Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1322461
www.BLUEANDGOLD.com JAN. 1, 2021 5 FAN FORUM CONSENSUS IRE It was mentioned during a recent Texas A&M game that the Aggies, Harvard and Notre Dame shared the national championship in 1919, the year after the 1918 pandemic season. Why doesn't Notre Dame claim it? John McGoff Via the Internet Mr. McGoff, this is an annual ques- tion here we rehash every year. Notre Dame's policy always has been to count only "consensus" national ti- tles. That means 1924-29-30-43-46-47- 49-66-73-77-88 — 11 in all. (Illinois also was voted a share of the 1919 title with the three schools you mention.) The same applies to 1964. Since 1950, the NCAA recognizes only four outlets as legitimate: Associ- ated Press, Coaches Poll (used to be UPI), Football Writers Association of America (Grantland Rice Trophy) and the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame (MacArthur Bowl). In 1964, Alabama was awarded the AP and UPI (despite losing in the Orange Bowl to Texas, because titles were awarded at the end of the regular season back then), Arkansas the FWAA and Notre Dame received the MacArthur Bowl, emblem- atic of the national title. Alabama and Arkansas both count them as national title seasons — but Notre Dame does not because it is not "consensus." If Notre Dame included every single outlet ever (as Alabama does), the total would be 21. But some of those are ex- tremely obscure and not worth acknowl- edging. For example, Dunkel gave it to Notre Dame in 1967 even though the Irish were 8-2 and lost 24-7 at home to USC, the consensus national title win- ner that year. What burns us is Alabama counts 1973 as a "national title year" even though it lost the showdown for the title in the 1973 Sugar Bowl to Notre Dame. That's because that was the last year the UPI did not include bowl games, and Alabama was No. 1 at the end of the regular season. Thus, ND was "consensus" with AP, FWAA and NFF because of the bowl win, while Alabama claimed it because the UPI did not include bowls. TWO FOR ONE? If Notre Dame wins the national title this season, it will first have to defeat Alabama. The Crimson Tide would be the second No. 1 team beaten this season. Has any team ever done that? James Lahtinen Via the Internet Mr. Lahtinen, on Nov. 11, 2017, Au- burn won 40-17 against a Georgia team ranked No. 1 by the College Football Playoff committee (No. 2 in AP) and two weeks later defeated Alabama (26-14), which was No. 1 in both the CFP and AP. Auburn did lose the following week to Georgia (28-7) in the SEC Champion- ship and finished 10-4. Alabama defeated Georgia in overtime for the national title. Impressive to note is that in 1988-89, Notre Dame defeated No. 1 Miami on Oct. 15, 1988, No. 2 and 10-0 USC on Nov. 26, 1988, No. 3 and 11-0 West Vir- ginia on Jan. 2, 1989 for the national title, No. 2 Michigan on Sept. 16, 1989, and No. 1 and 11-0 Colorado on Jan. 1, 1990. MAKE THE GRADE I have been reading BGI for several years and enjoy most of the articles. However, "Top Of The Class" is meaningless to me. I would like you to mention the students' GPA and major. I have an engineering degree from Notre Dame, so Drue Tranquill's 3.5 really impressed me. Like Drue, the late Tom McKinley '69 was also a me- chanical engineer with a mid-three GPA. We had several classes together. Tom played offensive line as a sopho- more on the '66 championship team. Because you published Drue's GPA, it can't be a privacy issue. I like having the schedule on page 3. Instead of just alternating the colors, use the different colors for home or away games. Great article on Sergeant Tim Mc- Carthy! Keep up the good work. John C. Krauss CHEG ND '69 Via the Internet BE HEARD! Send your letters to: Letters Blue & Gold Illustrated P. O. Box 1007, Notre Dame, IN 46556 or e-mail to: lsomogyi@blueandgold.com FROM THE WEB Third-year Notre Dame defensive coordinator Clark Lea accepting the head coaching position at his alma mater (Vanderbilt) and in his hometown was hardly a surprise to our readers on BlueandGold.com. Most also agreed with us that the new coordi- nator likely will be promoted from within, either associate head coach/defensive line coach Mike Elston, who has been with head coach Brian Kelly all 11 seasons at Notre Dame, or third-year safe- ties coach Terry Joseph, who the past two seasons also has had "pass defense coordinator" in his job description, or a collaborative effort between the two. Here are a few samples: Rthomas187: I think we are either going to see Terry Joseph get the bump or a co-DC Joseph/Elston combo with grad assistant Nick Lezynski getting the promotion to linebackers coach. SIhoosier26: I've been impressed with how well Notre Dame has been able to do in house with guys like Clark Lea, Jeff Quinn (offensive line) and Tommy Rees (offensive coordinator/quarterbacks). KCNDmis97: My prediction is co-defensive coordinators of Elston and Joseph. The reason is that I feel like it's about time for Elston to look for a head coaching job and that time might be 2022 so you want to have someone like Joseph ready. Clemson did this with their O-coordinators, Jeff Scott and Tony Elliott. Scott left for the head coach position at USF, and Elliott stepped right in. IrishFan4Life1987: I've never liked the co-DC role, and would rather them pick one between Joseph and Elston. JOIN THE CONVERSATION! GET A 60-DAY FREE TRIAL WITH CODE IRISH60 Head coach Brian Kelly has a strong track record of promoting from within. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN