Tag: Bob Davie

Notre Dame Football: Reliving Pete Carroll’s Dominance Over Irish

These were some tough years to be a Notre Dame fan.

It was a massive football news day Wednesday as word came out [autotag]Pete Carroll[/autotag] was stepping down as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks.  He led the Seahawks to a championship in Super Bowl 48 but before his run in the Pacific Northwest, Carroll oversaw a dynasty at USC.

And that dynasty came largely at the expense of Notre Dame.  Sure he wasn’t exactly coaching against Ara Parseghian or Lou Holtz, but dominance is dominance.

The years from 2001-2009 aren’t particularly fun for Notre Dame fans to look back on but with Carroll stepping down let’s take a quick stride down memory lane and remember just how bad things were in this rivalry when he was leading USC.

Nick Saban Owned Notre Dame: Numbers Behind The Dominance

The average halftime score…yikes, Irish fans.

The huge news out Wednesday is that legendary head football coach [autotag]Nick Saban[/autotag] is retiring from Alabama.  The 72-year old leaves behind a coaching legacy that includes seven national championships and the greatest modern coaching career the sport has seen.

Saban began his head coaching career spending one year at Toledo in 1990 before joining the staff with the Cleveland Browns.  Before too long he was back in college as Michigan State‘s head coach he spent five seasons.

He left for LSU where he won the 2003 national championship, then to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins before returning to the college ranks and developing Alabama back into a dynasty.

In all that time Nick Saban coached five games against Notre Dame as a head coach.  Saban’s teams went 5-0 and only one game was even moderately close.

Here is a closer look at just how much Nick Saban owned Notre Dame during his illustrious head coaching career.

Notre Dame Football: All-Time Losingest Coaches

The program has lost more than 300 times in its history. So which coaches are responsible for most of those?

Notre Dame has a long football history that fans nationwide flock to.  “Win one for the Gipper”, the Four Horsemen, and the “Play Like a Champion Today” sign are all parts of Fighting Irish lore.  In that long football history that has been played at the university since an 8-0 loss to Michigan in November of 1887, it hasn’t always been national championships and 10-win seasons.

In fact, Notre Dame has lost a total of 330 times in the more than 13 decades they’ve been playing football.  We know which coaches won the most of those games as Brian Kelly set that record before leaving in 2021.  But who has lost the most as Notre Dame’s head coach?

Marcus Freeman isn’t there – yet – but with five in 13 career games he’s already in the top 16.

We went ahead and listed the the top 13 in program history as that’s how many have lost double-digit games at Notre Dame.  Here they are, the all-time losingest coaches at Notre Dame.

Watch: Top Ten defensive ending plays in Notre Dame football history

I’m not going to argue that the top two on this wound up sealing wins for Notre Dame over top-ranked teams in the nation. However, you can’t convince me there is a more impressive play on the list than the two goal line tackles made on the east coast to seal victories. 

Notre Dame released another NDTop10 over the weekend with the greatest defensive plays to seal victories being counted down.  In looking at this list it’s important to go realize they’re still thinking biggest wins and not so much actual toughest or most-amazing play to win the games.

Before I share my thought after and what I would have put number one, take a watch for yourself.  Some great memories in this one, almost all I could tell you where I was watching the moments unfold.

Well, except for the couple I wasn’t born yet for…

I’m not going to argue that the top two on this wound up sealing wins for Notre Dame over top-ranked teams in the nation. However, you can’t convince me there is a more impressive play on the list than the two goal line tackles made on the east coast to seal victories.  Stanford in 2012 resulting in a 12-0 regular season I think makes it more impressive than any one of the tackles on that stand, as great as it was.

To me the most impressive plays on the list come in 1995 against Army and in 1998, especially the third down tackle against Boston College.  Both tackles are like running into brick walls, just entirely stopped dead in their tracks, even if bigger opponents and games were won by balls being batted away.

Watch: 1997 highlights of Notre Dame’s win over Hawaii

Do you recall this game?

The 1997 season started horribly for Notre Dame and first-year coach [autotag]Bob Davie[/autotag]. A 2-5 start meant the Irish had to win out for bowl consideration. They came into their regular-season finale at Hawaii having won their previous four, but getting their much-needed fifth straight win proved to be easier said than done. But [autotag]Scott Cengia[/autotag]’s chip-shot field with seconds to play put the Irish over the top, 23-22, and the highlights were on that night’s “SportsCenter” for all to see:

When asked to comment on the comeback victory, Davie said the following:

“I’m really proud of the way our team came back. I thought that if there was a way, our players would pull it out because the attitude on that sideline was steady.”

If the attitude was steady at the Independence Bowl a month later, it wasn’t enough as LSU crushed the Irish in a virtual home game, 27-9. Still, the regular-season finale served as an example of resilience and overcoming adversity. The ending to the season itself might not have been great, but to even get to that point was impressive by itself.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

The day after: Lasting thoughts on Notre Dame’s loss to USC

What stood out in your mind?

It was a good effort but not quite enough for Notre Dame to get an upset on the road against USC. The game was closer than the score, even if the Irish failed to get the game within one score late in the game. There were positive and negatives and here are my thoughts that have lingered in my mind since the game finished last night.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Mike on Twitter: @MikeFChen

Notre Dame football: Does Freeman have Irish on Georgia’s path?

This is deeper than just “defensive coordinator becomes head coach at blueblood program”

Living in Chicagoland since birth, I’ve been told my entire life that if I didn’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes and it’ll change.  I won’t say an outlook for a college football program changes quite as quickly but it’s not too far off.  The belief that was restored in the [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] era at Notre Dame after the Irish knocked Clemson around Saturday night was a feeling Irish fans haven’t had in a long time.

Correction: a very long time.

After the 0-2 start to 2022 and the embarrassing home loss to Marshall, there was fear that Freeman was on his way to being the next [autotag]Bob Davie[/autotag].  Perhaps it was a bit strong but only having three losses (Fiesta Bowl vs. Oklahoma State, too) to judge off of and very few of those being games being positive, it didn’t feel good.

Fast forward to Saturday night and a 35-14 win over No. 4 Clemson that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, and there is instead another former defensive coordinator turned first-time head coach I’m seeing Freeman follow the path of:

National champion Georgia head coach Kirby Smart.

Notre Dame football 2022: Fighting Irish Wire staff game-by-game predictions

What record does Notre Dame put up in Marcus Freeman’s first year?

Notre Dame enters a rare time in its modern football history where the Irish are playing for a new head coach despite the previous one not being relieved of his duties. [autotag]Charlie Weis[/autotag], [autotag]Tyrone Willingham[/autotag], and [autotag]Bob Davie[/autotag] were all forced out while [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag] didn’t exactly have the prettiest of exits.  

What comes with that however isn’t a sense of rebuild but more of a reload.  How does Notre Dame take the incredibly strong standing it accomplished under [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag] and grow that into a team with a legitimate shot at winning a national championship under [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag]?

The first year isn’t an easy one for Freeman as Notre Dame has trips to Ohio State and USC on the docket, while a neutral site game in Las Vegas against BYU won’t be easy and welcoming a pre-season top-five Clemson team to South Bend highlights the home slate.

So what is a fair expectation for this squad?  And where do you expect the Irish to be playing come bowl season?

Here is how the Fighting Irish staff sees the season going – game by game. 9jin8k ujynhbthuihgu 7hygtfr

Notre Dame-USC Rivalry: Biggest Villains

Who is your answer and why?

Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Over the last week or so I’ve exchanged several emails, messages, and had multiple conversations with Matt Zemek of Trojans Wire about not just Notre Dame and USC for 2021, but the historic side of the rivalry as well.  From now until Saturday night’s kickoff I’ll share our thoughts on some questions we came up with for each other in regards to the rivalry.

Related: Notre Dame-USC: fun facts about epic rivalry

Who is the biggest villain on the other side of the rivalry and why?

Next: I answered from a Notre Dame perspective while Matt did so from the USC side of things…

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

Notre Dame alphabet book jumped gun on Charlie Weis

The problem with books about ongoing activities is they can become dated quickly.

The problem with books about ongoing activities is they can become dated quickly. I recently encountered one such book at my local library called “A is for Ara: The ABCs of Notre Dame Football” by Sean Callahan. The book was first printed in March 2007, so it’s no surprise that Charlie Weis is the “W” entry here. However, the explanation of Weis began with this sentence that became both hilarious and depressing in hindsight:

Charlies Weis became the head coach of Notre Dame in 2005 and quickly restored excellence on the field.

In fairness, the book is not totally wrong. The Irish went 19-6 and earned trips to the Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl in the two seasons Weis was coach before the book was published. But we all know how quickly things fell apart in 2007, when the Irish slipped to 3-9. Weis never recovered from that tailspin as the Irish finished only one game above .500 over the following two seasons combined, which played a role in the decision to let Weis go after the 2009 season.

Weis may have “restored” excellence right after the forgettable Bob Davie and Tyrone Willingham eras, but he didn’t maintain it. While Brian Kelly has had a few lean years, he’s upheld Notre Dame’s rich tradition of winning much better, even with no national championship to show for it. Of course, when writing a book clearly meant for kids, you have to write about the present based on the information you have, and Weis was seen as a savior at the time of the book’s writing. Funny how quickly legacies can be altered.