Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UNDER THE DOME squeaked by with a 14-7 victory at Vanderbilt on a Thursday night game (Sept. 5) on ESPN 20 years ago. Notre Dame also opened on a Thurs- day night in 1989 versus Virginia in the Kickoff Classic. The defending na- tional champions cruised to a 36-13 victory en route to a school-record 23- game winning streak. Then in 1974 and 1975, Ara Par- seghian's final year as the Notre Dame coach and then Dan Devine's first, it opened on Monday nights on ABC versus Georgia Tech and Boston Col- lege, respectively. It defeated the Yel- low Jackets 31-7 on Sept. 9, 1974, and then Boston College 17-3 the following year on Sept. 15, 1975. Notre Dame began last season with a 38-3 trouncing of Texas in a night game at home to raise its all-time re- cord against the Longhorns to 9-2. Interestingly, the Irish are 4-0 in Aus- tin with victories in 1913 (30-7), 1915 (36-7), 1952 (14-3) and 1996 (27-24), the latter on a 39-yard field goal by fresh- man Jim Sanson as time expired. The defensive line coach for Notre Dame that day for Holtz's final team was Charlie Strong, now the third- year head coach of the Longhorns. "Having worked in both programs, I have a deep appreciation of the great football pride, tradition and passion at Texas and Notre Dame," Strong said. "This is a game we're obviously very excited about and really looking for- ward to. I think moving it to Sunday with no NFL games when it can really be in the spotlight will make it that much more special." The two programs met in the 1970, 1971 and 1978 Cotton Bowls with the national title on the line each time. Texas rallied to a 21-17 victory in the first, while the next year the Irish ended the Longhorns' 30-game win- ning streak with a 24-11 triumph — but ended up No. 2, with 11-0-1 Ne- braska getting the nod over 10-1 Notre Dame. In 1978, No. 5 Notre Dame's 38-10 demolition of 11-0 and top-ranked Texas vaulted it all the way to the top spot. Notre Dame has the second most victories in college football history with 892, while Texas is third with 886. The Fighting Irish winning percentage of .732 (892-313-42) is No. 1 on the all- time chart, while the Longhorns are No. 7 at .710 (886-353-33). — Lou Somogyi 2016 NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent (2015 Record) Sept. 4 at Texas (5‑7) Sept. 10 Nevada (7‑6) Sept. 17 Michigan State (12‑2) Sept. 24 Duke (8‑5) Oct. 1 vs. Syracuse* (3‑9) Oct. 8 at North Carolina State (7‑6) Oct. 15 Stanford (12‑2) Oct. 29 Miami (8‑5) Nov. 5 vs. Navy# (11‑2) Nov. 12 vs. Army^ (2‑10) Nov. 19 Virginia Tech (7‑6) Nov. 26 at USC (8‑6) * at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; # at EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Fla.; ^ at Alamodome in San Antonio