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

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

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

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