Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/705594
THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI doing this to ourselves?" attitude of overextending the schedule. Both sides are understandable. The four‑team College Football Playoff format mandates Notre Dame either finish 12‑0 — it has finished unbeaten and untied in the regular season only three times since 1950 (1973, 1988 and 2012) — or as an inde‑ pendent have a supreme strength of schedule at 11‑1, although even that might not be enough. That's because popular perception for now is the CFP selection commit‑ tee will lean toward a Power Five con‑ ference champion, especially if it wins a league crown in a 13th game, over a one‑loss Fighting Irish team. Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick believes the 12‑game regular season needs to outshine any 13‑game slates the Power Five might offer for the four available spots. To achieve that objective, the football team must con‑ front the best possible competition it can schedule. Yet to give you an idea of how diffi‑ cult it is to go unscathed, consider that from 1994‑2014, Notre Dame played Michigan and USC in the same season 17 times. Only once did it defeat both (2012) the same year. Now, in 2018 add in Stanford and a road game at Virginia Tech. For good measure, stir in a home contest with Florida State. Four of the last five games that season will be on the road, two of them in California, and the lone home game is FSU. Emerging 11‑1 from all that would be a supreme achievement — and that's the point Swarbrick wants to make to the selec‑ tion committee. The tentative 2019 slate seems even more treacherous: Road games ver‑ sus Louisville, Georgia, Michigan and Stanford almost scream for a 2‑2 split. That's also not yet including a 12th game to be added. Now, we don't know how good those foes will be three years from now or who will still be coaching them, although the same goes for Notre Dame. We do know this: In 1990, Notre Dame had four straight No. 1‑ranked recruiting classes from 1987‑90 and a Hall of Fame coach/motivator su‑ preme leading them in Lou Holtz. It had exceptional wins that season by defeating co‑Big Ten champs Michi‑ gan and Michigan State, vanquish‑ ing defending national champ Miami, and then toppling in two of the last three weeks SEC champ Tennessee in Knoxville and archrival and three‑ time defending Pac‑10 champ USC in Los Angeles. However … the Irish still finished the regular season only 9‑2 and out‑ side the top five. A major reason why was a suicidal schedule that had a residual effect over the course of an 11‑game season. The Irish were stunned by Stanford and Penn State — sandwiched in be‑ tween the road contests versus Ten‑ nessee and USC — in home games. No matter how talented the roster or coach are, going through a season un‑ scathed is extremely difficult, and it is