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.

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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