Notre Dame vs. Duke

A first-time head coach in his third season at Notre Dame coming off respectable performances in his first two years on the Irish sidelines.

A third season on the sidelines featuring record-setting loss after record-setting loss.

A seemingly talented Irish squad setting the school record for losses in a season.

Each of these statements describes the situation of the 2007 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Each of these statements also describes the situation that faced the 1956 Notre Dame Fighting Irish. While Charlie Weis's Irish have found new and creative ways to lose to greatly overmatched opponents in the past two weeks, the same could be said for Terry Brennan's Irish in 1956. What more could be said about Brennan's team, who lost not one, but two games by margins of 40 points?

Brennan was a star player for Frank Leahy's post-World War II juggernaut, helping the Irish to win national titles in 1946 and 1947. After graduating from Notre Dame in 1949, he became head coach of Chicago's Mount Carmel High School. After a very successful stint with Mount Carmel, which included three consecutive city championships, Brennan returned to Notre Dame in 1953 to serve as coach of Leahy's freshman squad.

After leading the Irish an undefeated campaign in 1953, his sixth in eleven seasons at Notre Dame, Leahy retired from coaching at the tender age of 46. (Whether Leahy left willingly or was forced out by university president Theodore Hesburgh is a matter for another email.) With Leahy out of the picture, Hesburgh and university executive vice president Edmund Joyce named the 25-year-old Brennan as the new head coach. The alarmed reaction of Irish fans at the naming of such an untested coach was muted when Brennan started 9-1 in 1954 and following that with an 8-2 showing in his sophomore campaign in 1955.

The wheels came off for Brennan's Irish in 1956, however. At that point, the Irish had played 68 seasons of college football and had never lost more than five games in a single season. Prior to 1956, Heartley "Hunk" Anderson's 1933 squad (3-5-1) held the distinction as the worst in modern times. Brennan's 1956 squad set new records for futility, tallying a horrid 2-8 record, including a school-record 40-0 loss to Michigan State at home, as well as a 48-8 loss at Iowa. For a program that seven years before had capped a stretch of four consecutive undefeated seasons, such a record must have seemed unimaginable.

Doubts about Brennan resurfaced, but were somewhat assuaged in 1957 when the Irish rebounded with a 7-3 record, including a 7-0 win at Oklahoma that ended the Sooners' 47-game winning streak (still an NCAA record). In 1958, Brennan's Irish seemed ready to build on the momentum of the previous season, but it was not meant to be. Notre Dame struggled to a 6-4 record. Following that season, Brennan was unceremoniously shown the door on Christmas Eve.

The writing on the wall for how the 1958 season would play out could have been seen in that year's fourth game. Following a 14-2 loss to an Army squad that finished with an 8-0-1 record, Brennan's Irish hosted the mediocre Duke Blue Devils. Despite considerably more talent and the home-field advantage, the Irish struggled mightily against the Devils, managing to squeak out a 9-7 win. That 1958 contest between the Irish and Devils was the first on the gridiron between the schools. Since then, the teams have met twice more. The Irish capped a forgettable 1961 campaign by losing at Duke, 37-13. In 1966, the Irish exacted revenge and then some; en route to that season's national championship, the Irish throttled the Devils, 64-0 at Notre Dame, in one of the most lopsided wins in school history. Overall, the Irish lead the all-time series against Duke, 2-1-0.

Saturday's contest will mark the final home game for the class of 2008. This class has dealt with much adversity, and will forever be remembered as the class that saw the Navy streak come to an end. For the seven members of the class of 2008, here's to hoping that the Irish can finally win a game at home.

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-The Irish have never started a season 1-10. The Irish have also never gone winless at home.

-Since the start of the Holtz Era in 1986, the Irish are 15-6 (.714) in home finales.

-The Irish are 2-0 in home finales under Charlie Weis.

-It has been 41 years since the Irish and Devils last met on the gridiron. The Irish have taken breaks longer than 41 years between games in only eight 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); Washington (46 years, 1949-95); and UCLA (42 years, 1964-2006).

-These schools are not scheduled to meet again.


-An update on the all-time wins list:

(1) Michigan, 848
(2) Notre Dame, 822

(3) Texas, 820

In a word, infuriating.

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

Go Irish! Beat Devils!
Big Mike

copyright Michael D. McAllister 2007