Notre Dame vs. UCLA

In recent times Notre Dame football fans were experiencing what many of them thought was the lowest of low times for the Irish. Former head coaches Bob Davie and Ty Willingham combined to lead the Irish to three losing seasons in five years, the only time in the long history of the program in which the Irish did that. Certainly, Ty Willingham's tenure, which saw the Irish go 5-10 in one fifteen-game stretch, and outscored 566-511 in his last two seasons as Irish coach, is one of the lowest points the program has ever seen.

Fans of a bit older vintage, however, remember a time that might have been even worse. Between 1954 and 1963, the Irish experienced the program's worst ten-year stretch, going a paltry 51-48 (.5152). (Compare this with 1995-2004, when the Irish went 73-47 for a .6083 winning rate.) Starting with 25-year-old rookie head coach Terry Brennan in 1954, N.D. football would nearly be run into the ground. Brennan would win a mere 64 percent of his games in five years, leading to his firing after the 1958 season. With the hiring of former Washington Redskins coach Joe Kuharich shortly thereafter, a trap door opened, sending the Irish spiraling even further downward. During his four-year tenure, the Irish would set a new standard for futility in South Bend, going 17-23 (.425). In the 1960 season, the Irish actually recorded an astounding eight-game losing streak (think about that for a minute) on the way to a final 2-8 record. Fans, who in 1956 thought it couldn't get any worse than the program's first-ever five-game losing streak that season, were proven wrong a mere four years later. Perhaps Kuharich saw the writing on the wall at the end of another mediocre season in 1962, his third 5-5 season in four years, and decided to leave Notre Dame for a position with the NFL office in New York.

With the hasty departure of Kuharich in February 1963, Notre Dame was left to scramble to fill its highest profile position. With the once proud football program in total disarray, Fathers Hesburgh and Joyce, the university's president and executive vice president who had so terribly botched the previous two football coaching hires, knew that they had to hire the right man this time. Instead of rushing through the process, Hesburgh and Joyce tabbed assistant coach Hugh Devore, a Notre Dame graduate and former recruit of Knute Rockne, to lead the team as an interim coach for the 1963 season. The decision was a short-term disaster, as the Irish went on to a Kuharichesque 2-7 campaign in 1963, losing their final five games of the season. Only the cancelation of their game against Iowa because of the assassination of President John Kennedy prevented the Irish from being an even worse 2-8. Of course, the pain and humiliation of that season would pay off in a way, as Hesburgh and Joyce took the time to find the right man for the job. Following the 1963 season, Ara Parseghian was named the new head coach, leading to one of the best periods in the history of the program.

During that 1963 season, referred to by Hall-of-Fame DL Pete Duranko as "the winter of our discontent," the Irish commenced a rare two-game home series against UCLA. The Bruins were one of only two teams that the Irish beat in 1963, along with arch-rival Southern Cal. (Just to show that fate can have a funny sense of humor, the Trojans would be the only team to defeat the Irish in the following 9-1 near-miss season of 1964.) Like several other members of the Pac-10 Conference, Notre Dame and UCLA have played sparingly on the gridiron. Those two games in 1963 and 1964 are the only ones staged between these two schools. The Irish won both games (27-12 in 1963, and 24-0 in 1964), giving them the all-time series lead, 2-0. Interestingly, both games were played in South Bend.

This Saturday, the series will resume for the first time since the Beatles were taking the world by storm and Lyndon Johnson was in the White House. Forty-two years ago, John Huarte and Jack Snow led an offensive showcase against the Bruins. This weekend, Brady Quinn, Rhema McKnight, and Jeff Samardzija look to do something similar.

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Other notes:

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

-The Irish are 10-3 at home against Pac-10 teams since 1997. All three losses came at the hands of Southern Cal (1997, 2003, 2005).

-Notre Dame is 75-39-6 (.650) versus opponents from the Pac-10 Conference all-time. At home, their record is 43-14-1 (.750) versus the Pac-10.

-Aside from schedule "regulars" Southern Cal and Stanford, the last Pac-10 school the Irish faced was Washington last season. The Irish won that game, 36-17.

-The Irish are 7-3 (.700) at home since Charlie Weis became head coach.

-Brady Quinn needs only 10 passing yards to become the 32nd player in college football history with 10,000 or more passing yards.

-These schools are scheduled to meet again next season in Notre Dame's first game in the Rose Bowl since 1925.

-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:

#4 Michigan defeated unranked Penn State on the road, 17-10, moving their record to 856-280-36 for an all-time winning percentage of .7457. This week, #2 Michigan hosts unranked Iowa.

#9 Notre Dame was idle. Their record stands at 816-267-42 for an all-time winning percentage of .7440. This week, #10 Notre Dame hosts unranked UCLA.

Michigan's lead expands to 17/10,000ths of a point.

The game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. E.D.T. on NBC.

Go Irish! Beat Bruins!
Big Mike

copyright Michael D. McAllister 2006