Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 27, 2017 7 BY LOU SOMOGYI T he matchup at Stanford will mark the 14th consecutive season Notre Dame will cap its regular season in California. That has become a tradi- tion with no end in sight. USC has been the finale for Notre Dame in even-numbered years every season since 1956, and Stanford has now taken on that role for the odd- numbered years since 2005. In fact, since the end of head coach Frank Leahy's reign with a home game versus SMU on Dec. 5 1953, Notre Dame has finished its regular season at home only four times in the ensuing 64 years (and counting): • A 16-6 win at home on Nov. 28, 1959, versus No. 7 USC. • A 13-6 victory versus Air Force on Nov. 22, 1969 — the year Notre Dame ended its bowl ban. • A 23-22 defeat at home to Air Force on Nov. 19, 1983. • The infamous 41-39 loss at home against Boston College on Nov. 20, 1993, which cost 10-0 and No. 1 Notre Dame the national title. Oftentimes the question is asked why the Irish always have to wrap up the regular season on the road. The 1993 season notwithstanding, finishing each year at traditional power USC and now Stanford, a con- sistent 10-win program since 2010, would seem to place the Irish in an unfavorable situation. Notre Dame has suffered four consecutive losses to the California duo from 2013-16, resulting in the team entering De- cember bowl practices (if invited to a bowl) on a relatively somber note. The reasons, though, are multifold. It begins with the independent sta- tus. Whereas conference rivals such as Michigan-Ohio State in the Big Ten rotate home and home for each regular-season finale, the Irish as an independent have less power to dic- tate such terms against other confer- ence foes. Until 1959, Notre Dame and USC often did play each other in late No- vember home or away. However, when John McKay took over as the head coach of the Trojans in 1960, one of his first moves was to shift the games at Notre Dame to October in an effort to avoid the cold Indiana climate in late November. Not wanting to cancel the series that had become so important to the school, Notre Dame acquiesced. Because the Irish football program did not return to the bowl scene un- til 1969, the university also believed it would be a reward to head to a warm-weather site to end a regular season and get away from the cold. With USC already set in the even- numbered years, a new destination for regular-season finales was found at another "hot spot" — Miami. The first five times the Irish played the Hurricanes, beginning in 1955, they were all in Miami, with no re- turn trip to Notre Dame. Games at Miami were the season finale in 1965 and 1967, and likewise almost every odd-numbered year from 1973-89 (starting in 1972, it be- came home-and-home). After the Miami series was can- celled, Hawai'i was included in 1991 and 1997 as a booking to end those campaigns. In 1999, Stanford began taking on the role as Notre Dame's final regular season game in odd- numbered years, although in 2001 the Irish finished the campaign at Purdue when the game was resched- uled following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Finishing the regular season in Cal- ifornia, with members of the coach- ing staff then staying out there lon- ger for recruiting purposes, has now become routine, one that is expected to remain. ✦ UNDER THE DOME THE END GAME Finales on the road have become a way of life at Notre Dame Former Notre Dame wide receiver Corey Robinson and his teammates lost a 38-36 heartbreaker at Stanford to end the 2015 regular season. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA