Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/92992
GAME PREVIEW: WAKE FOREST playing at least four home games each season. In the 60 football campaigns since 1953, this Fighting Irish team is attempting to become the 11th to finish unblemished — unbeaten and untied — at home. Only one of the other 10 did not finish in the top 10: 1955 (5-0) — No. 9 finish in the As- sociated Press poll. 1964 (5-0) — No. 3 in AP poll, awarded MacArthur Bowl, emblem- fourth team in as many years to win in its first trip to Notre Dame Stadium: • Last year, Skip Holtz's South Florida Bulls Wake Forest is attempting to become the BEGINNER'S LUCK stunned Notre Dame 23-20 in the season opener. • In 2010, Conference USA member Tulsa pulled off a 28-27 upset to drop the Irish to 4-5 under first-year head coach Brian Kelly. • In 2009, in what would prove to be fifth- atic of a national title. 1966 (5-0) — Consensus national champs. 1970 (5-0) — No. 2 in final polls. 1973 (5-0) — Consensus national champs. 1980 (6-0) — Lost to No. 1 Georgia in Sugar Bowl to finish No. 9. 1987 (5-0) — First AP top-20 finish (No. 17) in seven years. 1988 (7-0) — Consensus national champs. spite defeating national champ Florida State at home (31-24). 2012 (5-0 so far) — ? A victory against Wake Forest won't 1989 (5-0) — No. 2 in final AP poll. 1993 (6-0) — No. 2 in final polls de- resonate nationally, but at Notre Dame it would be another benchmark achievement in 2012 under third-year head coach Brian Kelly. year head coach Charlie Weis' finale at Notre Dame, Connecticut rallied from a 14-0 deficit to emerge with a 33-30 double-overtime victory on Senior Day. In all, a dozen programs have won in their initial game at Notre Dame Stadium, which opened in 1930. In addition to the recent afore- mentioned trio, the other nine, in chronological order, were: USC (1931) Purdue (1933) Texas (1934) Iowa (1940) Michigan (1942) Missouri (1972) Clemson (1979) 16-14 19-0 7-6 7-0 Florida State (1981) Penn State (1982) — Lou Somogyi 32-20 30-26 16-10 19-13 24-14 will be repeated: Few coaches in America have done more with fewer resources than 60-year old Jim Grobe, who is in his 12th season with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. His career record of 73-71 entering This point was made last year and THE ARA PARSEGHIAN OF WAKE FOREST last weekend's contest at North Caro- lina State might not elicit much public- ity, but it's comparable to the 36-35-1 record produced by Ara Parseghian when he was at Northwestern from 1956-63 prior to accepting the Notre Dame post. Grobe has worked miracles at a football program that is the smallest school among BCS teams (4,775 enroll-