Blue and Gold Illustrated

January 2016

Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football

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BY LOU SOMOGYI T en years ago when Notre Dame and Ohio State met in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl, the Fighting Irish were in the throes of a seven- game losing streak in postseason out- ings. First-year head coach Charlie Weis' team then proceeded to allow 617 yards of total offense against the Buckeyes — still the most ever against a Notre Dame team — in a 34-20 defeat, and then the following year a 41-14 thump- ing from LSU in the Sugar Bowl set the dubious NCAA record for most consec- utive bowl defeats by one team (nine). Now here it is 10 years later with the Irish and Buckeyes set to meet in the Fiesta Bowl again. Since then, Notre Dame is 4-2 in bowl games — but it has still not won a major one since a 24- 21 defeat of Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1994. Three-dozen other college football teams have won a major bowl since then while the football version of the Irish Famine has continued. This would have been preposterous to fathom fol- lowing the 1993 season in which the 11-1 and No. 2 Irish concluded a six- year run with a 64-9-1 record, high- lighted by a 5-1 ledger in major bowls. What makes it more amazing is that in the 25 seasons from 1969-93 that pre- ceded this drought, nobody in college football was more prominent with major bowl success than Notre Dame. Originally, the "majors" were the quartet of Rose, Cotton, Orange and Sugar, although the Rose would be- come exclusive to the Pac-8 (now Pac- 12) and Big Ten champions. By the early 1980s, the Fiesta Bowl was included, and in the new College Football Playoff the Peach has been added to what is now known as the New Year's Six. From 1925-68, Notre Dame opted not to attend bowls mainly because it was unnecessary. National champions were voted on at the end of the regular season, so bowl games were more like glorified exhibitions. When the Associ- ated Press then decided in 1968 to wait until after the bowls had been played to decide on No. 1, the Irish administra- tion rolled with the change. When Notre Dame rescinded its non- bowl policy in 1969, one of its main pa- rameters was to attend mainly a "major" where it would either compete for the national title or improve its standing by playing a higher ranked opponent. Remarkably, in six of the nine bowls it played from 1969-80 (it rejected op- portunities in 1971, 1975 and 1979), the opponent was either unbeaten, ranked No. 1 or both. A MAJOR GOAL Once the king, Notre Dame has not won a New Year's bowl in 22 years

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