Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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40 NOV. 21, 2016 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI FIRST-TIME HOME WRECKERS This will be Virginia Tech's first football meeting against Notre Dame. The Hokies also will be the 73rd dif- ferent opponent that the Fighting Irish will face in Notre Dame Sta- dium, which opened in 1930 in what would be head coach Knute Rockne's final season before losing his life in a plane crash. Notre Dame's record against first- time visitors in its 86-year-old edifice is 58-13-1 (.813 winning percentage), with the tie occurring against Kansas in 1933. However, there has been a disturb- ing pattern in the last seven years. Notre Dame has lost more frequently to a first-time, unranked visitor, some of which had not even had two de- cades in the Football Bowl Subdivi- sion. Here are the unlucky 13 for the Fighting Irish, listed chronologically: USC 1931 16-14 Purdue 1933 19-0 Texas 1934 7-6 Iowa 1940 7-0 Michigan 1942 32-20 Missouri 1972 30-26 Clemson 1979 16-10 Florida State 1981 19-13 Penn State 1982 24-14 Connecticut 2009 33-30 (2OT) Tulsa 2010 28-27 South Florida 2011 23-20 Louisville 2014 31-28 Especially notable is the last four because UConn and South Florida didn't even become FBS members until the turn of the century in 2000, Tulsa was not a member of a major conference and Louisville started a true freshman quarterback (now a receiver) in Reggie Bonnafon. Brian Kelly also became the first Fighting Irish head coach to lose to three first-time visitors to Notre Dame Stadium (Tulsa, USF and Lou- isville). Adding a fourth against Vir- ginia Tech would only add more fuel to a season that burned down before the end of September. OPTION HANGOVER In the nine seasons from 2007-15, Notre Dame has consistently gone through what has been referred to as "The Navy Hangover." It is the residual effect from the mental and physical preparation re- quired against the triple option that carries over into the following week in a negative fashion while trying to readjust to a conventional offense. This year, though, the opponent af- ter Navy was another triple-option team in Army. Then again, Virginia Tech had to face triple-option team Georgia Tech prior to the Irish. Among the losses during that afore- mentioned span the week after Navy were home games to 2-8 Syracuse in 2008, Tulsa in 2010, a 28-21 upset at Pitt in 2013 to end BCS hopes, and falling behind 34-3 at Arizona State in 2014. Since 2007 the Irish are 3-6 the week after facing the option, but even the three wins required second-half or fourth-quarter rallies in hard fought wins at Wake Forest in 2011 (24-17), Purdue in 2012 (20-17) and USC last year (41-31) after entering the fourth quarter with a deficit. Maybe playing a more conven- tional offense will be far more benefi- cial to Notre Dame against Virginia Tech this season. However, recent trends have shown that it hasn't been easy for the Irish to recalibrate after going against option football. GAME PREVIEW: VIRGINIA TECH Top STorylineS Head coach Justin Fuente and Virginia Tech will try to become the fourth first-time visitor to notch a vic- tory at Notre Dame Stadium since Brian Kelly took charge of the Irish program. PHOTO COURTESY VIRGINIA TECH