I wasn’t a believer in Notre Dame football when the season started. This morning, I re-read the July post I had written about the Irish and my outlook was even bleaker than I recalled. But these Fighting Irish team is making a believer out of me. They’ve now put together three quality wins (Michigan, Stanford, […]
After Notre Dame’s 20-19 home loss to Georgia on Saturday night, the media vultures have been out and swirling around head coach Brian Kelly. The reaction of the fan base seems to be along the lines “we let another one get away.” I understand the reaction—heck, I wrote a blog post before the season saying […]
Brian Kelly enters his eighth season at Notre Dame and is feeling real pressure over his job for the first time. Kelly has produced two major bowl appearances in seven years and been the most successful Notre Dame coach since Lou Holtz left in 1996. But that only elevates Kelly above a few other coaches […]
The glorious legacy of Notre Dame football history is no secret. Neither are the program’s current struggles, at least relative to the expectations of a traditional national power. That’s what makes Lou Holtz’s tenure in South Bend, from 1986-96, stand out. The Last Golden Age is a season-by-season narrative on each year of the Holtz era
Whether the head coach’s fifth year will produce the proud program’s first major bowl win since 1993 and its first national title since 1988 will require a lot to go right, but Notre Dame continues to appear moving on an upward trajectory.
The 1975 Notre Dame football team has been immortalized in Hollywood, as the climactic year of Rudy, the partially true/partially mythical story of undersized Dan Ruettiger, who fought for a roster spot with the program he loved. On the field, 1975 Notre Dame football didn’t quite meet expectations.
The 1980 Notre Dame football team began the season with some built-in motivation. Head coach Dan Devine, who had led the school to a national title in 1977, and enjoyed prior success coaching Missouri and the Green Bay Packers, announced he would retire at the end of the season. Notre Dame looked like it might ride the motivational wave all the way to another national championship, before coming up short in the end.
The Notre Dame football program had enjoyed a great run with Joe Montana at quarterback. The man who was already a college legend when he left South Bend following the 1978 season and was about to become an NFL legend with the San Francisco 49ers, had led Notre Dame to a national title in 1977 and a historic Cotton Bowl comeback win in 1978 had to be replaced. The transitional year of 1979 Notre Dame football proved to be a rocky indeed.
Notre Dame sports was on a high in the fall of 1978. The football team won the national title following the 1977 season. Three months later, the basketball program made the Final Four. The 1978 Notre Dame football team was one marked by comebacks—they got off to a slow start in the season itself, and had several games where they had to rally.
…Devine’s effort to replace the legendary Ara Paraseghian was off to a slow start and it needed to change. It took some time, and a lot of stops and starts along the way, but the 1976 Notre Dame football team brought about that change and laid the foundation for even bigger things ahead.
Brian Kelly finally woke up the echoes in South Bend, as Notre Dame football became relevant on the national stage for the first time since the departure of Lou Holtz following the 1996 season. The Irish went 12-0 in the regular season, won a big statement game at Oklahoma and reached the BCS National Championship Game.
If there’s been a knock on Notre Dame football over the last several years—and let’s face there have been quite a few—perhaps the foremost is that the Irish have been a little soft. The defense in general was not very good and in particular, the team’s ability to match up in a physical battle was decidedly in doubt. On Saturday night in East Lansing, Notre Dame sent a clear message that this year’s team is different. Michigan State brought a good offensive line and big punishing back in Le’Veon Bell into the game. They scored only three points as a veteran front seven on the Irish defense turned in a shutdown effort. With Notre Dame now 3-0, is this team capable of making a major bowl game for the first time since 2006 and winning one for the first time since 1993?