Tag: Elmer Layden

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.

Notre Dame head coaches who also played college football

What Notre Dame coaches have played at the collegiate level?

It’s amazing to think that for all of its rich history, Notre Dame has had only six former college football players as head coach. To make it even more amazing, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the program’s history of coaches to find half of them. What’s more, it has been 36 years since the Irish had a former college player in their head coaching role. With Brian Kelly only four wins away from passing Knute Rockne on the program’s all-time list, it doesn’t appear the Irish will be adding to this short list anytime soon.

Whichever former college football player eventually ends up as Notre Dame head coach will be joining some rare company. We’re talking three apiece in the 19th and 20th centuries with none coming in the 21st yet. Until then, Irish fans will have to settle for these men holding what is a rare distinction in South Bend:

78 Days Until Notre Dame Football Returns!

In 78 days Notre Dame football returns. Find out today what still-standing Notre Dame record Elmer Layden set in the 1925 Rose Bowl.

Just over 11 weeks from now we’ll have Notre Dame and Navy returning to the football field to start their 2020 college football seasons.  Until then we’ll be counting the days by sharing memories of players, coaches and games that helped shape Notre Dame’s football legacy.

Yesterday we counted down 79 to go with Jonas Gray’s long touchdown run to take the lead at Pitt in 2011, in a game where Notre Dame struggled for points but walked away victorious.  Now the countdown hits 78.

78: Length of Elmer Layden’s pick-six in 1925 Rose Bowl, the longest interception return in Notre Dame bowl history.

Notre Dame’s first bowl appearance came in the 1925 Rose Bowl, a 27-10 win over Stanford that cemented the Irish’s first national championship.

It also led to Notre Dame and USC becoming rivals as the two began their annual series a year later.

Layden was the star of the game, scoring another touchdown on the ground and returning a second interception for a score, this only being returned 63 yards that led to the final difference of 27-10.

The first interception return for a score by Notre Dame in a bowl game remains the longest to this day by any Irish player in a bowl game.

78 days – we’re getting there.

Related – Way too early game-by-game predictions for Notre Dame football in 2020