Notre Dame vs. Air Force

Lou Holtz was a tired man by the time the 1996 season came around. He had coached with distinction for many years, and was still widely loved at Notre Dame despite a 6-5-1 record in 1994 and a 9-3 record in 1995. Change was in the air at Notre Dame in 1996, however. Holtz's good friend and golfing buddy Dick Rosenthal had stepped down as athletic director, replaced by Mike Wadsworth, who had played football at N.D. in the 1960s. As is the case with so many athletic directors, Wadsworth was eager to place his own unique stamp on the Notre Dame athletic department.

Wadsworth took the athletic department helm in the fall of 1995. Following that football season, he conducted a job evaluation for Holtz, giving him (for the first time) an actual job description, laying out the expectations for the head football coach. Holtz had been used to dealing with Wadsworth's predecessors, Gene Corrigan and Rosenthal, men who got out of the coach's way when it came to the football program. That would not be the case with Wadsworth. Perhaps because of Wadsworth's impressive achievements (football player at N.D., successful lawyer, and a diplomatic career as well), Holtz felt intimidated by his new boss.

Things came to a head in South Bend in October 1996. Holtz had never seen his Irish lose to a service academy in his eleven years on the sidelines. Air Force came into town, lightly regarded, especially by an Irish squad that had just tallied 54 points against a top-20 Washington team two weeks before. The Falcons defense came ready to play, holding the Irish to a staggering 67 yards rushing. Benefiting from a botched call that took away a potential game-winning touchdown from Irish WR Raki Nelson, Air Force pushed the game into overtime. There, the Falcons scored a field goal, and then shut down the anemic Irish offense to clinch a 20-17 victory.

Holtz and the Irish were devastated. Fans did not know what to make of such a loss, and many thought that perhaps Holtz had finally lost his touch. Holtz certainly felt that way, and (according to Wadsworth) over the next several weeks had numerous conversations with his boss about resigning. A month after the Air Force loss, Holtz announced that he was stepping down, stating that he didn't want to do it, but felt it was the right thing to do. Speculation ran rampant. Was Holtz being forced out? To this day, Holtz has remained silent on the situation, and no one knows for sure what led up to the resignation of Notre Dame's last championship-winning coach.

Did Holtz leave of his own volition, or did Wadsworth and the university administration force him out because the football program had become too big for the administration's comfort? The answer may never be known, but the consequences of Holtz's resignation/firing in 1996 are still being felt today. In his eleven years as head coach, the Irish won over 76% of their games. Since Holtz left, the Irish have had a line of mediocre hires including (perhaps) the current coach, Charlie Weis. In the eleven post-Holtz years, Holtz's three successors have tallied an underwhelming record of 76-55. Overall, the program's 58% winning percentage in the last eleven seasons is one of the worst eleven-year stretches ever experienced by Notre Dame football. And while the reasons for Holtz's departure were complex, the dominos all started falling when the Air Force Falcons came to town during that autumn eleven years ago.

As is the case with the other service academies, and as this story indicates, 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 22-5-0 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 fifth win was that monumental contest in 1996.

In the last series game played at Notre Dame, the Irish bounced back, avenging themselves with a 34-31 overtime victory over the Falcons at Notre Dame Stadium in 2000. The most recent series games were played in Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs in 2002 and last season, games the Irish both won.

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Other notes:

-Notre Dame is 1-8 for the second time in school history. Only the abysmal 1960 season shares this distinction with the 2007 Irish. Notre Dame has never started a season 1-9, nor have the Irish ever lost more than eight games in a single season.

-The Irish have won 12 of their last 13 against the Falcons, dating back to 1986. The sole loss came in the aforementioned overtime game at N.D. in 1996.

-Notre Dame holds a 10-3 record against Air Force at Notre Dame Stadium.

-The Irish hold a 128-23-5 (.837) record against the three service academies. Last week, the Irish lost to a service academy for the first time since 1996, and to Navy for the first time since November 1963.


-The last time the Irish lost to two service academies in the same season was 1944, when Army and Navy both downed Notre Dame.

-For only the second time this season (Navy), the Irish will play a school without a BCS conference affiliation.

-These schools are not scheduled to meet again.

-An update on the all-time wins list that's sure to make Irish fan's blood boil:

(1) Michigan, 868
(2) Notre Dame, 822
(3) Texas, 819

The game kicks off on NBC at 2:30 E.S.T. on Saturday.

Go Irish! Beat Falcons!
Big Mike

For more information on the Holtz-Wadsworth situation in 1996, consult Steve Delsohn's Talking Irish.