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.

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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