Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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16 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2018 FOOTBALL PREVIEW UNDER THE DOME BY LOU SOMOGYI No team in athletics can win at a high level without "having the horses." In the case of Notre Dame football, it traditionally has had extra horse power in the years that there has been a Triple Crown winner in horse racing. On June 9 at the Belmont Stakes, Justify became the 13th Triple Crown winner in history — which hopefully bodes well for Fighting Irish football in 2018. The two sports have had some common history: • The Fighting Irish have won 12 consensus or NCAA-recognized national titles (including the 1964 MacArthur Bowl award) since their first in 1924, one short of the 13 Triple Crown winners (hint, hint) since the initial one in 1919. • Both have experienced their longest slumps in the recent decades: Notre Dame 29 years (1989-2017) without a national title, and horse racing minus a Triple Crown winner for 36 years (1979-2014). • In 2012, I'll Have Another was on the threshold of winning the Triple Crown and was favored — but the dream was shattered when he had to be scratched from the Belmont in the 11th hour because of tendonitis. Later that football season, 12-0 and No. 1 Notre Dame was on the threshold of a national title — but in the BCS National Champion- ship Game, similar to I'll Have Another, the dreams were crushed by Alabama. American Pharoah finally broke the drought in 2015, and Notre Dame responded with a 10-1 start and a bona fide chance at the four- team College Football Playoff entering the last game of the regular season. In the years with a Triple Crown winner, Fighting Irish football is 107-11-5 (.890 winning percentage). The ledger is comparable to 1918-30 Notre Dame head coach Knute Rockne's mark of 105-12-5 (.881, the best in Football Bowl Subdivision annals). Eight of the previous 12 years with a Triple Crown winner resulted in unbeaten seasons or national titles, if not both, and the lowest fin- ish was No. 11. Here's the breakdown: 1919 Horse: Sir Barton Notre Dame: 9-0 Rockne's second Irish team, led by George Gipp, wins at Nebraska to propel his first unbeaten campaign (9-0). Notre Dame is declared "Western Champions." 1930 Horse: Gallant Fox Notre Dame: Rockne's final team — "the best I've ever had" — captures its third consensus national title with a 10-0 mark. 1935 Horse: Omaha Notre Dame: Highlighted by the miraculous 18-13 win at Ohio State — voted the top college game in football's first century (1869-1969) — the Irish under head coach Elmer Layden finish 7-1-1. The win at Ohio State put 6-0 Notre Dame in the driver's seat to win it all before getting upset at home the next week versus Northwestern. 1937 Horse: War Admiral Notre Dame: In a truly defensive season with the Irish outscoring the opposi- tion 77-49, Notre Dame finishes 6-2-1 and No. 9 in the Associated Press poll (the second year of its existence). 1941 Horse: Whirlaway Notre Dame: First-year head coach Frank Leahy has the first of his six unbeaten campaigns (8-0-1) in 11 seasons at Notre Dame to finish No. 3. NOTRE DAME'S ADDED HORSE POWER IN 2018 There were four Triple Crown winners in the 1940s, and Frank Leahy's Fighting Irish teams finished 34‑1‑3 in those years. PHOTO COURTESY FIGHTING IRISH DIGITAL MEDIA Justify winning horse racing's Triple Crown this year doesn't assure that Notre Dame football will excel in 2018, but it's been the pattern in the past. PHOTO COURTESY SPORTS ILLUSTRATED