Tag: Tony Rice

Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard makes Top 25 for Golden Arm Award

Obviously, he’s doing something right.

While some Notre Dame fans want [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag] replaced as the Irish’s starting quarterback, he clearly hasn’t been that bad. Otherwise, this post wouldn’t exist.

Leonard has been listed among the Top 25 for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is given to college football’s best upperclassman quarterback. He, of course, was named to the preseason watch list for the award along with 62 other quarterbacks. A win would mark the third for an Irish quarterback after [autotag]Brady Quinn[/autotag] in 2006 and [autotag]Tony Rice[/autotag] in 1989.

Another quarterback who made the cut, Louisville’s Tyler Shough, faced the Irish in their last game and lost. The Irish will be facing one other quarterback later on who made the cut, and that’s Georgia Tech’s Haynes King.

As long as Leonard continues to run the football with regularity, fans will continue to call for someone who mostly throws it. But Leonard has merited award consideration, so exactly how a rough a spot are the Irish in with him?

Here’s to Leonard continuing to prove his doubters wrong.

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Follow Geoffrey on X: @gfclark89

Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard makes Golden Arm Award Watch List

Nice honor for Riley.

Notre Dame has had a trend for most of this decade of bringing in transfer upperclassmen to be the quarterback for the upcoming season. That will happen again in 2024 with former Duke quarterback [autotag]Riley Leonard[/autotag]. All indications are that he will have a fine season for the Irish, and we just got one more of those.

Leonard is one of 63 quarterbacks who has been named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award Watch List. This award is given to the best upperclassmen quarterback in college football. Leonard getting the hardware would make it the third such instance for an Irish quarterback, joining [autotag]Tony Rice[/autotag] in 1989 and [autotag]Brady Quinn[/autotag] in 2006.

Leonard also has been named to the watch list for the Maxwell Award, which is given to college football’s best player and has been won by Irish players seven times. Simply put, he will be counted on heavily in 2024, so we’ll see how well he deals with that pressure.

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

ChatGPT ranks top 10 running backs in Notre Dame history

How do you feel about this list?

We recently put AI writing tool ChatGPT to the test and had it list what it believed was Notre Dame’s top 10 quarterbacks. The list surely caused some debate for some readers, but guess what? We’re going to cause you to think again by having it generate its list of the top 10 running backs in program history.

Some of you might disagree with what ChatGPT says, and others might even say the list is too short. However, the point of this is to make you think and spark discussion. Also, even though ChatGPT has not been updated since September 2021, it’s a safe assumption that no one on the Irish since then has played well enough to have a place on this list with the possible exception of [autotag]Kyren Williams[/autotag]. Just out of curiosity though, would you include him?

Anyway, without further adieu, here’s the list with ChatGPT’s descriptions of each player. Some entries have been edited for clarity and updates:

Notre Dame quarterbacks through the years

Not the best but who is your favorite ND quarterback of all-time?

In the long history of Notre Dame football its difficult to come up with a favorite all-time quarterback.  Sure, the likes of [autotag]Paul Hornung[/autotag], [autotag]Joe Montana[/autotag], [autotag]Joe Theismann[/autotag], and [autotag]Brady Quinn[/autotag] all achieved great things in blue and gold but so many others reached great heights as well.

Then there were others that didn’t go on to get drafted into the NFL but led successful Notre Dame squads in their own right like [autotag]Kevin McDougal[/autotag], [autotag]Tony Rice[/autotag], and [autotag]Everett Golson[/autotag].

Who is your favorite quarterback in the history of Notre Dame football?

Who do you think was the best?

And who is your favorite one-hit-wonder?

A day after [autotag]Tyler Buchner[/autotag] announced he was entering the transfer portal, here is a look back at photos of several Notre Dame quarterbacks over the years.

A look at Notre Dame’s Heisman Trophy drought

How long until it ends?

Another Heisman weekend. Another year without a Notre Dame winner, let alone a Notre Dame finalist.

Wide receiver [autotag]Tim Brown[/autotag] was the last Notre Dame player to bring home the award 35 long years ago, yet, in spite of that drought, the Fighting Irish still remain atop the leaderboard (tied with Oklahoma, Ohio State and USC) of schools with seven Heisman winners.

[autotag]Manti Te’o[/autotag] came very close in 2012 to interrupting the hiatus, but alas, here we sit waiting for the next Irish great to step to the forefront at the Downtown Athletic Club.

In honor of this weekend’s award ceremony, let’s take a look at the last 35 years and how close the Irish have come to breaking the drought.

A look back at Notre Dame’s 1988 national championship

Who was your favorite player on the ’88 squad?

Happy Tuesday to all as we’re now 88 days until Notre Dame football returns.

What better way to look at today than by looking back at the game-by-game breakdown that made up Notre Dame’s ultimate 12-0 season and national championship in 1988?

It’s the last year Notre Dame had a perfect season that included a bowl win and featured a few epic games en route to Lou Holtz and the Irish winning a national title in Holtz’s third season at the helm.

Tony Rice, Rocket Ismail, Ricky Watters, Chris Zorich, Michael Stonebreaker, Pat Terrell, and Todd Lyght were only a few of the stars that made that team so great.

With 88 days remaining until Notre Dame-Ohio State, here’s a look back at that ’88 season, game by game.

88 Days Until Notre Dame Football Returns

In 88 days we get Notre Dame football back. In the meantime, relive the last national championship team at Notre Dame!

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In 88 days we’ll gladly all welcome Notre Dame football back when they take on the Navy Midshipmen in Annapolis.  In the meantime, we have rosters to break down, opponents to preview and position battles to discuss.

In the meantime why not take a moment to remember the last national championship football team at Notre Dame?

(19) 88: Notre Dame’s last football national championship

After Reggie Ho’s heroics helped Notre Dame to a win over Michigan in the opener the Irish rolled with wins over Michigan State, Purdue and Stanford to move to 4-0.

A win at Pitt in early October moved Notre Dame to 5-0 before the greatest Notre Dame football game many have ever seen, a 31-30 thriller over powerhouse and No. 1 Miami on October 15.

Wins over Air Force, Navy, Rice and Penn State followed before a battle with the top two ranked teams in nation when No. 1 Notre Dame traveled to No. 2 USC for the regular season finale before a 27-10 win despite being significantly out-gained by the Trojans.

The Irish then knocked quarterback Major Harris out of the game early in the Fiesta Bowl as Notre Dame won that contest 34-21, earning their first national championship since 1977 and their last claimed title on record.

Got an hour?  Check out the highlight video recapping that magical 1988 season below.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A5sT_YARUk&w=560&h=315]

Notre Dame Football: 31st Anniversary of Last National Championship – 3 Thoughts

I really hope it doesn’t take 31 more years for Notre Dame to win another national title.  Like I said earlier I was far too young to have any memory of the 1988 team besides what I’ve read online or watched on YouTube.

January 2, 1988.

I was still a month from turning two so I have no real-life memory of the day, the Fiesta Bowl or celebrating a national championship.  What I do know are a few things:

One:

My first takeaway has always been when learning about the 1988 team that as ridiculous as it sounds, the Fiesta Bowl win over West Virginia that clinched the title feels like it was at most the third biggest game of the ’88 season, perhaps even the fourth.  Miami in the Catholics vs. Convicts battle immediately comes to mind, then for me my head goes to the No. 1 vs No. 2 regular season finale at USC.  And finally, Reggie Ho’s heroics against Michigan in September I think of before the Fiesta Bowl comes to mind.

Two:

Who could have ever guessed that would be the one and only title Lou Holtz would win in South Bend?  The program was on the rise and entering an incredible run from 88-93 that saw them go a combined 64-9-1, suffering just one loss in each of ’89, ’92 and ’93.

Yet each year the failed to win the national championship, even as ridiculous it remains to me Florida State was given the nod in ’93 but the program’s greatest heights in the modern-era, or at least since color-TV became the norm saw one championship and a bunch of close calls.

NBC has more exclusive television deals for their football team since that January night than they do national championships.  Which leads me to…

Three:

I really hope it doesn’t take 31 more years for Notre Dame to win another national title.  Like I said earlier I was far too young to have any memory of the 1988 team besides what I’ve read online or watched on YouTube.

I’ll be 64 years old in 31 years if I make it that long.  Please don’t have me still waiting by then, Brian Kelly and company.

In the meantime enjoy some highlights from that memorable night, at least for those that are old enough to remember it.