Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/90407
Sitko reportedly asked. "Not too well, Emil," "How are you, Coach?" Leahy replied. "My school lost today." "So did mine, Coach," Sitko said. Iowa Pre-Flight, Michi- gan and Navy, the teams that finished Nos. 2, 3 and 4, were to Notre Dame. • No. 6 Great Lakes, the season was won. Despite ending with a defeat, there could be no other champion but Notre Dame. • The lone losses by STILL THE CHAMPIONS A game was lost, but Honorable Mention: Toughest Schedules of schedule based on the winning percentage of the opponents played. In the 35 seasons from 1977-2011, Notre Dame has been in the It wasn't until 1977 that the NCAA started rating "toughness" top 25 of that rating 22 times — with 11 of them in the top five. Here are some other notable achievements versus arduous schedules: • The 1929 national champions played all nine games on the road (three at Chicago's Soldier Field) while Notre Dame Stadium was under construction. • In 1952, the 7-2-1 Irish finished No. 3 in the country because they defeated four major conference champions: Texas (South- west), Oklahoma (Big 8), USC (Pac-8) and Purdue (co-Big Ten champ with Michigan State), and also tied a fifth in Penn (Ivy). • Since 1977, when the NCAA began rating schedules, only two teams in college football saw its opposition that season combine to win at a better than .700 clip — and both were Notre Dame. The first was the 1978 team (.709 opponent winning percentage) the lone team to defeat Notre Dame, lost only to No. 5 Purdue and No. 9 Northwestern — a team Notre Dame walloped. • No. 9 Northwestern lost only to the Irish and No. 3 Michigan. • No. 11 Army lost only to Notre Dame and No. 4 Navy. • No. 13 Georgia Tech that finished No. 7 in the AP poll with a 9-3 record. That schedule rating didn't even include a 35-34 victory over a 9-2 Houston team in the Cotton Bowl. The 1985 team (.707) finished 5-6 in head coach Gerry Faust's final season. • In an amazing six-year stretch from 1985-90, the last five under coach Lou Holtz, the Irish schedules were ranked No. 1, 3, 1, 25, 1 and 4. The No. 25 ranking came during the 1988 national champion- lost to Notre Dame, No. 4 Navy and No. 7 Duke. Among the AP's 112 ship campaign. Yet that season, the Irish defeated the teams that finished No. 2 (Miami), No. 4 (Michigan), No. 5 (West Virginia, not included because it was in the bowl) and No. 7 (USC). Only three other teams in college football prior to then had vanquished four teams that finished in the AP top 10. • The 1989 team that finished 12-1 had the No. 1-ranked sched- votes, Notre Dame re- ceived 86 first-place bal- lots to easily capture the national title. There was no other choice. ✦ ule. Its lone loss was to the team that ended up No. 1, Miami. It defeated No. 4 (Colorado, in the Orange Bowl), No. 7 (Michigan), No. 8 (USC), No. 15 (Penn State), No. 16 (Michigan State), No. 17 (Pitt) and No. 18 (Virginia). • Since 2005, the only Irish schedule to place in the top 10 was 2010 (No. 4). — Lou Somogyi