Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2019 Notre Dame Football Preview
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winner because it won the AP and UP polls, while Arkansas was awarded the national title by the FWAA. All four are recorded by the NCAA. Second-year head coach Knute Rockne and star halfback George Gipp, both of whom would soon become immortalized in the school's pantheon, propelled the 1919 national title. Five years later, Rockne and Co. were awarded their first "consensus" national title following a 27-10 victory versus Stanford in the Rose Bowl. In the 70 football seasons from 1919-88, Notre Dame was acknowledged by the NCAA to have achieved 13 national titles (11 consensus), or one every 5.4 years. Along the way it had numerous other unbeaten seasons (1941, 1948 and 1953) and No. 2 AP finishes (1970, 1989 and 1993). The longest drought from a national title in those 70 years was the 14-season stretch from 1950-63. Now in 2019, that absence has more than doubled to 30 years and counting. Thus, the common inquiry resurfaces more than ever: Can Notre Dame football ever again win a national championship in the modern college football landscape? Dealing With The Drought Skepticism about Notre Dame's ability to finish No. 1 is based in large part on the past quarter century from 1994-2018. In those 25 football seasons, 13 (or more than half) resulted in a minimum of five losses by the Irish, and seven were cam- paigns of .500 or below. Only twice in those 25 years were there even fewer than three defeats incurred (12-1 in 2012 and 2018). However, there are still at least two rea- sons to lean toward saying "Notre Dame absolutely can win another title." One is that in the last seven years, Notre Dame joins Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Florida State to twice achieve a 12-0 regular season. What a remarkable and rare accomplishment! Second, it's not like a three-decade drought from winning it all is unique to Notre Dame among past superpowers or college football blue bloods. • Ohio State and Texas were the consen- sus national champions in 1968 and 1969, respectively — but it took the Buckeyes 34 years to win their next (2002), while the Longhorns required 36 (2005). It should be noted that even though Ne- braska was the recognized "consensus" champ in 1970, Texas and Ohio State — de- spite losing their bowl games to Notre Dame and Stanford, respectively — were awarded a split of the MacArthur Bowl, which then allows them to claim a national that year as well, just as Notre Dame in 1964. BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2019 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ✦ 35