a thorn in the side of
most college football fans since it debuted in 1998, replacing the Bowl
Alliance, which was a smaller version of the same system.
There seem to be two camps of college football fans. The first is
comprised of those who like the old system, where conference champions
were aligned to particular bowls and teams were matched up with little
regard for rankings. The chaos of New Year's Day, and the fact that
all the important games were played on that day, made it (for some) the
best day in sports. The other camp of college football fans thinks
there needs to be a championship tournament of some design to determine
a true national champion at season's end. Many Notre Dame fans in
particular seem to flock to this school of thought, as many think it
has become increasingly apparent that a widespread bias against the
Irish permeates the current system and will continue to undermine
N.D.'s ability to compete for the national title.
So, what might a system like this look like? Suspend your disbelief
for a few minutes, and discard considerations like the bowl game
traditions and so on.
Division I-A of the NCAA is comprised of 118 teams in 11 conferences. A
true national championship tournament should, theoretically at least,
give every team in Division I-A a chance to win the national
championship, just like in college basketball. The way to address this
would be to give each of the conference champions in Division I-A an
automatic berth into an NCAA-sanctioned college football tournament.
Since the 11 conference champions will not make for an even bracket, a
Selection Committee similar to the one the NCAA uses for its basketball
tournament would choose five at-large schools based upon a Ratings
Percentage Index (RPI) system comparable to the one used by the
selection committee in college basketball. (For those that don't know,
the RPI takes into account a team's own winning percentage, as well as
the winning percentage of its opponents and its opponents' opponents.)
Of course, there will be howls of protest from the teams who are passed
over for the final at-large spot, but I have less of a problem with a
team like 10-3 Arkansas being left out of the tournament, for example,
than an 11-1 Michigan squad not getting a shot at the national title in
the current system.
To facilitate a 16-team tournament, the NCAA would have to do several
things. First, they would have to take back the 12th game it gave to
schools, leaving teams to scale their schedules back to 10 or 11 games
in a season. Additionally, the NCAA could move the season up one
week, starting the weekend previous to Labor Day weekend, allowing the
regular season and conference championships to be completed by
Thanksgiving weekend. Then, a Division I-A championship tournament
sanctioned by the NCAA could commence during the first week of
December. During the first two weekends in December, games would be
staged at the home stadia of the higher-seeded teams in the bracket.
During the third week of December, the national semifinals could be
staged at any number of larger warm weather venues that the NCAA would
choose annually (e.g. the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and Dolphins Stadium
in Miami). Then, a bye would be provided (this could also be moved to
the third weekend, if final exams are a major concern) during the
fourth weekend in December. Finally, the national championship game
would be staged on January 1, at a venue determined by the NCAA (e.g.
University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where this year's
BCS title game is being played).
So what would a bracket like this look like? To the best of my
knowledge, there is no official RPI system for college football right
now, so I used one of Jeff Sagarin's computer rankings to facilitate
the seeding of the teams for this year's "tournament." (Sagarin has
been doing computer rankings for years, and was selected for no other
reason than he's probably the best-known college football
statistician/computer ratings person.) The teams would be seeded as
such:
(1) Ohio State (12-0), Big Ten Champions
(2) Michigan (11-1), Big Ten (At-Large)
(3) Florida (12-1), SEC Champions
(4) Southern California (10-2), Pac-10 Champions
(5) Louisiana State (10-2), SEC (At-Large)
(6) Boise State (12-0), WAC Champions
(7) Auburn (10-2), SEC (At-Large)
(8) Wisconsin (11-1), Big Ten (At-Large)
(9) Notre Dame (10-2), Independent (At-Large)
(10) Louisville (11-1), Big East Champions
(11) Oklahoma (10-2), Big XII Champions
(12) Wake Forest (11-2), ACC Champions
(13) Brigham Young (10-2), MWC Champions
(14) Houston (10-3), Conference USA Champions
(15) Central Michigan (9-4), MAC Champions
(16) Troy (7-5), Sun Belt Champions
A bracket of this year's "tournament" is attached to this email.
One can imagine the possibilities for such a system. Imagine how much
money the networks would pay for such a spectacle. In 1999, CBS paid
the NCAA $6 billion to cover the NCAA basketball tournament for 11
years. Given the "buzz" that a college football tournament would
create, one wonders how much the NCAA and its member institutions could
derive from it. Furthermore, conferences would benefit from the added
interest and ratings for their championship games. It is clear that
the current system is in place because it lines the coffers of athletic
departments throughout the country. An overhaul to the system,
however, might make everyone more money, which will ultimately benefit
student-athletes and universities, which is what it is supposed to be
about anyway.
Fans would be big beneficiaries as well, as the college football
champion would finally be determined on the playing field. This year,
if Michigan made it through its side of the bracket to play Ohio State
again, no one could refute the fact that they had earned a rematch.
What college football fan would miss any of these games, knowing that
any game's outcome could potentially have a bearing upon their team's
path to the national championship?
At any rate, this certainly isn't the only possible answer, but it
would help to allay the yearly arguments about who deserves to play
where and so on. If nothing else, consider it more grist for the mill
as the controversy in college football continues.
In the coming weeks, I'll touch upon the upcoming BCS games, in
particular Notre Dame's big match-up with Louisiana State, a team the
Irish have not played since 1998.
Go Irish! Beat Tigers!
Big Mike
originally published December 6, 2006
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Notre Dame at 10-2
The 2006 regular season has drawn to a close. What to make of it?
Certainly, going into the season fans of the Irish had high
expectations, as did the national media that ranked Notre Dame #2 in
the pre-season polls. Indeed, the program's twelfth national
championship was hoped for and dreamed about as Brady Quinn led the
Irish into the program's 118th season of college football. After a
tough and hard-fought 14-10 win at Georgia Tech to open the season, the
Irish offense came alive in week 2 against an overmatched Penn State
squad, winning 41-17 in the Lions' first visit to N.D. since 1992.
The week following, in a game that will long plague fans of the Irish,
Michigan traveled to South Bend and administered a thorough beat-down
to the Irish, 47-21, in the Wolverines' first win at N.D. since 1994.
Brady Quinn's Heisman Trophy hopes for the season all but evaporated in
the 80-degree temperatures of that day, as he threw three interceptions
and had a late fumble returned for a touchdown by the Wolverines'
opportunistic defense. Notre Dame looked lackluster in a loss that
caught many by surprise after the Irish had won at Michigan the
previous season.
With a dose of humility provided by the annual tilt with Michigan, the
Irish continued with their national title hopes severely compromised.
The following week, it looked as though an underdog Michigan State
squad would ruin Notre Dame's season yet again. With the Irish down
37-20 going into the fourth quarter, Quinn engineered a classic
comeback, capped by Terrail Lambert's interception return for the
go-ahead touchdown, as the Irish came from 17 points down to win,
40-37. Home wins against traditional foe Purdue (35-21) and an
overmatched Stanford (31-10) allowed the Irish to crawl out a bit from
the hole that they had dug for themselves against Michigan. At the
season's midpoint, their record stood at a respectable 5-1.
Following a bye week, the Irish looked asleep at the wheel again, this
time in UCLA's first visit to South Bend since 1964. Quinn provided
the heroics once more, however, completing a long touchdown pass to
Jeff Samardzija with only seconds remaining to give the Irish an
improbable 20-17 victory. In Notre Dame's 43rd consecutive victory
over Navy, Quinn and the offense put on an impressive display,
outclassing the Middies, 38-14 in Baltimore. Wins over North Carolina
(45-26), at Air Force (39-17), and Army (41-9) brought the Irish to the
brink of the season's end with an impressive 10-1 record.
In the final game of the season, the Irish headed out to Los Angeles
for their annual clash with arch-rival Southern California. After the
heartbreaking defeat at the hands of the Trojans last season, the Irish
were looking to win their first game over Southern Cal in five
attempts. Just like in the Michigan game, however, the Irish looked
outmanned by the Trojans' formidable talent and depth. Although Notre
Dame made a game of it, the Trojans won going away, 44-24, the third
straight loss of 20 points or more for the Irish in games at Southern
Cal.
Now, Notre Dame sits at 10-2, only the second time the program has had
that record at the end of a regular season (along with 2002). Charlie
Weis has led the Irish to a 19-5 (.792) record in his first 24 games,
the best record for an Irish coach at this point in his career since
Ara Parseghian started 20-3-1 (.854) between 1964 and 1966.
Furthermore, the Irish have scored more points (829) through 24 games
for Weis than for any Notre Dame coach since Jesse Harper, whose teams
scored 833 points in his first 24 games (1913-1915). The 563 points
given up by Weis's Irish, however, is an all-time worst for a coach
through his first 24 games, belying the fact that recruiting on that
side of the ball needs to be shored up, and that changes in the
defensive staff may be called for. Overall, the 266 points by which
the Irish have outscored their opponents through Weis's first 24 games
is the best for an Irish coach at this point since Parseghian's 514
points.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
At 10-2 and currently ranked #10 in the BCS ratings, Notre Dame appears
headed to one of this year's major bowl games. At this point, it looks
like there are four possible match-ups for the Irish, in either the
Rose Bowl or, more likely, the Sugar Bowl. These potential opponents
are:
-Arkansas Razorbacks (10-2, #9 BCS, #8 AP, #8 Coaches): Winners of this
year's West Division of the Southeastern Conference, the Razorbacks
feature TB Darren McFadden, considered a potential finalist for the
Heisman Trophy ceremony. Arkansas's two losses both came at home, to
#2 Southern Cal (50-14) and last weekend to #5 Louisiana State (31-26).
The biggest wins of their season were at #11 Auburn (a 27-10 win) and
at home against #17 Tennessee (31-14). The Irish likely would only
face Arkansas, a team they have never played, if the Razorbacks defeat
Florida in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta this weekend.
-Florida Gators (11-1, #4 BCS, #4 AP, #4 Coaches): Florida won the
always competitive East Division of the SEC this season and feature
former Irish recruit QB Chris Leak. Leak was considered by many a
Heisman candidate at season's start, but not as much now. Florida's
lone loss was at #11 Auburn, 27-17. Their biggest wins were at #17
Tennessee (21-20) and at home against #5 Louisiana State (23-10).
Florida's head coach is Urban Meyer, whom Notre Dame reportedly pursued
after the firing of Ty Willingham, which would make for a media circus
to be sure. For the Irish to play the Gators, Florida will likely need
to defeat Arkansas on Saturday night.
-Louisiana State Tigers (10-2, #5 BCS, #5 AP, #5 Coaches): LSU has
survived the minefield of the SEC regular season and, unlike Arkansas,
has the benefit of not having to play in the conference championship
game. If Arkansas loses on Saturday night, the Tigers could step in
and take a berth in the Rose Bowl. Winners of the BCS in 2003, LSU
this year is led by QB JaMarcus Russell. LSU's two losses came at #11
Auburn (7-3) and at #4 Florida (23-10). Their biggest wins came at #17
Tennessee (28-24) and last weekend at #8 Arkansas (31-26). An Irish
meeting with LSU would have to come in the Rose Bowl.
-Michigan Wolverines (11-1, #3 BCS, #3 AP, #3 Coaches): Like LSU,
Michigan did not win its conference, but seems certain to receive a
berth in the BCS. Of course the Wolverines and Irish have met once
already this season, a 47-21 victory at N.D. for Michigan. Michigan's
sole loss came at #1 Ohio State (42-39). Their biggest wins came at
#12 Notre Dame and at home against 11-1 #7 Wisconsin (27-13). The
Irish could possibly face the Wolverines in the Rose Bowl, but it seems
unlikely because the BCS normally eschews rematches.
Regardless of where the Irish end up and whom they play, Weis and this
year's seniors will look to end the program's eight-game bowl losing
streak which started at the end of the 1994 season in a 41-24 loss to
Colorado. Doing so would vanquish some of the pain from this season’s
two defeats.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-Notre Dame last finished a regular season 10-2 in 2002. They followed
it up with a 28-6 loss to North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl.
-With his 274-yard, 3-TD performance on Saturday against Southern Cal,
Irish QB Brady Quinn moved up to #9 on the NCAA all-time TD passes
list, and #10 on the NCAA all-time passing yardage list.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college
football’s all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand:
#3 Michigan’s season is complete. Their record stands at 860-281-36
for an all-time winning percentage of .7460.
#6 Notre Dame lost at #3 Southern Cal, 44-24, dropping their record to
821-268-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7445. #12 Notre
Dame’s regular season is complete.
Michigan’s lead stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
Go Irish!
Big Mike
originally published November 29, 2006
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Certainly, going into the season fans of the Irish had high
expectations, as did the national media that ranked Notre Dame #2 in
the pre-season polls. Indeed, the program's twelfth national
championship was hoped for and dreamed about as Brady Quinn led the
Irish into the program's 118th season of college football. After a
tough and hard-fought 14-10 win at Georgia Tech to open the season, the
Irish offense came alive in week 2 against an overmatched Penn State
squad, winning 41-17 in the Lions' first visit to N.D. since 1992.
The week following, in a game that will long plague fans of the Irish,
Michigan traveled to South Bend and administered a thorough beat-down
to the Irish, 47-21, in the Wolverines' first win at N.D. since 1994.
Brady Quinn's Heisman Trophy hopes for the season all but evaporated in
the 80-degree temperatures of that day, as he threw three interceptions
and had a late fumble returned for a touchdown by the Wolverines'
opportunistic defense. Notre Dame looked lackluster in a loss that
caught many by surprise after the Irish had won at Michigan the
previous season.
With a dose of humility provided by the annual tilt with Michigan, the
Irish continued with their national title hopes severely compromised.
The following week, it looked as though an underdog Michigan State
squad would ruin Notre Dame's season yet again. With the Irish down
37-20 going into the fourth quarter, Quinn engineered a classic
comeback, capped by Terrail Lambert's interception return for the
go-ahead touchdown, as the Irish came from 17 points down to win,
40-37. Home wins against traditional foe Purdue (35-21) and an
overmatched Stanford (31-10) allowed the Irish to crawl out a bit from
the hole that they had dug for themselves against Michigan. At the
season's midpoint, their record stood at a respectable 5-1.
Following a bye week, the Irish looked asleep at the wheel again, this
time in UCLA's first visit to South Bend since 1964. Quinn provided
the heroics once more, however, completing a long touchdown pass to
Jeff Samardzija with only seconds remaining to give the Irish an
improbable 20-17 victory. In Notre Dame's 43rd consecutive victory
over Navy, Quinn and the offense put on an impressive display,
outclassing the Middies, 38-14 in Baltimore. Wins over North Carolina
(45-26), at Air Force (39-17), and Army (41-9) brought the Irish to the
brink of the season's end with an impressive 10-1 record.
In the final game of the season, the Irish headed out to Los Angeles
for their annual clash with arch-rival Southern California. After the
heartbreaking defeat at the hands of the Trojans last season, the Irish
were looking to win their first game over Southern Cal in five
attempts. Just like in the Michigan game, however, the Irish looked
outmanned by the Trojans' formidable talent and depth. Although Notre
Dame made a game of it, the Trojans won going away, 44-24, the third
straight loss of 20 points or more for the Irish in games at Southern
Cal.
Now, Notre Dame sits at 10-2, only the second time the program has had
that record at the end of a regular season (along with 2002). Charlie
Weis has led the Irish to a 19-5 (.792) record in his first 24 games,
the best record for an Irish coach at this point in his career since
Ara Parseghian started 20-3-1 (.854) between 1964 and 1966.
Furthermore, the Irish have scored more points (829) through 24 games
for Weis than for any Notre Dame coach since Jesse Harper, whose teams
scored 833 points in his first 24 games (1913-1915). The 563 points
given up by Weis's Irish, however, is an all-time worst for a coach
through his first 24 games, belying the fact that recruiting on that
side of the ball needs to be shored up, and that changes in the
defensive staff may be called for. Overall, the 266 points by which
the Irish have outscored their opponents through Weis's first 24 games
is the best for an Irish coach at this point since Parseghian's 514
points.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
At 10-2 and currently ranked #10 in the BCS ratings, Notre Dame appears
headed to one of this year's major bowl games. At this point, it looks
like there are four possible match-ups for the Irish, in either the
Rose Bowl or, more likely, the Sugar Bowl. These potential opponents
are:
-Arkansas Razorbacks (10-2, #9 BCS, #8 AP, #8 Coaches): Winners of this
year's West Division of the Southeastern Conference, the Razorbacks
feature TB Darren McFadden, considered a potential finalist for the
Heisman Trophy ceremony. Arkansas's two losses both came at home, to
#2 Southern Cal (50-14) and last weekend to #5 Louisiana State (31-26).
The biggest wins of their season were at #11 Auburn (a 27-10 win) and
at home against #17 Tennessee (31-14). The Irish likely would only
face Arkansas, a team they have never played, if the Razorbacks defeat
Florida in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta this weekend.
-Florida Gators (11-1, #4 BCS, #4 AP, #4 Coaches): Florida won the
always competitive East Division of the SEC this season and feature
former Irish recruit QB Chris Leak. Leak was considered by many a
Heisman candidate at season's start, but not as much now. Florida's
lone loss was at #11 Auburn, 27-17. Their biggest wins were at #17
Tennessee (21-20) and at home against #5 Louisiana State (23-10).
Florida's head coach is Urban Meyer, whom Notre Dame reportedly pursued
after the firing of Ty Willingham, which would make for a media circus
to be sure. For the Irish to play the Gators, Florida will likely need
to defeat Arkansas on Saturday night.
-Louisiana State Tigers (10-2, #5 BCS, #5 AP, #5 Coaches): LSU has
survived the minefield of the SEC regular season and, unlike Arkansas,
has the benefit of not having to play in the conference championship
game. If Arkansas loses on Saturday night, the Tigers could step in
and take a berth in the Rose Bowl. Winners of the BCS in 2003, LSU
this year is led by QB JaMarcus Russell. LSU's two losses came at #11
Auburn (7-3) and at #4 Florida (23-10). Their biggest wins came at #17
Tennessee (28-24) and last weekend at #8 Arkansas (31-26). An Irish
meeting with LSU would have to come in the Rose Bowl.
-Michigan Wolverines (11-1, #3 BCS, #3 AP, #3 Coaches): Like LSU,
Michigan did not win its conference, but seems certain to receive a
berth in the BCS. Of course the Wolverines and Irish have met once
already this season, a 47-21 victory at N.D. for Michigan. Michigan's
sole loss came at #1 Ohio State (42-39). Their biggest wins came at
#12 Notre Dame and at home against 11-1 #7 Wisconsin (27-13). The
Irish could possibly face the Wolverines in the Rose Bowl, but it seems
unlikely because the BCS normally eschews rematches.
Regardless of where the Irish end up and whom they play, Weis and this
year's seniors will look to end the program's eight-game bowl losing
streak which started at the end of the 1994 season in a 41-24 loss to
Colorado. Doing so would vanquish some of the pain from this season’s
two defeats.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-Notre Dame last finished a regular season 10-2 in 2002. They followed
it up with a 28-6 loss to North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl.
-With his 274-yard, 3-TD performance on Saturday against Southern Cal,
Irish QB Brady Quinn moved up to #9 on the NCAA all-time TD passes
list, and #10 on the NCAA all-time passing yardage list.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college
football’s all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand:
#3 Michigan’s season is complete. Their record stands at 860-281-36
for an all-time winning percentage of .7460.
#6 Notre Dame lost at #3 Southern Cal, 44-24, dropping their record to
821-268-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7445. #12 Notre
Dame’s regular season is complete.
Michigan’s lead stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
Go Irish!
Big Mike
originally published November 29, 2006
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Southern California
Of all the great personalities to be associated with the Notre Dame
football program through the years, there was never a more charismatic
or influential one than the incomparable Knute Rockne. When he became
the head coach of Notre Dame's football team after the 1917 season,
taking over for his mentor, Jesse Harper, the program had already
enjoyed a great deal of success, having won over 78% of its nearly 150
games since 1887. "Rock," however, would take the program to unimagined
heights during his meteoric 13-season career on the Irish sidelines.
During his first season as head coach, Rock went a pedestrian 3-1-2
(.667). Aside from his one bad season as Irish head coach in 1928, when
N.D. only went 5-4, 1918 would be the only season that Rockne would win
less than 75% of his team's games in a given year. Overall, he would
end up winning over 88% of his games at N.D. Fans of the small Catholic
university's football squad must have known Rock was something special
by the end of his third season, by which time he had led N.D. to
back-to-back undefeated seasons. Rockne's win streak would extend to 20
games, the longest for the program until Frank Leahy's Irish broke the
mark with 21 straight victories between the famous 0-0 tie with Army in
1946, and a 14-14 tie with Southern Cal in 1948.
Rock's attempt to win 21 straight games would come to an abrupt halt
when the Irish traveled to Iowa City to play the Iowa Hawkeyes, and
their head coach, Howard Jones. The 10-7 victory by the Hawkeyes was
the only loss Rockne's teams would experience between 1918 and the last
game of the 1922 season. Aside from ruining Notre Dame's shot at the
program's first consensus national championship (N.D. would finish 10-1
that year), that early October contest between N.D. and Iowa was
notable because it was the first meeting in a great coaching rivalry
between Knute Rockne and Howard Jones, two of the best coaches in
college football history. The relationship between these two men would
give rise to the greatest rivalry in college football history.
After winning the national championship in 1924, N.D.'s first, Rock was
the star of the college football world. Continually constrained by the
strict regulations of the Holy Cross priests at Notre Dame, Rock looked
to greener pastures elsewhere. At one point following that national
title season, Rockne seriously considered an offer to take the vacant
head coaching job at Southern Cal. That university was looking to shore
up its fledging football program, and saw Rockne as a vehicle to
instant credibility. In the end, however, Rock ended up remaining at
his alma mater, but recommended for the job a promising coach that he
had faced before, Howard Jones. A man who had enjoyed football success
as a player at Yale, as well as coaching success in stints at Syracuse,
Yale, Ohio State, and Iowa, Jones was seen as an excellent second
choice when Rockne rebuked Southern Cal's overtures.
The following season, Rockne's squad was playing the last in a long
series of games against Nebraska. Frequent opponents on N.D.'s schedule
in the 1910s and 1920s, the Huskers handed the Four Horsemen their only
two losses in three years of varsity competition, in 1922 and 1923. For
whatever reason, the series was coming to an end after one final game
in Lincoln on November 26, 1925. On this occasion, Rock's wife, Bonnie,
accompanied the team on their journey. By a twist of fate during the
game she sat next to one of the graduate assistants of Southern Cal's
football squad, as well as his wife. The assistant's wife and Mrs.
Rockne chatted throughout the game, undoubtedly discussing the
sacrifices associated with their husbands' careers. At some point,
however, the conversation turned toward the weather in Southern
California, and how much better a place like that would be for the
Irish to play late season games than frigid places like Lincoln,
Nebraska. After the game, a 17-0 loss for N.D., Rock was persuaded by
his wife to look into playing Southern Cal. The rest is history.
Whether or not this apocryphal story is true, the relationship that
Rockne and Jones shared seemed to pave the way for the Irish and
Trojans to forge a series on the gridiron. Railroads were making it
easier for long-distance travel, and Rock was just the type of
individual to see the benefits of an ambitious trip to the West Coast.
With Nebraska leaving the schedule, a spot was opened, and Rockne and
Jones agreed to a yearly contest between N.D. and Southern Cal, making
Rock the first coach from the Eastern half of the country to take his
team to the West Coast for a regular season contest.
The series, of course, became an instant success. The very first game,
played in front of 75,000 fans in the newly built Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum, was a hard fought N.D. victory, 13-12. The next season, a
crowd of 120,000 people at Chicago’s Soldier Field saw the Irish defeat
the Trojans in another nail biter, 7-6. In five meetings against the
Trojans, Rockne would enjoy a 4-1 record, while Jones would improve his
mark against the Irish when Rockne's less successful successors took
the reins in South Bend.
As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the start of this great series,
it seems improbable that Rockne and Jones could have imagined what they
had started back in 1926. (Knowing Rock's mind for possibilities,
however, he might have conceived of it.) Since that time, these
schools, separated by thousands of miles, have played in some of the
greatest football games ever contested. Year after year, the series
seems to have some sort of bearing upon the national championship
picture, and coaches at both schools are measured in large part by how
well they do against the other. These schools are currently tied for
the lead in Heisman Trophy winners with seven apiece, while they still
rank #1 and #2 in the number of NFL first-round draft picks to have
come from their programs. While most programs are blessed to have a
list of two national-championship winning coaches, Notre Dame and
Southern Cal can boast lists of five and four, respectively. The game
exudes tradition with two of the nation's most famous marching bands
and fight songs.
Since 1926, these schools have played every year, with the exception of
a three-year hiatus from 1943 to 1945, when World War II travel
restrictions were in place. Overall, Notre Dame holds a 42-30-5
advantage in the series. No school has beaten Southern Cal more
frequently than Notre Dame, and no school has beaten Notre Dame more
frequently than Southern Cal. The Trojans have won four consecutive
games, dating back to 2002.
Obviously, there are too many classic games in this series to recount
in one email. Forty years ago in Los Angeles, the Irish clinched the
program's eighth national championship when they blanked the Trojans in
Southern Cal's worst-ever defeat, 51-0. Twenty years ago, Tim Brown
returned a punt for a touchdown and John Carney made an 18-yard kick as
time expired to key a furious 18-point fourth-quarter comeback as the
Irish prevailed at the Coliseum, 38-37. In the most recent series game
played at Southern Cal, Tyrone Willingham's last as head coach at N.D.,
Pete Carroll left his starters in well into the fourth quarter, running
up the score on a 41-10 defeat for the Irish, the last of Willingham's
program-record five losses by 30 points or more. Last season, Charlie
Weis's Irish executed a brilliant game plan, nearly snapping Southern
Cal's 27-game winning streak, before falling in the final seconds,
34-31.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-At least one team has been ranked in 59 of the 67 games played in this
series since the advent of the Associated Press poll in 1936. In 29 of
those 67 games, both teams were ranked.
-The last series game in Los Angeles to feature two teams ranked in the
top ten came in 2002, when the #6 Trojans walloped the #7 Irish, 44-13,
the first of Tyrone Willingham’s program-record five losses by 30
points or more.
-The Irish are 17-19-4 (.475) in series games played at Southern Cal.
The Irish are 1-4-1 in their last six games at Southern Cal, dating
back to 1994. Their sole victory in that stretch came in 2000, when the
#11 Irish defeated the unranked Trojans, 38-21.
-The Irish have lost to the Trojans more than four consecutive times
only once. Between 1978 and 1982, John Robinson's squad registered five
consecutive victories over N.D. Aside from the streak from 1978-82 and
the current streak, Southern Cal has never beaten Notre Dame more than
three straight times.
-Notre Dame and Southern Cal rank #2 and #8 in all-time winning
percentage, and #2 and #10 in all-time wins, respectively.
-Notre Dame last recorded an 11-1 season in 1993. Overall, the Irish
have won 11 or more games in a season five times (1973: 11-0, 1977:
11-1, 1988: 12-0, 1989: 12-1, and 1993: 11-1). In three of those
seasons, the Irish won the national championship, while in the other
two seasons the Irish finished #2.
-Since the start of the Holtz Era in 1986, the Irish are only 10-9-1
(.525) in regular season finales.
-With Saturday's win over Army, Notre Dame is guaranteed of 19 wins in
the last two seasons, the program's highest two-year win total since
1992-93, when the Irish garnered 21 wins. This represents an eight-game
improvement over N.D.'s win total in the previous two seasons.
Incidentally, Tyrone Willingham won only 21 games in his entire
three-year stint at Notre Dame.
-The Irish are 8-0 in true road games under Charlie Weis.
-The Irish are 5-0 in night games under Weis.
-Through Weis's first 23 games, the Irish have outscored their
opponents by 286 points (12.4 average per game), the highest cumulative
point differential (CPD) for an Irish coach at this point in his career
since Ara Parseghian (482 CPD, 21.0 average).
-Last week's 218-yard, 3 TD performance by Irish QB Brady Quinn moved
him up to #9 on the NCAA all-time TD passes list, and #13 on the NCAA
all-time passing yardage list. With 49 yards passing on Saturday night,
Quinn would move ahead of Trojan Heisman Trophy-winning QB Carson
Palmer in all-time passing yardage, becoming the most prolific QB from
either Notre Dame or Southern Cal.
-The winner of this game receives the Shillelagh Trophy, presented by
the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles. The original trophy was purportedly
flown from Ireland by the pilot of billionaire-recluse Howard Hughes
for the 1952 game. Irish wins are represented by emerald shamrocks;
Trojan wins are represented by ruby Trojan heads. The original trophy
was retired after the 1989 game and is permanently displayed at Notre
Dame. The current trophy dates from 1990.
-These teams will continue to meet annually, as they have each year
since 1946.
-The Irish remained at #5 in this week's BCS rankings. Here's what the
top five schools have scheduled for this week:
#1 Ohio State (12-0): Season Complete.
#2 Michigan (11-1): Season Complete.
#3 Southern Cal (9-1): Hosts #5 Notre Dame (8:00 E.S.T. on ABC).
#4 Florida (10-1): Hosts unranked Florida State (12:00 E.S.T. on ABC).
#5 Notre Dame (10-1): Visits #3 Southern Cal.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college
football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand
after last weekend:
#2 Michigan lost at #1 Ohio State, 42-39, dropping their record to
860-281-36 for a winning percentage of .7460. #2 Michigan's season is
complete.
#6 Notre Dame defeated unranked Army at home, 41-9, moving their record
to 821-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7451. This week, #6 Notre
Dame travels to #3 Southern Cal.
Michigan's lead drops to just over 8/10,000ths of a point, the
equivalent of about a one-game lead over the Irish.
The importance of this week's game cannot be overemphasized. The Irish
will look to avenge three consecutive 31-point defeats to the Trojans,
as well as last season's heartbreaking loss at home. All of N.D.'s hard
work this season comes down to another titanic clash with arch-rival
Southern Cal. A berth in the national championship game could be in
store for the winner. The game kicks off at 8:00 E.S.T. on ABC.
Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!
Go Irish! Beat Trojans!
Big Mike
A Heisman Trophy sponsor is giving fans the opportunity to vote for the
Heisman Trophy. Fans can vote once each week for the player of their
choice. If you have not done so already, go to
https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/ and vote for Brady
Quinn. Whichever player has the most votes at season's end will receive
one actual vote for the Heisman Trophy.
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
football program through the years, there was never a more charismatic
or influential one than the incomparable Knute Rockne. When he became
the head coach of Notre Dame's football team after the 1917 season,
taking over for his mentor, Jesse Harper, the program had already
enjoyed a great deal of success, having won over 78% of its nearly 150
games since 1887. "Rock," however, would take the program to unimagined
heights during his meteoric 13-season career on the Irish sidelines.
During his first season as head coach, Rock went a pedestrian 3-1-2
(.667). Aside from his one bad season as Irish head coach in 1928, when
N.D. only went 5-4, 1918 would be the only season that Rockne would win
less than 75% of his team's games in a given year. Overall, he would
end up winning over 88% of his games at N.D. Fans of the small Catholic
university's football squad must have known Rock was something special
by the end of his third season, by which time he had led N.D. to
back-to-back undefeated seasons. Rockne's win streak would extend to 20
games, the longest for the program until Frank Leahy's Irish broke the
mark with 21 straight victories between the famous 0-0 tie with Army in
1946, and a 14-14 tie with Southern Cal in 1948.
Rock's attempt to win 21 straight games would come to an abrupt halt
when the Irish traveled to Iowa City to play the Iowa Hawkeyes, and
their head coach, Howard Jones. The 10-7 victory by the Hawkeyes was
the only loss Rockne's teams would experience between 1918 and the last
game of the 1922 season. Aside from ruining Notre Dame's shot at the
program's first consensus national championship (N.D. would finish 10-1
that year), that early October contest between N.D. and Iowa was
notable because it was the first meeting in a great coaching rivalry
between Knute Rockne and Howard Jones, two of the best coaches in
college football history. The relationship between these two men would
give rise to the greatest rivalry in college football history.
After winning the national championship in 1924, N.D.'s first, Rock was
the star of the college football world. Continually constrained by the
strict regulations of the Holy Cross priests at Notre Dame, Rock looked
to greener pastures elsewhere. At one point following that national
title season, Rockne seriously considered an offer to take the vacant
head coaching job at Southern Cal. That university was looking to shore
up its fledging football program, and saw Rockne as a vehicle to
instant credibility. In the end, however, Rock ended up remaining at
his alma mater, but recommended for the job a promising coach that he
had faced before, Howard Jones. A man who had enjoyed football success
as a player at Yale, as well as coaching success in stints at Syracuse,
Yale, Ohio State, and Iowa, Jones was seen as an excellent second
choice when Rockne rebuked Southern Cal's overtures.
The following season, Rockne's squad was playing the last in a long
series of games against Nebraska. Frequent opponents on N.D.'s schedule
in the 1910s and 1920s, the Huskers handed the Four Horsemen their only
two losses in three years of varsity competition, in 1922 and 1923. For
whatever reason, the series was coming to an end after one final game
in Lincoln on November 26, 1925. On this occasion, Rock's wife, Bonnie,
accompanied the team on their journey. By a twist of fate during the
game she sat next to one of the graduate assistants of Southern Cal's
football squad, as well as his wife. The assistant's wife and Mrs.
Rockne chatted throughout the game, undoubtedly discussing the
sacrifices associated with their husbands' careers. At some point,
however, the conversation turned toward the weather in Southern
California, and how much better a place like that would be for the
Irish to play late season games than frigid places like Lincoln,
Nebraska. After the game, a 17-0 loss for N.D., Rock was persuaded by
his wife to look into playing Southern Cal. The rest is history.
Whether or not this apocryphal story is true, the relationship that
Rockne and Jones shared seemed to pave the way for the Irish and
Trojans to forge a series on the gridiron. Railroads were making it
easier for long-distance travel, and Rock was just the type of
individual to see the benefits of an ambitious trip to the West Coast.
With Nebraska leaving the schedule, a spot was opened, and Rockne and
Jones agreed to a yearly contest between N.D. and Southern Cal, making
Rock the first coach from the Eastern half of the country to take his
team to the West Coast for a regular season contest.
The series, of course, became an instant success. The very first game,
played in front of 75,000 fans in the newly built Los Angeles Memorial
Coliseum, was a hard fought N.D. victory, 13-12. The next season, a
crowd of 120,000 people at Chicago’s Soldier Field saw the Irish defeat
the Trojans in another nail biter, 7-6. In five meetings against the
Trojans, Rockne would enjoy a 4-1 record, while Jones would improve his
mark against the Irish when Rockne's less successful successors took
the reins in South Bend.
As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the start of this great series,
it seems improbable that Rockne and Jones could have imagined what they
had started back in 1926. (Knowing Rock's mind for possibilities,
however, he might have conceived of it.) Since that time, these
schools, separated by thousands of miles, have played in some of the
greatest football games ever contested. Year after year, the series
seems to have some sort of bearing upon the national championship
picture, and coaches at both schools are measured in large part by how
well they do against the other. These schools are currently tied for
the lead in Heisman Trophy winners with seven apiece, while they still
rank #1 and #2 in the number of NFL first-round draft picks to have
come from their programs. While most programs are blessed to have a
list of two national-championship winning coaches, Notre Dame and
Southern Cal can boast lists of five and four, respectively. The game
exudes tradition with two of the nation's most famous marching bands
and fight songs.
Since 1926, these schools have played every year, with the exception of
a three-year hiatus from 1943 to 1945, when World War II travel
restrictions were in place. Overall, Notre Dame holds a 42-30-5
advantage in the series. No school has beaten Southern Cal more
frequently than Notre Dame, and no school has beaten Notre Dame more
frequently than Southern Cal. The Trojans have won four consecutive
games, dating back to 2002.
Obviously, there are too many classic games in this series to recount
in one email. Forty years ago in Los Angeles, the Irish clinched the
program's eighth national championship when they blanked the Trojans in
Southern Cal's worst-ever defeat, 51-0. Twenty years ago, Tim Brown
returned a punt for a touchdown and John Carney made an 18-yard kick as
time expired to key a furious 18-point fourth-quarter comeback as the
Irish prevailed at the Coliseum, 38-37. In the most recent series game
played at Southern Cal, Tyrone Willingham's last as head coach at N.D.,
Pete Carroll left his starters in well into the fourth quarter, running
up the score on a 41-10 defeat for the Irish, the last of Willingham's
program-record five losses by 30 points or more. Last season, Charlie
Weis's Irish executed a brilliant game plan, nearly snapping Southern
Cal's 27-game winning streak, before falling in the final seconds,
34-31.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-At least one team has been ranked in 59 of the 67 games played in this
series since the advent of the Associated Press poll in 1936. In 29 of
those 67 games, both teams were ranked.
-The last series game in Los Angeles to feature two teams ranked in the
top ten came in 2002, when the #6 Trojans walloped the #7 Irish, 44-13,
the first of Tyrone Willingham’s program-record five losses by 30
points or more.
-The Irish are 17-19-4 (.475) in series games played at Southern Cal.
The Irish are 1-4-1 in their last six games at Southern Cal, dating
back to 1994. Their sole victory in that stretch came in 2000, when the
#11 Irish defeated the unranked Trojans, 38-21.
-The Irish have lost to the Trojans more than four consecutive times
only once. Between 1978 and 1982, John Robinson's squad registered five
consecutive victories over N.D. Aside from the streak from 1978-82 and
the current streak, Southern Cal has never beaten Notre Dame more than
three straight times.
-Notre Dame and Southern Cal rank #2 and #8 in all-time winning
percentage, and #2 and #10 in all-time wins, respectively.
-Notre Dame last recorded an 11-1 season in 1993. Overall, the Irish
have won 11 or more games in a season five times (1973: 11-0, 1977:
11-1, 1988: 12-0, 1989: 12-1, and 1993: 11-1). In three of those
seasons, the Irish won the national championship, while in the other
two seasons the Irish finished #2.
-Since the start of the Holtz Era in 1986, the Irish are only 10-9-1
(.525) in regular season finales.
-With Saturday's win over Army, Notre Dame is guaranteed of 19 wins in
the last two seasons, the program's highest two-year win total since
1992-93, when the Irish garnered 21 wins. This represents an eight-game
improvement over N.D.'s win total in the previous two seasons.
Incidentally, Tyrone Willingham won only 21 games in his entire
three-year stint at Notre Dame.
-The Irish are 8-0 in true road games under Charlie Weis.
-The Irish are 5-0 in night games under Weis.
-Through Weis's first 23 games, the Irish have outscored their
opponents by 286 points (12.4 average per game), the highest cumulative
point differential (CPD) for an Irish coach at this point in his career
since Ara Parseghian (482 CPD, 21.0 average).
-Last week's 218-yard, 3 TD performance by Irish QB Brady Quinn moved
him up to #9 on the NCAA all-time TD passes list, and #13 on the NCAA
all-time passing yardage list. With 49 yards passing on Saturday night,
Quinn would move ahead of Trojan Heisman Trophy-winning QB Carson
Palmer in all-time passing yardage, becoming the most prolific QB from
either Notre Dame or Southern Cal.
-The winner of this game receives the Shillelagh Trophy, presented by
the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles. The original trophy was purportedly
flown from Ireland by the pilot of billionaire-recluse Howard Hughes
for the 1952 game. Irish wins are represented by emerald shamrocks;
Trojan wins are represented by ruby Trojan heads. The original trophy
was retired after the 1989 game and is permanently displayed at Notre
Dame. The current trophy dates from 1990.
-These teams will continue to meet annually, as they have each year
since 1946.
-The Irish remained at #5 in this week's BCS rankings. Here's what the
top five schools have scheduled for this week:
#1 Ohio State (12-0): Season Complete.
#2 Michigan (11-1): Season Complete.
#3 Southern Cal (9-1): Hosts #5 Notre Dame (8:00 E.S.T. on ABC).
#4 Florida (10-1): Hosts unranked Florida State (12:00 E.S.T. on ABC).
#5 Notre Dame (10-1): Visits #3 Southern Cal.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college
football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand
after last weekend:
#2 Michigan lost at #1 Ohio State, 42-39, dropping their record to
860-281-36 for a winning percentage of .7460. #2 Michigan's season is
complete.
#6 Notre Dame defeated unranked Army at home, 41-9, moving their record
to 821-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7451. This week, #6 Notre
Dame travels to #3 Southern Cal.
Michigan's lead drops to just over 8/10,000ths of a point, the
equivalent of about a one-game lead over the Irish.
The importance of this week's game cannot be overemphasized. The Irish
will look to avenge three consecutive 31-point defeats to the Trojans,
as well as last season's heartbreaking loss at home. All of N.D.'s hard
work this season comes down to another titanic clash with arch-rival
Southern Cal. A berth in the national championship game could be in
store for the winner. The game kicks off at 8:00 E.S.T. on ABC.
Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!
Go Irish! Beat Trojans!
Big Mike
A Heisman Trophy sponsor is giving fans the opportunity to vote for the
Heisman Trophy. Fans can vote once each week for the player of their
choice. If you have not done so already, go to
https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/ and vote for Brady
Quinn. Whichever player has the most votes at season's end will receive
one actual vote for the Heisman Trophy.
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Army
As the college football world directs its attention to Columbus for this weekend's match-up between #1 Ohio State and #2 Michigan, it is fitting that the Irish will play their ancient rival Army on the same day. While in modern times the biggest games for the Irish are Southern Cal and Michigan, in years past there was no bigger game than the annual showdown with Army. Throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Irish and the Cadets clashed on the gridiron, frequently with the national championship hanging in the balance. From 1923 to 1946, the game was annually staged in New York, making it one of the premier events in that city's yearly sports calendar. No game represented the glory days of this series better than the famous 1946 contest.
For fans of college football, the 1946 Notre Dame-Army game had all the makings of a great showdown, featuring the two teams that had won the last three national championships. Clearly, there was the history of two successful programs that had squared off consistently since 1913 in one of the great intersectional rivalries in college football. Additionally, there existed an animosity between the schools generated by Army running up the score in 1944 and 1945 against Notre Dame squads that had been depleted by call-ups for World War II. The 59-0 shellacking of the Irish by the Cadets in 1944 still stands as the biggest loss in the history of the N.D. program. Furthermore, Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy hated each other, so much so that they refused to exchange game films with one another, a standard practice even in the 1940s. This animosity would play a major role in the outcome of the famous 1946 game.
The talent on display by both teams was truly remarkable; Army had won 25 consecutive games dating back to 1943, while Notre Dame had one of the greatest collections of talent in the history of the sport. For the only time in history, one game would feature four Heisman Trophy winners on the field at the same time: QB Johnny Lujack (1947) and E Leon Hart (1949) for the Irish; FB Felix "Doc" Blanchard (1945) and HB Glenn Davis (1946) for the Cadets. Perhaps most importantly, the game squared two of the great teams of the era in a momentous #1 vs. #2 clash in the nation's media capital. College football had never seen anything like it, and few games since have approached it.
Media types before the game trumpeted the explosive offenses of the two teams, but it ended up being the teams' collective defensive efforts that would make the game one for the ages. Blaik and Leahy, not wanting to give anything away to the other, coached the game close to the vest, resulting in extremely conservative play-calling. Both teams would have opportunities inside the opponent's 16-yardline, and both would come away empty-handed. Beyond belief, both teams had opportunities to kick field goals that could have won the game, but both coaches opted not to kick, thinking that doing so would show weakness. Interestingly, the closest either team came to scoring was when Army's Blanchard broke off a long run. A touchdown almost certain, N.D.'s Lujack managed to make a game-saving tackle, pulling "Mister Inside" down at the Irish 37-yardline. An interception later in the series by future Irish coach Terry Brennan preserved the scoreless tie. The game would end with the memorable 0-0 score that is still talked about today.
The Irish had snapped Army's 25-game winning streak, and had avenged themselves, sort of. Both teams left the field with the feeling of emptiness that could only come from a game ending in a tie. Salve for Irish wounds would come in the form of a dominating finish to the 1946 season. Notre Dame would complete the season with an 8-0-1 record, outscoring its opponents 271-24 while securing the program's fifth national championship and second in Frank Leahy's four seasons at the Irish helm. Even still, years later Leahy was haunted by his poor game-day coaching decisions in one of only two games that the Irish failed to win between 1946 and 1949.
Hard feelings would continue in the series. The following year, Army would make its first-ever visit to Notre Dame Stadium, a game that the #1 Irish won over the #9 Cadets, 27-7. Following that game, Blaik would get his long-sought wish to have the series brought to an end. The teams would not meet again until 1957, long after Leahy had retired.
Notre Dame's series with Army, though lopsided in recent years, is one of the most historically significant for the program. The series' first game was Notre Dame's famous 35-13 victory at West Point in 1913, the game that put the program on the map, while 1928's game saw Knute Rockne deliver his famous "Win One for the Gipper" pep talk at halftime, leading to a spirited 12-6 victory. A frequent opponent on Irish schedules from the 1910s through the 1940s, these schools have met less often in the last fifty years. The Irish hold a 36-8-4 (.792) record in games between the schools. Army's last victory came in 1958, Blaik's last season on the Cadets' sideline. This weekend's game will be only the 13th meeting between the schools since Leahy's great rival retired.
In the last 20 years, these old rivals have met only twice. In 1995, Irish CB Ivory Covington made a memorable tackle on the goal line late in the game, preventing a two-point conversion that would have given Army a one-point victory over N.D. As it was, the Irish escaped with a 28-27 victory at Giants Stadium. In the last series meeting, played in 1998 at N.D., Irish K Jim Sanson booted a 48-yard field goal with just over 1:00 remaining for a 20-17 victory.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-Of the four ties in this series, three of them were scoreless (1922, 1941, and 1946).
-This will be the 49th meeting between Notre Dame and Army. The only schools to have played the Irish more frequently are Navy (80), Purdue (78), Southern Cal (77), Michigan State (70), and Pittsburgh (63).
-Despite having played Army 48 times since 1913, Saturday's game will be only the ninth time Army will visit Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish hold a 7-1-0 record at home against the Cadets. Army's sole win at N.D. was their last in the series (1958).
-This is the first season in which the Irish will play all three service academies since 1995. Overall, the Irish have faced all three academies in one season nine times (1969, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1995, and 2006).
-Notre Dame is 128-22-5 (.843) against the three service academies, including last week's win against Air Force.
-Along with the Navy and Air Force contests, this will be the third and final game of 2006 in which the Irish do not face a BCS conference foe.
-Notre Dame last started a season 10-1 in 2002. Overall, the Irish have had 14 seasons of 10 or more wins in the program's 118-season history, the first coming in 1921, the last in 2002.
-Since the start of the Holtz Era in 1986, the Irish are 14-6 (.700) in home finales.
-With last week's 39-17 win at Air Force, the Irish are guaranteed of back-to-back nine-win seasons for the first time since 1992 (10-1-1) and 1993 (11-1).
-Notre Dame is 9-3 (.750) at Notre Dame Stadium under Charlie Weis.
-On the heels of his brutally efficient 207-yard, four-touchdown effort last week, Irish QB Brady Quinn has been named as one of ten finalists for the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award. Last week's effort moved Quinn up two spots to #17 on the NCAA all-time career passing yardage list, as well as into a four-way tie for 12th place on the NCAA all-time career TD passes list.
-Against the Falcons, Quinn threw 19 passes without an interception, extending his school record to 223. He is now within 48 passes of tying Trent Dilfer's NCAA record of 271.
-This is the last scheduled game between the Irish and Cadets. Given that Army withdrew from Conference USA two years ago in part to schedule N.D. more frequently in football, it would seem that it will not be long before the Cadets appear on the Irish schedule again.
-The Irish are #5 in this week's BCS rankings. This is the latest in a season that the Irish have been ranked so highly in the nine-year history of the BCS. Here's what the top five schools have scheduled for this week:
#1 Ohio State hosts #2 Michigan (3:30 E.S.T. on ABC).
#2 Michigan visits #1 Ohio State.
#3 Southern Cal hosts #15 California (8:00 E.S.T. on ABC).
#4 Florida hosts I-AA Western Carolina (this is not a joke, WESTERN CAROLINA).
#5 Notre Dame hosts unranked Army (2:30 E.S.T. on NBC).
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last weekend:
#2 Michigan won at unranked Indiana, 34-3, moving their record to 860-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7466. This week, #2 Michigan travels to Columbus for their annual grudge match against #1 Ohio State.
#9 Notre Dame won at unranked Air Force, 39-17, moving their record to 820-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7449. This stands as N.D.'s highest winning percentage since the week following the Irish victory at Tennessee in 2004. This week, the #6 Irish host traditional foe Army.
Michigan's lead stands at just a shade under 17/10,000ths of a point.
With so many teams ranked ahead of the Irish falling last week, Notre Dame's national title hopes have found new life. Next week's showdown with the Trojans looms ever larger, as the winner of that game could be poised to face the winner of the OSU-Michigan game for the national championship. First things first, however. The Irish have to take care of Army on Saturday. The game kicks off at 2:30 E.S.T. on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Army!
Big Mike
A Heisman Trophy sponsor is giving fans the opportunity to vote for the Heisman Trophy. Fans can vote once each week for the player of their choice. If you have not done so already, go to https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/ and vote for Brady Quinn. Whichever player has the most votes at season's end will receive one actual vote for the Heisman Trophy.
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
For fans of college football, the 1946 Notre Dame-Army game had all the makings of a great showdown, featuring the two teams that had won the last three national championships. Clearly, there was the history of two successful programs that had squared off consistently since 1913 in one of the great intersectional rivalries in college football. Additionally, there existed an animosity between the schools generated by Army running up the score in 1944 and 1945 against Notre Dame squads that had been depleted by call-ups for World War II. The 59-0 shellacking of the Irish by the Cadets in 1944 still stands as the biggest loss in the history of the N.D. program. Furthermore, Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy hated each other, so much so that they refused to exchange game films with one another, a standard practice even in the 1940s. This animosity would play a major role in the outcome of the famous 1946 game.
The talent on display by both teams was truly remarkable; Army had won 25 consecutive games dating back to 1943, while Notre Dame had one of the greatest collections of talent in the history of the sport. For the only time in history, one game would feature four Heisman Trophy winners on the field at the same time: QB Johnny Lujack (1947) and E Leon Hart (1949) for the Irish; FB Felix "Doc" Blanchard (1945) and HB Glenn Davis (1946) for the Cadets. Perhaps most importantly, the game squared two of the great teams of the era in a momentous #1 vs. #2 clash in the nation's media capital. College football had never seen anything like it, and few games since have approached it.
Media types before the game trumpeted the explosive offenses of the two teams, but it ended up being the teams' collective defensive efforts that would make the game one for the ages. Blaik and Leahy, not wanting to give anything away to the other, coached the game close to the vest, resulting in extremely conservative play-calling. Both teams would have opportunities inside the opponent's 16-yardline, and both would come away empty-handed. Beyond belief, both teams had opportunities to kick field goals that could have won the game, but both coaches opted not to kick, thinking that doing so would show weakness. Interestingly, the closest either team came to scoring was when Army's Blanchard broke off a long run. A touchdown almost certain, N.D.'s Lujack managed to make a game-saving tackle, pulling "Mister Inside" down at the Irish 37-yardline. An interception later in the series by future Irish coach Terry Brennan preserved the scoreless tie. The game would end with the memorable 0-0 score that is still talked about today.
The Irish had snapped Army's 25-game winning streak, and had avenged themselves, sort of. Both teams left the field with the feeling of emptiness that could only come from a game ending in a tie. Salve for Irish wounds would come in the form of a dominating finish to the 1946 season. Notre Dame would complete the season with an 8-0-1 record, outscoring its opponents 271-24 while securing the program's fifth national championship and second in Frank Leahy's four seasons at the Irish helm. Even still, years later Leahy was haunted by his poor game-day coaching decisions in one of only two games that the Irish failed to win between 1946 and 1949.
Hard feelings would continue in the series. The following year, Army would make its first-ever visit to Notre Dame Stadium, a game that the #1 Irish won over the #9 Cadets, 27-7. Following that game, Blaik would get his long-sought wish to have the series brought to an end. The teams would not meet again until 1957, long after Leahy had retired.
Notre Dame's series with Army, though lopsided in recent years, is one of the most historically significant for the program. The series' first game was Notre Dame's famous 35-13 victory at West Point in 1913, the game that put the program on the map, while 1928's game saw Knute Rockne deliver his famous "Win One for the Gipper" pep talk at halftime, leading to a spirited 12-6 victory. A frequent opponent on Irish schedules from the 1910s through the 1940s, these schools have met less often in the last fifty years. The Irish hold a 36-8-4 (.792) record in games between the schools. Army's last victory came in 1958, Blaik's last season on the Cadets' sideline. This weekend's game will be only the 13th meeting between the schools since Leahy's great rival retired.
In the last 20 years, these old rivals have met only twice. In 1995, Irish CB Ivory Covington made a memorable tackle on the goal line late in the game, preventing a two-point conversion that would have given Army a one-point victory over N.D. As it was, the Irish escaped with a 28-27 victory at Giants Stadium. In the last series meeting, played in 1998 at N.D., Irish K Jim Sanson booted a 48-yard field goal with just over 1:00 remaining for a 20-17 victory.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-Of the four ties in this series, three of them were scoreless (1922, 1941, and 1946).
-This will be the 49th meeting between Notre Dame and Army. The only schools to have played the Irish more frequently are Navy (80), Purdue (78), Southern Cal (77), Michigan State (70), and Pittsburgh (63).
-Despite having played Army 48 times since 1913, Saturday's game will be only the ninth time Army will visit Notre Dame Stadium. The Irish hold a 7-1-0 record at home against the Cadets. Army's sole win at N.D. was their last in the series (1958).
-This is the first season in which the Irish will play all three service academies since 1995. Overall, the Irish have faced all three academies in one season nine times (1969, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1995, and 2006).
-Notre Dame is 128-22-5 (.843) against the three service academies, including last week's win against Air Force.
-Along with the Navy and Air Force contests, this will be the third and final game of 2006 in which the Irish do not face a BCS conference foe.
-Notre Dame last started a season 10-1 in 2002. Overall, the Irish have had 14 seasons of 10 or more wins in the program's 118-season history, the first coming in 1921, the last in 2002.
-Since the start of the Holtz Era in 1986, the Irish are 14-6 (.700) in home finales.
-With last week's 39-17 win at Air Force, the Irish are guaranteed of back-to-back nine-win seasons for the first time since 1992 (10-1-1) and 1993 (11-1).
-Notre Dame is 9-3 (.750) at Notre Dame Stadium under Charlie Weis.
-On the heels of his brutally efficient 207-yard, four-touchdown effort last week, Irish QB Brady Quinn has been named as one of ten finalists for the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award. Last week's effort moved Quinn up two spots to #17 on the NCAA all-time career passing yardage list, as well as into a four-way tie for 12th place on the NCAA all-time career TD passes list.
-Against the Falcons, Quinn threw 19 passes without an interception, extending his school record to 223. He is now within 48 passes of tying Trent Dilfer's NCAA record of 271.
-This is the last scheduled game between the Irish and Cadets. Given that Army withdrew from Conference USA two years ago in part to schedule N.D. more frequently in football, it would seem that it will not be long before the Cadets appear on the Irish schedule again.
-The Irish are #5 in this week's BCS rankings. This is the latest in a season that the Irish have been ranked so highly in the nine-year history of the BCS. Here's what the top five schools have scheduled for this week:
#1 Ohio State hosts #2 Michigan (3:30 E.S.T. on ABC).
#2 Michigan visits #1 Ohio State.
#3 Southern Cal hosts #15 California (8:00 E.S.T. on ABC).
#4 Florida hosts I-AA Western Carolina (this is not a joke, WESTERN CAROLINA).
#5 Notre Dame hosts unranked Army (2:30 E.S.T. on NBC).
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last weekend:
#2 Michigan won at unranked Indiana, 34-3, moving their record to 860-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7466. This week, #2 Michigan travels to Columbus for their annual grudge match against #1 Ohio State.
#9 Notre Dame won at unranked Air Force, 39-17, moving their record to 820-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7449. This stands as N.D.'s highest winning percentage since the week following the Irish victory at Tennessee in 2004. This week, the #6 Irish host traditional foe Army.
Michigan's lead stands at just a shade under 17/10,000ths of a point.
With so many teams ranked ahead of the Irish falling last week, Notre Dame's national title hopes have found new life. Next week's showdown with the Trojans looms ever larger, as the winner of that game could be poised to face the winner of the OSU-Michigan game for the national championship. First things first, however. The Irish have to take care of Army on Saturday. The game kicks off at 2:30 E.S.T. on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Army!
Big Mike
A Heisman Trophy sponsor is giving fans the opportunity to vote for the Heisman Trophy. Fans can vote once each week for the player of their choice. If you have not done so already, go to https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/ and vote for Brady Quinn. Whichever player has the most votes at season's end will receive one actual vote for the Heisman Trophy.
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Air Force
Dan Devine was, to put it mildly, an interesting character. The type of individual who had no compunction with wearing sneakers to accompany a suit, Devine was one of the most eccentric football coaches the Irish have had. Coming to Notre Dame after stints with Arizona State, where he essentially built the Sun Devil program out of nothing, Missouri, where he made the Tigers into perennial Big 8 contenders, and the Green Bay Packers, Devine had a checkered time with Irish fans, alumni, and even legendary athletic director Moose Krause. In particular, Devine elicited mixed responses from the players, most of whom were recruits of retired coach Ara Parseghian. During Devine's six seasons on the sidelines, the Irish would play well in many games, but lose games that they had no business losing. One of the worst defeats was a 3-0 loss at home to Missouri in the 1978 season opener. Still, Devine won over 76% of his games at N.D. and secured his spot in the pantheon of great Irish coaches when he won the 1977 national championship, as well as coming close to another in 1980.
One of the most perplexing moves that he pulled while head coach of the Irish came during the 1975 season, his first at N.D. By most accounts, Devine had a great potential QB in the person of Joe Montana. As discussed last week, Montana made a name for himself rather quickly in the 1975 season when he led a comeback at North Carolina, leading the Irish to an improbable 21-14 victory. The next week, Montana returned to the second team during practices, as Devine kept QB Rick Slager as his starter. Given the spectacular nature of the UNC comeback, inquiries by the media swirled around this issue. Devine merely stated that he didn't want create a quarterback controversy. His efforts in that regard would be undermined by events on the field. A mere one week after the near-miss at UNC, the Irish would find themselves behind again, this time at Air Force.
Trailing 30-10 in the fourth quarter to a team to which the Irish had never lost, Devine pulled Slager again in favor of his backup. In typical Montana fashion, the wiry sophomore QB led the Irish to another improbable victory. Improving on his 14-point comeback of the previous week, the Montana-led offense scored 21 unanswered points against the befuddled Falcon defense, pulling out another victory on the road, 31-30. Montana would start the next two games (home games against Southern Cal and Navy) before a broken finger ended his sophomore campaign. The Montana controversy went away. By the time he was playing again (a separated shoulder sidelined him for the 1976 season) he was the starter on Devine's sole national championship team.
As is the case with the other service academies, Notre Dame and Air Force have an interesting history on the gridiron. Because the Air Force Academy was not founded until 1955, the Irish and Falcons only started playing in 1964. Since that initial meeting, a 34-7 victory for the #6 Irish, Notre Dame has owned the series. Overall, they hold a 21-5-0 record against Air Force. Curiously, four of the Falcons' five wins came during a four-game winning streak over the Gerry Faust-coached Irish between 1982 and 1985. That four-game winning streak is the longest such streak by one of the service academies over the Irish. The Falcons' other win came in controversial fashion at Notre Dame in 1996. After officials waved off what appeared to be a touchdown for Irish WR Raki Nelson, the Falcons pulled out a victory on a field goal in Notre Dame's first-ever overtime game.
In the last two series games, the Irish have rebounded, avenging themselves with a 34-31 overtime victory over the Falcons at Notre Dame Stadium in 2000. In the last series game, played at Falcon Stadium, the #7 Irish defeated the #18 Falcons, 21-14.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish last started a season 9-1 in 2002. Overall, the Irish have won at least nine games in a season 34 times.
-With last week's win against North Carolina, the Irish are guaranteed of back-to-back eight-win seasons for the first time since 1995 & 1996, the final two years of the Holtz Era.
-Notre Dame is 12-2 in the state of Colorado. Their sole losses in the state came in their 1982 and 1984 games at AFA. All but one of the 12 wins came against the Falcons; the other came courtesy of N.D.'s 1983 win at Colorado.
-The Irish have won 11 of their last 12 against the Falcons, dating back to 1986. The sole loss came in the aforementioned overtime game at N.D. in 1996.
-The Irish are 11-2 at Falcon Stadium, including wins in their last five trips to Colorado Springs.
-Notre Dame has been ranked in all but six of its games against Air Force.
-The Irish hold a 126-22-5 (.840) record against the three service academies, including a 38-14 victory against Navy two weeks ago. The Irish will play Army next week.
-For only the second time this season (Navy), the Irish will play a school without a BCS conference affiliation.
-The Irish are 7-0 under Charlie Weis in true road games.
-With his 346-yard, four-touchdown effort last week, Irish QB Brady Quinn moved past three QBs into 16th place on the NCAA all-time touchdown passes list. He also jumped 11 QBs, including Heisman Trophy winners Doug Flutie, Danny Wuerffel, and Matt Leinart, to move to 20th place on the NCAA all-time passing yardage list.
-Additionally, Quinn extended his school record of pass attempts without an interception. He has thrown 204 passes since his last interception. The NCAA record is 271, held by Fresno State's Trent Dilfer. I hope the Heisman committee is paying attention.
-The Irish and the Falcons will meet again next season in South Bend.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last week:
#2 Michigan notched an impressive win against unranked MAC foe Ball State, 34-26, extending their record to 859-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7464. This week, #2 Michigan plays at unranked Indiana.
#11 Notre Dame trounced ACC lightweight UNC, 45-26, moving their record to 819-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7447. This week, #9 Notre Dame travels to unranked Air Force.
Michigan's lead holds steady at 17/10,000ths of a point.
This weekend the Irish look to build upon their case for a berth in the BCS. The game kicks off 4:00 E.S.T. on CSTV. This will be the first time the Irish are not on one of the big four networks (NBC, CBS, ABC/ESPN) since the Navy game in 1992.
Go Irish! Beat Falcons!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
One of the most perplexing moves that he pulled while head coach of the Irish came during the 1975 season, his first at N.D. By most accounts, Devine had a great potential QB in the person of Joe Montana. As discussed last week, Montana made a name for himself rather quickly in the 1975 season when he led a comeback at North Carolina, leading the Irish to an improbable 21-14 victory. The next week, Montana returned to the second team during practices, as Devine kept QB Rick Slager as his starter. Given the spectacular nature of the UNC comeback, inquiries by the media swirled around this issue. Devine merely stated that he didn't want create a quarterback controversy. His efforts in that regard would be undermined by events on the field. A mere one week after the near-miss at UNC, the Irish would find themselves behind again, this time at Air Force.
Trailing 30-10 in the fourth quarter to a team to which the Irish had never lost, Devine pulled Slager again in favor of his backup. In typical Montana fashion, the wiry sophomore QB led the Irish to another improbable victory. Improving on his 14-point comeback of the previous week, the Montana-led offense scored 21 unanswered points against the befuddled Falcon defense, pulling out another victory on the road, 31-30. Montana would start the next two games (home games against Southern Cal and Navy) before a broken finger ended his sophomore campaign. The Montana controversy went away. By the time he was playing again (a separated shoulder sidelined him for the 1976 season) he was the starter on Devine's sole national championship team.
As is the case with the other service academies, Notre Dame and Air Force have an interesting history on the gridiron. Because the Air Force Academy was not founded until 1955, the Irish and Falcons only started playing in 1964. Since that initial meeting, a 34-7 victory for the #6 Irish, Notre Dame has owned the series. Overall, they hold a 21-5-0 record against Air Force. Curiously, four of the Falcons' five wins came during a four-game winning streak over the Gerry Faust-coached Irish between 1982 and 1985. That four-game winning streak is the longest such streak by one of the service academies over the Irish. The Falcons' other win came in controversial fashion at Notre Dame in 1996. After officials waved off what appeared to be a touchdown for Irish WR Raki Nelson, the Falcons pulled out a victory on a field goal in Notre Dame's first-ever overtime game.
In the last two series games, the Irish have rebounded, avenging themselves with a 34-31 overtime victory over the Falcons at Notre Dame Stadium in 2000. In the last series game, played at Falcon Stadium, the #7 Irish defeated the #18 Falcons, 21-14.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish last started a season 9-1 in 2002. Overall, the Irish have won at least nine games in a season 34 times.
-With last week's win against North Carolina, the Irish are guaranteed of back-to-back eight-win seasons for the first time since 1995 & 1996, the final two years of the Holtz Era.
-Notre Dame is 12-2 in the state of Colorado. Their sole losses in the state came in their 1982 and 1984 games at AFA. All but one of the 12 wins came against the Falcons; the other came courtesy of N.D.'s 1983 win at Colorado.
-The Irish have won 11 of their last 12 against the Falcons, dating back to 1986. The sole loss came in the aforementioned overtime game at N.D. in 1996.
-The Irish are 11-2 at Falcon Stadium, including wins in their last five trips to Colorado Springs.
-Notre Dame has been ranked in all but six of its games against Air Force.
-The Irish hold a 126-22-5 (.840) record against the three service academies, including a 38-14 victory against Navy two weeks ago. The Irish will play Army next week.
-For only the second time this season (Navy), the Irish will play a school without a BCS conference affiliation.
-The Irish are 7-0 under Charlie Weis in true road games.
-With his 346-yard, four-touchdown effort last week, Irish QB Brady Quinn moved past three QBs into 16th place on the NCAA all-time touchdown passes list. He also jumped 11 QBs, including Heisman Trophy winners Doug Flutie, Danny Wuerffel, and Matt Leinart, to move to 20th place on the NCAA all-time passing yardage list.
-Additionally, Quinn extended his school record of pass attempts without an interception. He has thrown 204 passes since his last interception. The NCAA record is 271, held by Fresno State's Trent Dilfer. I hope the Heisman committee is paying attention.
-The Irish and the Falcons will meet again next season in South Bend.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last week:
#2 Michigan notched an impressive win against unranked MAC foe Ball State, 34-26, extending their record to 859-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7464. This week, #2 Michigan plays at unranked Indiana.
#11 Notre Dame trounced ACC lightweight UNC, 45-26, moving their record to 819-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7447. This week, #9 Notre Dame travels to unranked Air Force.
Michigan's lead holds steady at 17/10,000ths of a point.
This weekend the Irish look to build upon their case for a berth in the BCS. The game kicks off 4:00 E.S.T. on CSTV. This will be the first time the Irish are not on one of the big four networks (NBC, CBS, ABC/ESPN) since the Navy game in 1992.
Go Irish! Beat Falcons!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Notre Dame vs. North Carolina
Things looked bleak for the San Francisco 49ers on January 22, 1989. Trailing the AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals, 16-13, the Niners found themselves on their own eight-yard line with just over three minutes remaining in Super Bowl XXIII in San Diego. The Niners had the incomparable Joe Montana, however, a quarterback who had long before established fame as author of many spectacular come-from-behind victories. On that late January night, Montana would lead perhaps his most famous comeback. Over the next 2:46 of game time, Montana led a surgically precise 11-play drive, culminating with a 10-yard touchdown pass to WR John Taylor with 0:34 remaining. The Niners clinched a 20-16 victory in one of the most thrilling Super Bowls in history.
Montana's final-minute heroics accentuated his professional career, but did not start with his time in San Francisco. As a student-athlete at Notre Dame, he led the Irish to a number of improbable victories, including the famous "Chicken Soup Game" win over Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl. His come-from-behind prowess at Notre Dame can be traced back to his first year as a regular for the Irish, his sophomore year of 1975, when he played as second and third-string QB for first-year coach Dan Devine. In a game played in Chapel Hill, Montana led two late scoring drives to come from behind to defeat the Tarheels.
Coming into the game with only 6:04 remaining and the Irish trailing 14-6, Montana led Notre Dame to a quick touchdown and two-point conversion to tie the game. After the Tarheels missed a field goal with just over a minute remaining, the Irish took possession again on their own 20-yard line. If the sophomore was nervous at this point, it did not show in the results of the drive. On the second play, Montana completed an 80-yard touchdown pass to Ted Burgmeier, giving the Irish another remarkable comeback. Thanks to Montana's heroics, Notre Dame clinched a dramatic 21-14 victory over the Tarheels by scoring 15 unanswered points in the final six minutes of the game. Though he was only a sophomore, Montana's legend began on that autumn day in 1975.
Frequent opponents in decades past, Notre Dame and North Carolina have not played one another since Montana's big day in 1975. The Irish and Tarheels first met on the hallowed turf of Yankee Stadium during the national title season of 1949 and were regulars on one another's schedules throughout the 1950s and 1960s, playing one another a total of sixteen times in 27 seasons. The Irish hold a commanding 15-1-0 record in games against the Tarheels. North Carolina's sole series victory came in Chapel Hill during N.D.'s woeful 1960 season.
In the last series game played at Notre Dame, the #7 Irish dispatched the unranked Tarheels, 16-0 in 1971 on the strength of sophomore K Bob Thomas's three field goals.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish last started 8-1 in 2002.
-The Irish have been ranked in all but five of their games against North Carolina.
-The Irish are 10-0-0 in games against UNC at Notre Dame Stadium.
-Notre Dame has beaten North Carolina the last five times the teams have met, winning by an average margin of 17 points.
-North Carolina is the eighth BCS conference school that the Irish have faced this season, and the second ACC school to meet N.D. on the gridiron in 2006 (Georgia Tech).
-The Irish are 73-27-2 (.725) against schools from the ACC. Their 16 games against North Carolina rank as third most against current ACC teams behind only Georgia Tech (33), and Miami (23).
-The Irish have faced every school from the ACC with the exceptions of Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
-Notre Dame last lost to an ACC team in 2003 (Florida State). The 37-0 defeat was the second worst home loss in school history.
-Saturday's win against Navy guaranteed that the Irish will have consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1997 (7-6) and 1998 (9-3).
-The win over Navy also moved Weis's record at N.D. to 16-4 through his first 20 games, only one-half game off the 16-3-1 standard for modern N.D. coaches set by Ara Parseghian through his first 20 games on the Irish sidelines (1964-65).
-The 680 points that the Irish have scored in Weis's first 20 games as head coach rank first for any coach at this point in his career at N.D., besting Jesse Harper's mark of 653 (1913-15).
-Conversely, the 467 points yielded by N.D. through Weis's first 20 games is the highest total at the 20-game mark in a coach's tenure in school history. The previous mark of 412 points yielded was during Ty Willingham's first 20 games (2002-03).
-Irish QB Brady Quinn's 296 yard, 3 TD effort against Navy moved him into 31st place on the NCAA all-time passing yardage list, as well as 19th place on the all-time TD passes list. He also extended school records for consecutive passes without an interception (169), and consecutive games with a pass completion (44), breaking a tie with Ron Powlus for the latter record.
-The Irish and Tarheels will next meet at UNC during the 2008 season.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last weekend:
#2 Michigan defeated unranked Northwestern at home, 17-3, moving their record to 858-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7462. This week, #2 Michigan hosts unranked Ball State.
#11 Notre Dame defeated unranked Navy in Baltimore, 38-14, moving their record to 818-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7445. This stands as N.D.'s highest winning percentage since the week following the 41-38 loss to Pittsburgh in 2004. This week, #11 Notre Dame hosts unranked North Carolina.
Michigan's lead stands at 17/10,000ths of a point.
This weekend, the Irish look to keep alive and well their prospects for a second straight BCS appearance. The game kicks off at 2:30 E.S.T. on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Tarheels!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Montana's final-minute heroics accentuated his professional career, but did not start with his time in San Francisco. As a student-athlete at Notre Dame, he led the Irish to a number of improbable victories, including the famous "Chicken Soup Game" win over Houston in the 1979 Cotton Bowl. His come-from-behind prowess at Notre Dame can be traced back to his first year as a regular for the Irish, his sophomore year of 1975, when he played as second and third-string QB for first-year coach Dan Devine. In a game played in Chapel Hill, Montana led two late scoring drives to come from behind to defeat the Tarheels.
Coming into the game with only 6:04 remaining and the Irish trailing 14-6, Montana led Notre Dame to a quick touchdown and two-point conversion to tie the game. After the Tarheels missed a field goal with just over a minute remaining, the Irish took possession again on their own 20-yard line. If the sophomore was nervous at this point, it did not show in the results of the drive. On the second play, Montana completed an 80-yard touchdown pass to Ted Burgmeier, giving the Irish another remarkable comeback. Thanks to Montana's heroics, Notre Dame clinched a dramatic 21-14 victory over the Tarheels by scoring 15 unanswered points in the final six minutes of the game. Though he was only a sophomore, Montana's legend began on that autumn day in 1975.
Frequent opponents in decades past, Notre Dame and North Carolina have not played one another since Montana's big day in 1975. The Irish and Tarheels first met on the hallowed turf of Yankee Stadium during the national title season of 1949 and were regulars on one another's schedules throughout the 1950s and 1960s, playing one another a total of sixteen times in 27 seasons. The Irish hold a commanding 15-1-0 record in games against the Tarheels. North Carolina's sole series victory came in Chapel Hill during N.D.'s woeful 1960 season.
In the last series game played at Notre Dame, the #7 Irish dispatched the unranked Tarheels, 16-0 in 1971 on the strength of sophomore K Bob Thomas's three field goals.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish last started 8-1 in 2002.
-The Irish have been ranked in all but five of their games against North Carolina.
-The Irish are 10-0-0 in games against UNC at Notre Dame Stadium.
-Notre Dame has beaten North Carolina the last five times the teams have met, winning by an average margin of 17 points.
-North Carolina is the eighth BCS conference school that the Irish have faced this season, and the second ACC school to meet N.D. on the gridiron in 2006 (Georgia Tech).
-The Irish are 73-27-2 (.725) against schools from the ACC. Their 16 games against North Carolina rank as third most against current ACC teams behind only Georgia Tech (33), and Miami (23).
-The Irish have faced every school from the ACC with the exceptions of Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
-Notre Dame last lost to an ACC team in 2003 (Florida State). The 37-0 defeat was the second worst home loss in school history.
-Saturday's win against Navy guaranteed that the Irish will have consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1997 (7-6) and 1998 (9-3).
-The win over Navy also moved Weis's record at N.D. to 16-4 through his first 20 games, only one-half game off the 16-3-1 standard for modern N.D. coaches set by Ara Parseghian through his first 20 games on the Irish sidelines (1964-65).
-The 680 points that the Irish have scored in Weis's first 20 games as head coach rank first for any coach at this point in his career at N.D., besting Jesse Harper's mark of 653 (1913-15).
-Conversely, the 467 points yielded by N.D. through Weis's first 20 games is the highest total at the 20-game mark in a coach's tenure in school history. The previous mark of 412 points yielded was during Ty Willingham's first 20 games (2002-03).
-Irish QB Brady Quinn's 296 yard, 3 TD effort against Navy moved him into 31st place on the NCAA all-time passing yardage list, as well as 19th place on the all-time TD passes list. He also extended school records for consecutive passes without an interception (169), and consecutive games with a pass completion (44), breaking a tie with Ron Powlus for the latter record.
-The Irish and Tarheels will next meet at UNC during the 2008 season.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last weekend:
#2 Michigan defeated unranked Northwestern at home, 17-3, moving their record to 858-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7462. This week, #2 Michigan hosts unranked Ball State.
#11 Notre Dame defeated unranked Navy in Baltimore, 38-14, moving their record to 818-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7445. This stands as N.D.'s highest winning percentage since the week following the 41-38 loss to Pittsburgh in 2004. This week, #11 Notre Dame hosts unranked North Carolina.
Michigan's lead stands at 17/10,000ths of a point.
This weekend, the Irish look to keep alive and well their prospects for a second straight BCS appearance. The game kicks off at 2:30 E.S.T. on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Tarheels!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Navy
Looking through the annals of Notre Dame football, back to the World War II years, fans will notice that the Irish played some interesting competitors in those days. Teams from places such as Great Lakes Naval Base in the northern suburbs of Chicago, or the Iowa Pre-Flight Academy provided some fierce competition for the Irish. In fact, the "Blue Jackets" of Great Lakes were the only squad to defeat the national champion Irish of 1943, while the Iowa Pre-Flight Seahawks were on the losing end of Notre Dame's second #1 vs. #2 game of that 1943 campaign. The strength of these military training facilities in the world of college football belied a fundamental change in the reality of the sport during World War II. Traditional football powers throughout the country saw prime talent leave their campuses for training bases in order to prepare for the massive military mobilization that the nation underwent in those years.
Despite this reality of the World War II era, Notre Dame continued to flourish, both on the gridiron, and as a university as a whole. In fact, during the four seasons of World War II (1942-45), the Irish went a combined 31-7-3 (.7927), despite only playing nine home games in those four seasons, due in large part to travel restrictions in place during those years. Five of the seven losses, and two of the three ties in that period came at the hands of Army, Navy, or Great Lakes. Meanwhile, the university as a whole continued to function as well as could be expected with the tremendous diversion of so many college-aged men into the armed forces. In great measure, this could be attributed to the U.S. Department of the Navy selecting Notre Dame as one of its five stations for the training of officers during the war. This move by the Navy essentially spared the university from financial ruin during the lean war years. As the story goes, as a sign of gratitude and goodwill, since World War II Notre Dame has left open on its football schedule a spot for the Naval Academy, a gesture that Navy continues to accept each year.
Of course, the Notre Dame-Navy series dates further back than World War II. Every year since 1927, when the Irish and the Midshipmen first met in Baltimore at Municipal Stadium, these two schools have squared off on the gridiron, making Notre Dame-Navy the longest continuous intersectional series in the country. The Irish have met no opponent more frequently than the Middies; this Saturday marks the 80th meeting between the schools. Overall, the Irish hold a 69-9-1 record over Navy. The 69 wins over Navy are the most for the Irish over any one opponent. Since junior QB Roger Staubach led the Middies to a 35-14 win over the Irish in South Bend in 1963, Notre Dame has won every game between the schools. The 42 consecutive wins by the Irish over the Midshipmen marks the longest such streak by one opponent over another in the history of major college football.
The early years of this series were marked by titanic battles between powerful teams. Navy was the opponent for the Dedication Game at the original Notre Dame Stadium in 1930. Between 1944 and 1950, Navy was one of only two teams to defeat the Irish (Army was the other). In more recent times, the disparity of talent between the schools has become more accentuated, but Navy frequently finds a way to give Notre Dame a tough game. During the teams' last meeting in Baltimore in 2002, the Irish needed to come back in the fourth quarter to pull out a 30-23 meeting. Irish QB Carlyle Holiday completed two fourth quarter TD passes to WR Omar Jenkins, giving #9 Notre Dame the come-from-behind victory. Two seasons ago, in the last neutral site game in the series, Notre Dame dispatched Navy with little difficulty, winning 27-9 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish last started 7-1 in 1998.
-Charlie Weis holds a 15-4 record through his first 19 games as Irish coach, just one game off the 16-3 standard of excellence for modern coaches set by Ara Parseghian in 1964-65.
-Notre Dame faces all three service academies this season. Overall, the Irish hold a 126-22-5 record against Air Force, Army, and Navy.
-Notre Dame holds a 43-6-1 record over Navy in games played at neutral sites.
-Saturday marks the 21st meeting between the schools in Baltimore. The Irish are 16-4 in the previous 20 series games played in Baltimore. Navy's last win over N.D. in Baltimore came in 1956 (33-7).
-The Irish have won 22 consecutive games against Navy played at neutral sites.
-Interestingly, the Middies have never hosted the Irish at their home stadium in Annapolis.
-The Irish are 33-1 against service academies since the start of the Holtz Era in 1986. The sole defeat was the overtime loss to Air Force at home in 1996.
-The Irish have scored 2,140 points against Navy, making them Notre Dame's most scored-against opponent.
-These teams will continue to meet annually, as they have each year since 1927.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last weekend:
#2 Michigan defeated unranked Iowa at home, 20-6, moving their record to 857-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7460. This week, #2 Michigan hosts unranked Northwestern.
#10 Notre Dame came back to defeat unranked UCLA at home, 20-17, moving their record to 817-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7442. This week, #11 Notre Dame meets unranked Navy in Baltimore.
Michigan's lead stands at a shade over 17/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish look to make it 43 in a row this weekend. The game kicks off at noon EDT on CBS.
Go Irish! Beat Navy!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Despite this reality of the World War II era, Notre Dame continued to flourish, both on the gridiron, and as a university as a whole. In fact, during the four seasons of World War II (1942-45), the Irish went a combined 31-7-3 (.7927), despite only playing nine home games in those four seasons, due in large part to travel restrictions in place during those years. Five of the seven losses, and two of the three ties in that period came at the hands of Army, Navy, or Great Lakes. Meanwhile, the university as a whole continued to function as well as could be expected with the tremendous diversion of so many college-aged men into the armed forces. In great measure, this could be attributed to the U.S. Department of the Navy selecting Notre Dame as one of its five stations for the training of officers during the war. This move by the Navy essentially spared the university from financial ruin during the lean war years. As the story goes, as a sign of gratitude and goodwill, since World War II Notre Dame has left open on its football schedule a spot for the Naval Academy, a gesture that Navy continues to accept each year.
Of course, the Notre Dame-Navy series dates further back than World War II. Every year since 1927, when the Irish and the Midshipmen first met in Baltimore at Municipal Stadium, these two schools have squared off on the gridiron, making Notre Dame-Navy the longest continuous intersectional series in the country. The Irish have met no opponent more frequently than the Middies; this Saturday marks the 80th meeting between the schools. Overall, the Irish hold a 69-9-1 record over Navy. The 69 wins over Navy are the most for the Irish over any one opponent. Since junior QB Roger Staubach led the Middies to a 35-14 win over the Irish in South Bend in 1963, Notre Dame has won every game between the schools. The 42 consecutive wins by the Irish over the Midshipmen marks the longest such streak by one opponent over another in the history of major college football.
The early years of this series were marked by titanic battles between powerful teams. Navy was the opponent for the Dedication Game at the original Notre Dame Stadium in 1930. Between 1944 and 1950, Navy was one of only two teams to defeat the Irish (Army was the other). In more recent times, the disparity of talent between the schools has become more accentuated, but Navy frequently finds a way to give Notre Dame a tough game. During the teams' last meeting in Baltimore in 2002, the Irish needed to come back in the fourth quarter to pull out a 30-23 meeting. Irish QB Carlyle Holiday completed two fourth quarter TD passes to WR Omar Jenkins, giving #9 Notre Dame the come-from-behind victory. Two seasons ago, in the last neutral site game in the series, Notre Dame dispatched Navy with little difficulty, winning 27-9 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish last started 7-1 in 1998.
-Charlie Weis holds a 15-4 record through his first 19 games as Irish coach, just one game off the 16-3 standard of excellence for modern coaches set by Ara Parseghian in 1964-65.
-Notre Dame faces all three service academies this season. Overall, the Irish hold a 126-22-5 record against Air Force, Army, and Navy.
-Notre Dame holds a 43-6-1 record over Navy in games played at neutral sites.
-Saturday marks the 21st meeting between the schools in Baltimore. The Irish are 16-4 in the previous 20 series games played in Baltimore. Navy's last win over N.D. in Baltimore came in 1956 (33-7).
-The Irish have won 22 consecutive games against Navy played at neutral sites.
-Interestingly, the Middies have never hosted the Irish at their home stadium in Annapolis.
-The Irish are 33-1 against service academies since the start of the Holtz Era in 1986. The sole defeat was the overtime loss to Air Force at home in 1996.
-The Irish have scored 2,140 points against Navy, making them Notre Dame's most scored-against opponent.
-These teams will continue to meet annually, as they have each year since 1927.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last weekend:
#2 Michigan defeated unranked Iowa at home, 20-6, moving their record to 857-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7460. This week, #2 Michigan hosts unranked Northwestern.
#10 Notre Dame came back to defeat unranked UCLA at home, 20-17, moving their record to 817-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7442. This week, #11 Notre Dame meets unranked Navy in Baltimore.
Michigan's lead stands at a shade over 17/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish look to make it 43 in a row this weekend. The game kicks off at noon EDT on CBS.
Go Irish! Beat Navy!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Notre Dame vs. UCLA
In recent times Notre Dame football fans were experiencing what many of them thought was the lowest of low times for the Irish. Former head coaches Bob Davie and Ty Willingham combined to lead the Irish to three losing seasons in five years, the only time in the long history of the program in which the Irish did that. Certainly, Ty Willingham's tenure, which saw the Irish go 5-10 in one fifteen-game stretch, and outscored 566-511 in his last two seasons as Irish coach, is one of the lowest points the program has ever seen.
Fans of a bit older vintage, however, remember a time that might have been even worse. Between 1954 and 1963, the Irish experienced the program's worst ten-year stretch, going a paltry 51-48 (.5152). (Compare this with 1995-2004, when the Irish went 73-47 for a .6083 winning rate.) Starting with 25-year-old rookie head coach Terry Brennan in 1954, N.D. football would nearly be run into the ground. Brennan would win a mere 64 percent of his games in five years, leading to his firing after the 1958 season. With the hiring of former Washington Redskins coach Joe Kuharich shortly thereafter, a trap door opened, sending the Irish spiraling even further downward. During his four-year tenure, the Irish would set a new standard for futility in South Bend, going 17-23 (.425). In the 1960 season, the Irish actually recorded an astounding eight-game losing streak (think about that for a minute) on the way to a final 2-8 record. Fans, who in 1956 thought it couldn't get any worse than the program's first-ever five-game losing streak that season, were proven wrong a mere four years later. Perhaps Kuharich saw the writing on the wall at the end of another mediocre season in 1962, his third 5-5 season in four years, and decided to leave Notre Dame for a position with the NFL office in New York.
With the hasty departure of Kuharich in February 1963, Notre Dame was left to scramble to fill its highest profile position. With the once proud football program in total disarray, Fathers Hesburgh and Joyce, the university's president and executive vice president who had so terribly botched the previous two football coaching hires, knew that they had to hire the right man this time. Instead of rushing through the process, Hesburgh and Joyce tabbed assistant coach Hugh Devore, a Notre Dame graduate and former recruit of Knute Rockne, to lead the team as an interim coach for the 1963 season. The decision was a short-term disaster, as the Irish went on to a Kuharichesque 2-7 campaign in 1963, losing their final five games of the season. Only the cancelation of their game against Iowa because of the assassination of President John Kennedy prevented the Irish from being an even worse 2-8. Of course, the pain and humiliation of that season would pay off in a way, as Hesburgh and Joyce took the time to find the right man for the job. Following the 1963 season, Ara Parseghian was named the new head coach, leading to one of the best periods in the history of the program.
During that 1963 season, referred to by Hall-of-Fame DL Pete Duranko as "the winter of our discontent," the Irish commenced a rare two-game home series against UCLA. The Bruins were one of only two teams that the Irish beat in 1963, along with arch-rival Southern Cal. (Just to show that fate can have a funny sense of humor, the Trojans would be the only team to defeat the Irish in the following 9-1 near-miss season of 1964.) Like several other members of the Pac-10 Conference, Notre Dame and UCLA have played sparingly on the gridiron. Those two games in 1963 and 1964 are the only ones staged between these two schools. The Irish won both games (27-12 in 1963, and 24-0 in 1964), giving them the all-time series lead, 2-0. Interestingly, both games were played in South Bend.
This Saturday, the series will resume for the first time since the Beatles were taking the world by storm and Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. Forty-two years ago, John Huarte and Jack Snow led an offensive showcase against the Bruins. This weekend, Brady Quinn, Rhema McKnight, and Jeff Samardzija look to do something similar.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-It has been 42 years since the Irish and Bruins last met on the gridiron. The Irish have taken breaks longer than 42 years between games in only seven other series: Rutgers (75 years, 1921-96); Baylor (73 years, 1925-98); Kansas (61 years, 1938-99); Ohio State (59 years, 1936-1995); Rice (58 years, 1915-73); Penn State (48 years, 1928-76); and Washington (46 years, 1949-95).
-The Irish are 10-3 at home against Pac-10 teams since 1997. All three losses came at the hands of Southern Cal (1997, 2003, 2005).
-Notre Dame is 75-39-6 (.650) versus opponents from the Pac-10 Conference all-time. At home, their record is 43-14-1 (.750) versus the Pac-10.
-Aside from schedule "regulars" Southern Cal and Stanford, the last Pac-10 school the Irish faced was Washington last season. The Irish won that game, 36-17.
-The Irish are 7-3 (.700) at home since Charlie Weis became head coach.
-Brady Quinn needs only 10 passing yards to become the 32nd player in college football history with 10,000 or more passing yards.
-These schools are scheduled to meet again next season in Notre Dame's first game in the Rose Bowl since 1925.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last weekend:
#4 Michigan defeated unranked Penn State on the road, 17-10, moving their record to 856-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7457. This week, #2 Michigan hosts unranked Iowa.
#9 Notre Dame was idle. Their record stands at 816-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7440. This week, #10 Notre Dame hosts unranked UCLA.
Michigan's lead expands to 17/10,000ths of a point.
The game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. E.D.T. on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Bruins!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Fans of a bit older vintage, however, remember a time that might have been even worse. Between 1954 and 1963, the Irish experienced the program's worst ten-year stretch, going a paltry 51-48 (.5152). (Compare this with 1995-2004, when the Irish went 73-47 for a .6083 winning rate.) Starting with 25-year-old rookie head coach Terry Brennan in 1954, N.D. football would nearly be run into the ground. Brennan would win a mere 64 percent of his games in five years, leading to his firing after the 1958 season. With the hiring of former Washington Redskins coach Joe Kuharich shortly thereafter, a trap door opened, sending the Irish spiraling even further downward. During his four-year tenure, the Irish would set a new standard for futility in South Bend, going 17-23 (.425). In the 1960 season, the Irish actually recorded an astounding eight-game losing streak (think about that for a minute) on the way to a final 2-8 record. Fans, who in 1956 thought it couldn't get any worse than the program's first-ever five-game losing streak that season, were proven wrong a mere four years later. Perhaps Kuharich saw the writing on the wall at the end of another mediocre season in 1962, his third 5-5 season in four years, and decided to leave Notre Dame for a position with the NFL office in New York.
With the hasty departure of Kuharich in February 1963, Notre Dame was left to scramble to fill its highest profile position. With the once proud football program in total disarray, Fathers Hesburgh and Joyce, the university's president and executive vice president who had so terribly botched the previous two football coaching hires, knew that they had to hire the right man this time. Instead of rushing through the process, Hesburgh and Joyce tabbed assistant coach Hugh Devore, a Notre Dame graduate and former recruit of Knute Rockne, to lead the team as an interim coach for the 1963 season. The decision was a short-term disaster, as the Irish went on to a Kuharichesque 2-7 campaign in 1963, losing their final five games of the season. Only the cancelation of their game against Iowa because of the assassination of President John Kennedy prevented the Irish from being an even worse 2-8. Of course, the pain and humiliation of that season would pay off in a way, as Hesburgh and Joyce took the time to find the right man for the job. Following the 1963 season, Ara Parseghian was named the new head coach, leading to one of the best periods in the history of the program.
During that 1963 season, referred to by Hall-of-Fame DL Pete Duranko as "the winter of our discontent," the Irish commenced a rare two-game home series against UCLA. The Bruins were one of only two teams that the Irish beat in 1963, along with arch-rival Southern Cal. (Just to show that fate can have a funny sense of humor, the Trojans would be the only team to defeat the Irish in the following 9-1 near-miss season of 1964.) Like several other members of the Pac-10 Conference, Notre Dame and UCLA have played sparingly on the gridiron. Those two games in 1963 and 1964 are the only ones staged between these two schools. The Irish won both games (27-12 in 1963, and 24-0 in 1964), giving them the all-time series lead, 2-0. Interestingly, both games were played in South Bend.
This Saturday, the series will resume for the first time since the Beatles were taking the world by storm and Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. Forty-two years ago, John Huarte and Jack Snow led an offensive showcase against the Bruins. This weekend, Brady Quinn, Rhema McKnight, and Jeff Samardzija look to do something similar.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-It has been 42 years since the Irish and Bruins last met on the gridiron. The Irish have taken breaks longer than 42 years between games in only seven other series: Rutgers (75 years, 1921-96); Baylor (73 years, 1925-98); Kansas (61 years, 1938-99); Ohio State (59 years, 1936-1995); Rice (58 years, 1915-73); Penn State (48 years, 1928-76); and Washington (46 years, 1949-95).
-The Irish are 10-3 at home against Pac-10 teams since 1997. All three losses came at the hands of Southern Cal (1997, 2003, 2005).
-Notre Dame is 75-39-6 (.650) versus opponents from the Pac-10 Conference all-time. At home, their record is 43-14-1 (.750) versus the Pac-10.
-Aside from schedule "regulars" Southern Cal and Stanford, the last Pac-10 school the Irish faced was Washington last season. The Irish won that game, 36-17.
-The Irish are 7-3 (.700) at home since Charlie Weis became head coach.
-Brady Quinn needs only 10 passing yards to become the 32nd player in college football history with 10,000 or more passing yards.
-These schools are scheduled to meet again next season in Notre Dame's first game in the Rose Bowl since 1925.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last weekend:
#4 Michigan defeated unranked Penn State on the road, 17-10, moving their record to 856-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7457. This week, #2 Michigan hosts unranked Iowa.
#9 Notre Dame was idle. Their record stands at 816-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7440. This week, #10 Notre Dame hosts unranked UCLA.
Michigan's lead expands to 17/10,000ths of a point.
The game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. E.D.T. on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Bruins!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Bye and By
This week's installment will be relatively brief because, like the Irish, I am taking a reprieve from the wear of the college football season.
The Irish are at the mid-point of the 2006 regular season and are taking a much-deserved week off from the gridiron grind. At 5-1, Notre Dame's record is respectable, particularly considering the difficulty of the first five weeks of their schedule. Keeping in mind 0-6 Stanford's record, N.D.'s six opponents have gone a combined 21-9 (.700) in games played against opponents other than the Irish, particularly impressive considering that all six opponents come from BCS conferences. Georgia Tech is ranked #13 and sits atop its division in the ACC. Penn State's only other loss was on the road at #1 Ohio State. #4 Michigan remains undefeated heading into this weekend's game at Penn State. Michigan State has started its mid-season swoon a few weeks early, but their record still stands at 3-3, while Purdue is 4-2 after laying an egg against Minnesota last weekend. Stanford is woeful at 0-6, really this season's only "gimme" so far.
So what of N.D.'s 5-1 start? Two-thousand-six marks the sixtieth time in the 118-season history of Notre Dame football that the Irish have won at least five of their first six games. In the previous 59 seasons of 5-1 or better starts (5-1-0, 5-0-1, or 6-0-0), Notre Dame has a combined record of 503-69-19 (.8672). Looking beyond mere wins or losses, N.D.'s overall point differential through its first six games is the third lowest of any team with a start of 5-1 or better (+40). Only 1998 (+35) and 1939 (+29) saw the Irish start with such a good record, but yet score so few points in relation to its opposition through six games. What does this mean? Many statisticians have observed that a team's overall point differential is a better prognosticator than its record at any given point. If that's the case, then we might expect the Irish to finish the regular season with a record of 9-3, given that other N.D. teams with similar point differentials ended up with winning percentages at or near 75%. Of course, it is also difficult to account for the quality of Notre Dame's opposition this season, as well as Coach Weis's propensity to "call off the dogs" when a game is apparently out of reach, as was the case with the Purdue and Stanford games the past two weeks.
As always, it is interesting to see how an Irish team takes a unique personality from year to year. This year's unit is maddening at times, seemingly content with their pre-season accolades, looking listless and disinterested at times. Yet, they showed a great deal of heart in winning at Georgia Tech, a win that looks more impressive with each passing week, and at Michigan State, where they came from 16 points back to win in the closing minutes of the game. The season's second half gears up next week with UCLA's first visit to South Bend in 42 years, as the Irish face a slate of five very winnable games before the season finale at Southern Cal.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last weekend:
#6 Michigan won at unranked Michigan State, 31-13, extending its record to 855-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7455. This week, #4 Michigan travels to unranked Penn State.
#12 Notre Dame won at home against unranked Stanford, 31-10, extending its record to 816-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7440. This week, #9 Notre Dame is idle.
Michigan's lead over Notre Dame stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
Enjoy the open weekend!
Go Irish!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
The Irish are at the mid-point of the 2006 regular season and are taking a much-deserved week off from the gridiron grind. At 5-1, Notre Dame's record is respectable, particularly considering the difficulty of the first five weeks of their schedule. Keeping in mind 0-6 Stanford's record, N.D.'s six opponents have gone a combined 21-9 (.700) in games played against opponents other than the Irish, particularly impressive considering that all six opponents come from BCS conferences. Georgia Tech is ranked #13 and sits atop its division in the ACC. Penn State's only other loss was on the road at #1 Ohio State. #4 Michigan remains undefeated heading into this weekend's game at Penn State. Michigan State has started its mid-season swoon a few weeks early, but their record still stands at 3-3, while Purdue is 4-2 after laying an egg against Minnesota last weekend. Stanford is woeful at 0-6, really this season's only "gimme" so far.
So what of N.D.'s 5-1 start? Two-thousand-six marks the sixtieth time in the 118-season history of Notre Dame football that the Irish have won at least five of their first six games. In the previous 59 seasons of 5-1 or better starts (5-1-0, 5-0-1, or 6-0-0), Notre Dame has a combined record of 503-69-19 (.8672). Looking beyond mere wins or losses, N.D.'s overall point differential through its first six games is the third lowest of any team with a start of 5-1 or better (+40). Only 1998 (+35) and 1939 (+29) saw the Irish start with such a good record, but yet score so few points in relation to its opposition through six games. What does this mean? Many statisticians have observed that a team's overall point differential is a better prognosticator than its record at any given point. If that's the case, then we might expect the Irish to finish the regular season with a record of 9-3, given that other N.D. teams with similar point differentials ended up with winning percentages at or near 75%. Of course, it is also difficult to account for the quality of Notre Dame's opposition this season, as well as Coach Weis's propensity to "call off the dogs" when a game is apparently out of reach, as was the case with the Purdue and Stanford games the past two weeks.
As always, it is interesting to see how an Irish team takes a unique personality from year to year. This year's unit is maddening at times, seemingly content with their pre-season accolades, looking listless and disinterested at times. Yet, they showed a great deal of heart in winning at Georgia Tech, a win that looks more impressive with each passing week, and at Michigan State, where they came from 16 points back to win in the closing minutes of the game. The season's second half gears up next week with UCLA's first visit to South Bend in 42 years, as the Irish face a slate of five very winnable games before the season finale at Southern Cal.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last weekend:
#6 Michigan won at unranked Michigan State, 31-13, extending its record to 855-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7455. This week, #4 Michigan travels to unranked Penn State.
#12 Notre Dame won at home against unranked Stanford, 31-10, extending its record to 816-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7440. This week, #9 Notre Dame is idle.
Michigan's lead over Notre Dame stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
Enjoy the open weekend!
Go Irish!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Stanford
Each fall on the Notre Dame campus, many freshmen are indoctrinated into the culture of the university through the airing of the classic 1940 film, Knute Rockne All American. Starring Pat O'Brien in the title role, the film features a number of memorable scenes, including future president Ronald Reagan delivering George Gipp's famous deathbed plea to "win one for the Gipper." One scene that is perhaps overlooked, but interesting nevertheless, features a bevy of Hall of Fame coaches discussing with Rockne an upcoming Congressional inquiry about the future of college football. Among the luminaries in that scene are Southern Cal coach Howard Jones, Chicago coach Amos Alonzo Stagg, and Stanford coach Glenn "Pop" Warner. Each of the coaches had relationships with Rockne to varying degrees. Jones, for example, owed his job at USC to a recommendation that Rockne proffered when university was looking to find a new head football coach, while Stagg could claim Rockne as part of his coaching tree through Stagg's pupil and Rockne's mentor, Jesse Harper, who played for Stagg at Chicago and coached at N.D. from 1913 through 1917.
Pop Warner's relationship with Rock was highlighted by their teams' lone meeting on the gridiron in the 1925 Rose Bowl. Notre Dame's first football game on the west coast served as a sign of the program's growing national popularity. In addition to the two coaching legends on either sideline, Notre Dame and Stanford each had rosters boasting tremendous talent. The Indians' biggest star was future Hall of Fame QB Ernie Nevers. Notre Dame, meanwhile, boasted one of the most famous backfields in college football history with QB Harry Stuhldreher, HBs Don Miller and Jim Crowley, and FB Elmer Layden, collectively known at "The Four Horsemen." Less heralded, but no less important was the offensive line, known to history as "The Seven Mules," led by Hall of Famers Adam Walsh and Edgar "Rip" Miller. The two teams were widely known for their offensive firepower, so everyone expected a shootout. It is ironic to note, then, that two defensive plays decided the game. In one of the greatest individual performances in school history Layden scored N.D.'s lone offensive touchdown, but is best remembered for returning interceptions of 70 and 80 yards for touchdowns. Stanford was left reeling from their offensive miscues and N.D.'s ability to capitalize on the Indians' mistakes. Layden's three-touchdown heroics gave Notre Dame a commanding 27-10 victory in their only bowl appearance until 1970, and solidified Notre Dame's claim on its first of eleven consensus national championships.
Despite the ancient beginnings of this series, Notre Dame and Stanford have not been frequent opponents until recent times. Before 1988, when the current series began, the schools had played only four games (1924, 1942, 1963, and 1964) in which the Irish compiled a 3-1-0 record. Since 1988 the schools have played one another every season, with the exception of 1995 & 1996, when Stanford left N.D.'s schedule to make room for a home-and-home series against Washington. Notre Dame leads the series, 14-6-0.
Much like Notre Dame's series with Purdue, the games that stand out in the Stanford series tend to be Cardinal victories, primarily because Notre Dame traditionally has owned the series. In 1990, "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell scored four touchdowns (all from one yard out) to lead the Cardinal to a 36-31 victory over the #1-ranked Irish at home, N.D.'s first home loss since 1986. That game would start a disturbing trend of higher-ranked Lou Holtz-coached Irish squads losing to inferior competition, particularly at home. In 1992, the #7 Irish were still in the thick of national title contention when they took a 16-0 lead over Stanford. The Cardinal, led by head coach Bill Walsh, stormed back to score 33 unanswered points, stealing victory at Notre Dame.
In the last series game played at Notre Dame, Ty Willingham continued his mastery over his former school, winning 23-15 in his final season on the Irish sidelines. Last year, the Irish executed a flawless two-minute drill to score the go-ahead points in the final minute, winning in the last game at old Stanford Stadium, 38-31.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish are 6-3 at home during the Weis Era.
-Saturday's game against Stanford will be the first of three games pitting the Irish against Pacific-10 teams this season. After a bye week, the Irish will host UCLA, and later will finish the season at Southern Cal during Thanksgiving weekend.
-So far, all six of Notre Dame's opponents this season have series with the Irish that date back to the 1920s or earlier.
-The Irish have won four consecutive games against Stanford. The Cardinal's last series win came during Thanksgiving weekend in 2001. Interestingly, the four-game Irish winning streak is the longest such streak by either team in the series.
-Notre Dame is 8-2-0 in series games played at Notre Dame Stadium, dating back to 1942. The Irish have won five consecutive home games against the Cardinal. Stanford's last win at Notre Dame was the aforementioned 33-16 victory in 1992.
-The Irish have started 5-1 or better only twice since 1993. In 1998, the Irish started 5-1 on the way to a final 9-3 record. In 2002, the Irish started 6-0 en route to a final 10-3 record.
-The last Irish coach to start his first two seasons with records of 5-1 or better was Ara Parseghian (1964, 6-0-0; 1965, 5-1-0).
-The Bay Area Notre Dame Alumni Club will present the winner of this game with The Legends Trophy, a combination of Irish crystal and California redwood. The trophy was presented for the first time at the 1989 game, a 27-17 Irish victory.
-These schools are scheduled to continue meeting through 2010.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last weekend:
#6 Michigan won at unranked Minnesota, 28-14, extending their record to 854-280-36 for a winning percentage of .7453. This week, #6 Michigan hosts the floundering Michigan State Spartans.
#12 Notre Dame defeated unranked Purdue at home, 35-21, extending their record to 815-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7438. This week, #12 Notre Dame hosts unranked Stanford.
For the third consecutive week, Michigan's lead stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish will look to keep their momentum from the MSU comeback and Purdue win going on Saturday. The game kicks off at 2:30 EDT on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Cardinal!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Pop Warner's relationship with Rock was highlighted by their teams' lone meeting on the gridiron in the 1925 Rose Bowl. Notre Dame's first football game on the west coast served as a sign of the program's growing national popularity. In addition to the two coaching legends on either sideline, Notre Dame and Stanford each had rosters boasting tremendous talent. The Indians' biggest star was future Hall of Fame QB Ernie Nevers. Notre Dame, meanwhile, boasted one of the most famous backfields in college football history with QB Harry Stuhldreher, HBs Don Miller and Jim Crowley, and FB Elmer Layden, collectively known at "The Four Horsemen." Less heralded, but no less important was the offensive line, known to history as "The Seven Mules," led by Hall of Famers Adam Walsh and Edgar "Rip" Miller. The two teams were widely known for their offensive firepower, so everyone expected a shootout. It is ironic to note, then, that two defensive plays decided the game. In one of the greatest individual performances in school history Layden scored N.D.'s lone offensive touchdown, but is best remembered for returning interceptions of 70 and 80 yards for touchdowns. Stanford was left reeling from their offensive miscues and N.D.'s ability to capitalize on the Indians' mistakes. Layden's three-touchdown heroics gave Notre Dame a commanding 27-10 victory in their only bowl appearance until 1970, and solidified Notre Dame's claim on its first of eleven consensus national championships.
Despite the ancient beginnings of this series, Notre Dame and Stanford have not been frequent opponents until recent times. Before 1988, when the current series began, the schools had played only four games (1924, 1942, 1963, and 1964) in which the Irish compiled a 3-1-0 record. Since 1988 the schools have played one another every season, with the exception of 1995 & 1996, when Stanford left N.D.'s schedule to make room for a home-and-home series against Washington. Notre Dame leads the series, 14-6-0.
Much like Notre Dame's series with Purdue, the games that stand out in the Stanford series tend to be Cardinal victories, primarily because Notre Dame traditionally has owned the series. In 1990, "Touchdown" Tommy Vardell scored four touchdowns (all from one yard out) to lead the Cardinal to a 36-31 victory over the #1-ranked Irish at home, N.D.'s first home loss since 1986. That game would start a disturbing trend of higher-ranked Lou Holtz-coached Irish squads losing to inferior competition, particularly at home. In 1992, the #7 Irish were still in the thick of national title contention when they took a 16-0 lead over Stanford. The Cardinal, led by head coach Bill Walsh, stormed back to score 33 unanswered points, stealing victory at Notre Dame.
In the last series game played at Notre Dame, Ty Willingham continued his mastery over his former school, winning 23-15 in his final season on the Irish sidelines. Last year, the Irish executed a flawless two-minute drill to score the go-ahead points in the final minute, winning in the last game at old Stanford Stadium, 38-31.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish are 6-3 at home during the Weis Era.
-Saturday's game against Stanford will be the first of three games pitting the Irish against Pacific-10 teams this season. After a bye week, the Irish will host UCLA, and later will finish the season at Southern Cal during Thanksgiving weekend.
-So far, all six of Notre Dame's opponents this season have series with the Irish that date back to the 1920s or earlier.
-The Irish have won four consecutive games against Stanford. The Cardinal's last series win came during Thanksgiving weekend in 2001. Interestingly, the four-game Irish winning streak is the longest such streak by either team in the series.
-Notre Dame is 8-2-0 in series games played at Notre Dame Stadium, dating back to 1942. The Irish have won five consecutive home games against the Cardinal. Stanford's last win at Notre Dame was the aforementioned 33-16 victory in 1992.
-The Irish have started 5-1 or better only twice since 1993. In 1998, the Irish started 5-1 on the way to a final 9-3 record. In 2002, the Irish started 6-0 en route to a final 10-3 record.
-The last Irish coach to start his first two seasons with records of 5-1 or better was Ara Parseghian (1964, 6-0-0; 1965, 5-1-0).
-The Bay Area Notre Dame Alumni Club will present the winner of this game with The Legends Trophy, a combination of Irish crystal and California redwood. The trophy was presented for the first time at the 1989 game, a 27-17 Irish victory.
-These schools are scheduled to continue meeting through 2010.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last weekend:
#6 Michigan won at unranked Minnesota, 28-14, extending their record to 854-280-36 for a winning percentage of .7453. This week, #6 Michigan hosts the floundering Michigan State Spartans.
#12 Notre Dame defeated unranked Purdue at home, 35-21, extending their record to 815-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7438. This week, #12 Notre Dame hosts unranked Stanford.
For the third consecutive week, Michigan's lead stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish will look to keep their momentum from the MSU comeback and Purdue win going on Saturday. The game kicks off at 2:30 EDT on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Cardinal!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Purdue
The year was 1896. The United States had just completed a presidential election, pitting Ohio Governor William McKinley against youthful orator William Jennings Bryan, the first of two such elections that McKinley would win. In the world of sports, the Games of the First Modern Olympiad were staged in Athens, Greece, some 1,500 years after the last Olympic Games of the ancient era. The great Cy Young already had won 192 of his Major League-record 511 wins, Ty Cobb was a nine-year-old boy, still nine years away from his Major League debut, and George Herman "Babe" Ruth was but a baby. At the University of Notre Dame, the finishing touches were being made on the latest addition to the university’s campus, a replica of the Shrine of Our Lady at Lourdes, France. It was 1896, and Notre Dame and Purdue played for the first time on the gridiron.
The Notre Dame "program" was still in its nascent days, having played only 25 games prior to their mid-November match-up with their neighbors from West Lafayette. Meanwhile, Purdue was playing in only its 52nd game. (Interestingly, Notre Dame and Purdue both played their first games in 1887.) Notre Dame's coach, Frank E. Hering, who would go on to later fame as the "Father of Mother’s Day," worked only on a part-time basis. Nevertheless, his three-year tenure at Notre Dame, during which he went 12-6-1 (.658), was the longest for a N.D. coach until 1913 when the school hired Jesse Harper to fill the role in a full-time capacity. Meanwhile, Purdue was enjoying its status as a charter member in the newly founded Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, forerunner to today's Big Ten Conference.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about that first game between these ancient foes was that it was a high-scoring affair. In an era where touchdowns were worth only four points, Notre Dame and Purdue put on what must have been for that era a clinic of offensive football. Purdue won that first game, 28-22. One-hundred and ten years later, the Irish and Boilermakers still play one another annually on the gridiron.
Like Michigan State, Southern Cal, and Navy, Purdue is a regular on Notre Dame football schedules. This Saturday will mark the 78th meeting between the schools, as well as the 61st consecutive season in which they will meet on the gridiron, dating back to 1946. Notre Dame holds a 50-25-2 record against Purdue. Aside from Navy, Notre Dame has played and beaten no opponent as frequently as Purdue. Conversely, no schools other than Southern Cal and Michigan State have beaten the Irish more frequently than Purdue.
Despite pressure from the Big Ten in the 1940s to drop the Irish from their football schedule, officials at Purdue always set aside a place for the Irish, surely a pragmatic move because of Notre Dame's immense popularity and national radio network. Historically, Purdue has scheduled Notre Dame at many times when other Big Ten school flatly refused to do so.
Perhaps because Notre Dame traditionally has owned this series, the games that stand out always seem to be Purdue victories. One such game was the 1950 contest at Notre Dame, in which the #1 Irish lost to Purdue, 28-14, snapping N.D.'s school-record 39-game unbeaten streak. Similarly, in 1968, the schools met again at Notre Dame with the Boilermakers ranked #1 and the Irish ranked #2. Purdue handed the Irish their only home loss ever in a #1 vs. #2 game.
The last time these teams met at Notre Dame, Purdue won for the first time in 30 years at N.D., 41-16, in one of N.D.'s worst home defeats ever. Last year, the Irish exacted revenge at Purdue, winning 49-28 in a game that was not as close as the score indicated.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish have won four of their first five games only three times since 1996, starting 4-1 in 1996, 5-0 in 2002, and 4-1 last season.
-At least one team has been ranked in this series in 19 of the last 20 seasons (2001).
-Notre Dame holds a 25-11-0 record against Purdue at home (22-10-0 at Notre Dame Stadium).
-The winner of the Notre Dame-Purdue series receives The Shillelagh Trophy, which was donated to the schools in 1957 by the late Joe McLaughlin, a merchant seaman and fan of Notre Dame, who brought the club from Ireland.
-These schools will continue to meet yearly, as they have every year since 1946.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last week:
#6 Michigan defeated unranked Wisconsin at home, 27-7, moving their record to 853-280-36 for a winning percentage of .7451. This week, #6 Michigan travels to unranked Minnesota.
#12 Notre Dame defeated unranked Michigan State on the road, 40-37, moving their record to 814-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7435. This week, #12 Notre Dame hosts unranked Purdue.
Michigan's lead stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish look to build on their amazing comeback in last week's game at Michigan State. The game is at 2:30 EDT on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Boilers!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
The Notre Dame "program" was still in its nascent days, having played only 25 games prior to their mid-November match-up with their neighbors from West Lafayette. Meanwhile, Purdue was playing in only its 52nd game. (Interestingly, Notre Dame and Purdue both played their first games in 1887.) Notre Dame's coach, Frank E. Hering, who would go on to later fame as the "Father of Mother’s Day," worked only on a part-time basis. Nevertheless, his three-year tenure at Notre Dame, during which he went 12-6-1 (.658), was the longest for a N.D. coach until 1913 when the school hired Jesse Harper to fill the role in a full-time capacity. Meanwhile, Purdue was enjoying its status as a charter member in the newly founded Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, forerunner to today's Big Ten Conference.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about that first game between these ancient foes was that it was a high-scoring affair. In an era where touchdowns were worth only four points, Notre Dame and Purdue put on what must have been for that era a clinic of offensive football. Purdue won that first game, 28-22. One-hundred and ten years later, the Irish and Boilermakers still play one another annually on the gridiron.
Like Michigan State, Southern Cal, and Navy, Purdue is a regular on Notre Dame football schedules. This Saturday will mark the 78th meeting between the schools, as well as the 61st consecutive season in which they will meet on the gridiron, dating back to 1946. Notre Dame holds a 50-25-2 record against Purdue. Aside from Navy, Notre Dame has played and beaten no opponent as frequently as Purdue. Conversely, no schools other than Southern Cal and Michigan State have beaten the Irish more frequently than Purdue.
Despite pressure from the Big Ten in the 1940s to drop the Irish from their football schedule, officials at Purdue always set aside a place for the Irish, surely a pragmatic move because of Notre Dame's immense popularity and national radio network. Historically, Purdue has scheduled Notre Dame at many times when other Big Ten school flatly refused to do so.
Perhaps because Notre Dame traditionally has owned this series, the games that stand out always seem to be Purdue victories. One such game was the 1950 contest at Notre Dame, in which the #1 Irish lost to Purdue, 28-14, snapping N.D.'s school-record 39-game unbeaten streak. Similarly, in 1968, the schools met again at Notre Dame with the Boilermakers ranked #1 and the Irish ranked #2. Purdue handed the Irish their only home loss ever in a #1 vs. #2 game.
The last time these teams met at Notre Dame, Purdue won for the first time in 30 years at N.D., 41-16, in one of N.D.'s worst home defeats ever. Last year, the Irish exacted revenge at Purdue, winning 49-28 in a game that was not as close as the score indicated.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-The Irish have won four of their first five games only three times since 1996, starting 4-1 in 1996, 5-0 in 2002, and 4-1 last season.
-At least one team has been ranked in this series in 19 of the last 20 seasons (2001).
-Notre Dame holds a 25-11-0 record against Purdue at home (22-10-0 at Notre Dame Stadium).
-The winner of the Notre Dame-Purdue series receives The Shillelagh Trophy, which was donated to the schools in 1957 by the late Joe McLaughlin, a merchant seaman and fan of Notre Dame, who brought the club from Ireland.
-These schools will continue to meet yearly, as they have every year since 1946.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is how things stand after last week:
#6 Michigan defeated unranked Wisconsin at home, 27-7, moving their record to 853-280-36 for a winning percentage of .7451. This week, #6 Michigan travels to unranked Minnesota.
#12 Notre Dame defeated unranked Michigan State on the road, 40-37, moving their record to 814-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7435. This week, #12 Notre Dame hosts unranked Purdue.
Michigan's lead stands at 15/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish look to build on their amazing comeback in last week's game at Michigan State. The game is at 2:30 EDT on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Boilers!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Notre Dame vs. Michigan State
Michigan State has been a member of the Big Ten Conference for many years, but that has not always been the case. Like Notre Dame, Michigan State lobbied for years to gain admission into the Big Ten. Also like Notre Dame, MSU's efforts were thwarted by the academic high-brows of the conference. Consequently, through the years Notre Dame and Michigan State forged a rivalry of sorts in football, playing on and off through the early decades of the twentieth century.
In 1946, the University of Chicago withdrew as a member of the Big Ten, having relinquished its athletic program to pursue a purely academic model. MSU believed that it was the perfect fit for the "Big Nine," but their attempts to join were thwarted again. By this time, things were so bleak for MSU's football program that longtime N.D. athletic director Edward "Moose" Krause offered to schedule a long series of games to help the fledgling program out. As it turned out, MSU's football program benefited greatly from this gesture, as well as from the fact that they were granted membership in the Big Ten in 1950.
Despite their newfound membership status, MSU never forgot the kind act by Krause. Despite attempts to get MSU to join other Big Ten schools in refusing to schedule Notre Dame, the Spartans continued to renew the series with the Irish, a series which continues to be played regularly to this day. Little could anyone have known that these dealings in the late 1940s and early 1950s would set the stage for one of the most famous college football games ever played.
Throughout the 1950s the programs of Notre Dame and Michigan State were headed in different directions. Frank Leahy left as N.D.'s head coach after one final undefeated campaign in 1953, his sixth in eleven seasons, and his departure ushered in an era of mediocre football under the Golden Dome. In the first ten post-Leahy years, the Irish went an unremarkable 51-48-0 (.515), one of the worst ten-year stretches in the long history of Irish football.
Meanwhile, State had hired Hugh "Duffy" Daugherty in 1954 to lead its football program. Daugherty took over a program in 1954 that was two years removed from a national championship. He would go on to coach nineteen years at MSU, still a record for longevity at the school. Under Daugherty, the Spartans would win 62% of their games, two Big Ten championships, as well as a share of the national championship in 1965. To underline the varying fortunes of these programs, in 1956, the #2 Spartans delivered a 47-14 shellacking to the unranked Irish at Notre Dame, one of the worst losses in Irish football history.
Things took a turn for the better for the Irish with the hiring of Northwestern coach Ara Parseghian following N.D.'s disastrous 2-7-0 campaign in 1963. Parseghian coached Notre Dame back to national prominence in his very first season in 1964, leading the Irish to a 9-0-0 start, before a season-ending loss at Southern Cal ruined a national championship. Making the most of the talent he had inherited, Parseghian delivered a 7-2-1 encore in his sophomore season.
By 1966 Parseghian and Daugherty had put together two of the most talented teams in the history of college football. Both rosters were filled with All-Americans and future NFL stars. Notre Dame's offense, led by QB Terry Hanratty and HB Nick Eddy, was heralded far and wide that year, and the defense was one of the great units in history. In a ten-game season in 1966, the Irish defense, led by Pete Duranko, Jim Lynch, and Alan Page, gave up a mere 24 points. State's defense was highly touted as well, featuring future NFL player and star of Police Academy movies, Bubba Smith, as well as George Webster.
As the season progressed, everyone could see the titanic match-up between these two schools looming. Entering the November 19 game, both schools had perfect records: #2 MSU 9-0-0; #1 N.D. 8-0-0. The hype surrounding the game was palpable. Five-dollar tickets to the game were scalped for $100 or more each, and that was if one could find a willing seller. NCAA rules restricting the national broadcast of the game were lifted because demand to see the game from coast to coast was so great. The 76,000 spectators in the stadium were treated to one of the hardest-hitting, smash-mouth games of football in history.
The Spartans stormed out to an early 10-0 lead, an amazing accomplishment against a defense that had only allowed 14 points all season. Things took a turn for the worse for the Irish when Hanratty, mistakenly hearing a HB draw play call from Parseghian as a QB draw, suffered a separated shoulder when he was creamed by the Spartan defense as he ran the ball. If the Irish were to come back, backup QB Coley O'Brien would have to do it. Just before the half, O'Brien completed a 34-yard touchdown pass to RB Bob Gladieux, who had replaced Eddy. (Eddy was unable to play because he had reinjured his shoulder after falling down icy steps coming off the team's train.). Early in the fourth quarter, Irish kicker Joe Azzaro tied the game with a field goal, 10-10.
From that point forward, the game would devolve into two defenses trying to outplay each other. In the closing minutes of the game, Daugherty opted to punt the ball to the Irish instead of going for the win. With 90 seconds remaining, Parseghian, his offense in tatters with his two biggest stars out of the game and his backup QB in danger of going into a diabetic coma, decided to run out the remaining time on the clock and play for the tie. Parseghian is still associated with the controversial decision to this day, even though he had played it safe, just as Daugherty had done. His rationale was that the Irish had come from too far back to risk losing the game. Additionally, the Irish had a remaining game the following week (at Southern Cal), and if they played well enough, they could claim the national championship. His decision would prove to be right, as the Irish went on to beat the Trojans 51-0, resulting in the program's eighth national title and first since the Leahy Era.
Forty years have passed and "The Game of the Century" has stood the test of time as one of the great contests in college football history. The fact that the game ended in a tie has lent it an air of fame that it would not enjoy had a winner been determined. Few other contests that the Irish have played measure up to the scope of this game, and all games in the Notre Dame-Michigan State series continue to be played in the long shadow of the 1966 contest.
Few series for Notre Dame date back as far as Michigan State. Since 1897, N.D. and MSU have been regular opponents. Aside from Navy (79), Southern Cal (77), and Purdue (77), no school has played Notre Dame as frequently as Michigan State. This weekend's game will mark the 70th meeting between the schools. Notre Dame traditionally has owned the series, leading MSU 43-25-1, though the Spartans have won seven of the last nine games, dating back to 1997.
In recent years, the schools have played a number of close games against one another. Since 1999, five of the last six games have been decided in the game's final minutes. Last season, the Irish came from 21 points down to send the game into overtime before the Spartans won, 44-41. The Spartans then proceeded to plant an MSU flag at mid-field in Notre Dame Stadium.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-Two of Notre Dame's greatest coaches served as assistants at Michigan State. Frank Leahy (1941-43, 1946-53) was an assistant in the 1930s for Jim Crowley, a Notre Dame graduate and member of the famed "Four Horsemen" backfield. Dan Devine (1975-80) served on Duffy Daugherty's staff in the 1950s.
-Notre Dame has won two straight games at Spartan Stadium.
-Navy (69), Purdue (50), and Pittsburgh (44) are the only opponents that N.D. has beaten more frequently than MSU. Only Southern Cal (30) has beaten N.D. more than MSU.
-Notre Dame is 17-13-1 in games played at Michigan State. In games played at Spartan Stadium, the Irish are 15-11-1.
-The Irish are 6-0 on the road under Charlie Weis.
-The winner of the Notre Dame-Michigan State game receives the Megaphone Trophy, sponsored by the Notre Dame and Michigan State clubs of Detroit.
-These schools are scheduled to continue meeting through the 2011 season.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last week:
#11 Michigan defeated #2 Notre Dame on the road, 47-21, moving their record to 852-280-36 for a winning percentage of .7449. This week, #6 Michigan hosts unranked Wisconsin.
#2 Notre Dame lost to #11 Michigan at home, 47-21, dropping their record to 813-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7433. This week, #12 Notre Dame travels to unranked Michigan State.
Michigan's lead expands to 16/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish have a lot to prove after last week's showing. The game is at 8:00 p.m. EDT on ABC.
Go Irish! Beat Spartans!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
In 1946, the University of Chicago withdrew as a member of the Big Ten, having relinquished its athletic program to pursue a purely academic model. MSU believed that it was the perfect fit for the "Big Nine," but their attempts to join were thwarted again. By this time, things were so bleak for MSU's football program that longtime N.D. athletic director Edward "Moose" Krause offered to schedule a long series of games to help the fledgling program out. As it turned out, MSU's football program benefited greatly from this gesture, as well as from the fact that they were granted membership in the Big Ten in 1950.
Despite their newfound membership status, MSU never forgot the kind act by Krause. Despite attempts to get MSU to join other Big Ten schools in refusing to schedule Notre Dame, the Spartans continued to renew the series with the Irish, a series which continues to be played regularly to this day. Little could anyone have known that these dealings in the late 1940s and early 1950s would set the stage for one of the most famous college football games ever played.
Throughout the 1950s the programs of Notre Dame and Michigan State were headed in different directions. Frank Leahy left as N.D.'s head coach after one final undefeated campaign in 1953, his sixth in eleven seasons, and his departure ushered in an era of mediocre football under the Golden Dome. In the first ten post-Leahy years, the Irish went an unremarkable 51-48-0 (.515), one of the worst ten-year stretches in the long history of Irish football.
Meanwhile, State had hired Hugh "Duffy" Daugherty in 1954 to lead its football program. Daugherty took over a program in 1954 that was two years removed from a national championship. He would go on to coach nineteen years at MSU, still a record for longevity at the school. Under Daugherty, the Spartans would win 62% of their games, two Big Ten championships, as well as a share of the national championship in 1965. To underline the varying fortunes of these programs, in 1956, the #2 Spartans delivered a 47-14 shellacking to the unranked Irish at Notre Dame, one of the worst losses in Irish football history.
Things took a turn for the better for the Irish with the hiring of Northwestern coach Ara Parseghian following N.D.'s disastrous 2-7-0 campaign in 1963. Parseghian coached Notre Dame back to national prominence in his very first season in 1964, leading the Irish to a 9-0-0 start, before a season-ending loss at Southern Cal ruined a national championship. Making the most of the talent he had inherited, Parseghian delivered a 7-2-1 encore in his sophomore season.
By 1966 Parseghian and Daugherty had put together two of the most talented teams in the history of college football. Both rosters were filled with All-Americans and future NFL stars. Notre Dame's offense, led by QB Terry Hanratty and HB Nick Eddy, was heralded far and wide that year, and the defense was one of the great units in history. In a ten-game season in 1966, the Irish defense, led by Pete Duranko, Jim Lynch, and Alan Page, gave up a mere 24 points. State's defense was highly touted as well, featuring future NFL player and star of Police Academy movies, Bubba Smith, as well as George Webster.
As the season progressed, everyone could see the titanic match-up between these two schools looming. Entering the November 19 game, both schools had perfect records: #2 MSU 9-0-0; #1 N.D. 8-0-0. The hype surrounding the game was palpable. Five-dollar tickets to the game were scalped for $100 or more each, and that was if one could find a willing seller. NCAA rules restricting the national broadcast of the game were lifted because demand to see the game from coast to coast was so great. The 76,000 spectators in the stadium were treated to one of the hardest-hitting, smash-mouth games of football in history.
The Spartans stormed out to an early 10-0 lead, an amazing accomplishment against a defense that had only allowed 14 points all season. Things took a turn for the worse for the Irish when Hanratty, mistakenly hearing a HB draw play call from Parseghian as a QB draw, suffered a separated shoulder when he was creamed by the Spartan defense as he ran the ball. If the Irish were to come back, backup QB Coley O'Brien would have to do it. Just before the half, O'Brien completed a 34-yard touchdown pass to RB Bob Gladieux, who had replaced Eddy. (Eddy was unable to play because he had reinjured his shoulder after falling down icy steps coming off the team's train.). Early in the fourth quarter, Irish kicker Joe Azzaro tied the game with a field goal, 10-10.
From that point forward, the game would devolve into two defenses trying to outplay each other. In the closing minutes of the game, Daugherty opted to punt the ball to the Irish instead of going for the win. With 90 seconds remaining, Parseghian, his offense in tatters with his two biggest stars out of the game and his backup QB in danger of going into a diabetic coma, decided to run out the remaining time on the clock and play for the tie. Parseghian is still associated with the controversial decision to this day, even though he had played it safe, just as Daugherty had done. His rationale was that the Irish had come from too far back to risk losing the game. Additionally, the Irish had a remaining game the following week (at Southern Cal), and if they played well enough, they could claim the national championship. His decision would prove to be right, as the Irish went on to beat the Trojans 51-0, resulting in the program's eighth national title and first since the Leahy Era.
Forty years have passed and "The Game of the Century" has stood the test of time as one of the great contests in college football history. The fact that the game ended in a tie has lent it an air of fame that it would not enjoy had a winner been determined. Few other contests that the Irish have played measure up to the scope of this game, and all games in the Notre Dame-Michigan State series continue to be played in the long shadow of the 1966 contest.
Few series for Notre Dame date back as far as Michigan State. Since 1897, N.D. and MSU have been regular opponents. Aside from Navy (79), Southern Cal (77), and Purdue (77), no school has played Notre Dame as frequently as Michigan State. This weekend's game will mark the 70th meeting between the schools. Notre Dame traditionally has owned the series, leading MSU 43-25-1, though the Spartans have won seven of the last nine games, dating back to 1997.
In recent years, the schools have played a number of close games against one another. Since 1999, five of the last six games have been decided in the game's final minutes. Last season, the Irish came from 21 points down to send the game into overtime before the Spartans won, 44-41. The Spartans then proceeded to plant an MSU flag at mid-field in Notre Dame Stadium.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \
Other notes:
-Two of Notre Dame's greatest coaches served as assistants at Michigan State. Frank Leahy (1941-43, 1946-53) was an assistant in the 1930s for Jim Crowley, a Notre Dame graduate and member of the famed "Four Horsemen" backfield. Dan Devine (1975-80) served on Duffy Daugherty's staff in the 1950s.
-Notre Dame has won two straight games at Spartan Stadium.
-Navy (69), Purdue (50), and Pittsburgh (44) are the only opponents that N.D. has beaten more frequently than MSU. Only Southern Cal (30) has beaten N.D. more than MSU.
-Notre Dame is 17-13-1 in games played at Michigan State. In games played at Spartan Stadium, the Irish are 15-11-1.
-The Irish are 6-0 on the road under Charlie Weis.
-The winner of the Notre Dame-Michigan State game receives the Megaphone Trophy, sponsored by the Notre Dame and Michigan State clubs of Detroit.
-These schools are scheduled to continue meeting through the 2011 season.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football's all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last week:
#11 Michigan defeated #2 Notre Dame on the road, 47-21, moving their record to 852-280-36 for a winning percentage of .7449. This week, #6 Michigan hosts unranked Wisconsin.
#2 Notre Dame lost to #11 Michigan at home, 47-21, dropping their record to 813-267-42 for a winning percentage of .7433. This week, #12 Notre Dame travels to unranked Michigan State.
Michigan's lead expands to 16/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish have a lot to prove after last week's showing. The game is at 8:00 p.m. EDT on ABC.
Go Irish! Beat Spartans!
Big Mike
copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006
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