CFP Championship Game – A Historical Perspective

By Alan Wasielewski

Notre Dame’s drive to the College Football National Championship game has brought the nation’s most storied program back to the forefront of the national sports scene. The 2024 version of the Fighting Irish have paved their own way to the national title game and are writing their own unique story that is already a worthy addition to the lore of Notre Dame Football. 

As the team looks to join Alabama as the only college football programs to win a national title in seven different decades on Monday night in Atlanta, it is a perfect time to look at the 2024 season from a historical perspective and analyze some similarities from previous iterations of Irish football. Some of the anomalies are uncanny, invoking thoughts of ‘history repeating itself,’ while others prove how special the achievements of the 2024 team have become.   

THIRD-SEASON MAGIC

The playoff run of three consecutive wins lends itself to an inescapable historical theme of Notre Dame head coaches winning a national title in their third season on campus. 

Frank Leahy won a national title in his third season (1943), as did Ara Pareseghian (1966), Dan Devine (1977) and Lou Holtz (1988). Brian Kelly’s third Notre Dame team played for a national title in 2012. 

It took Knute Rockne seven years to win his first title, but his third team in 1920 could have put together a national title argument in a time when there was no definitive way to determine the best team in the country. The ‘20 Irish, led by George Gipp before his untimely death late in the season due to pneumonia, outscored their opponents 251-44 and won at Nebraska and Army while also taking out a 5-2 Indiana team on a neutral field in Indianapolis.

1943

Leahy’s third-year team was led by the first of Notre Dame’s seven Heisman Trophy winners, Angelo Bertelli. The ‘43 team went wire-to-wire as the nation’s top-ranked team with wins over No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Navy, No. 3 Army, No. 8 Northwestern and No. 2 Iowa Pre-Flight (the last four in consecutive weeks). Great Lakes tripped Notre Dame up in the final game of the season but by then the Irish had already established themselves as the best team in the nation. 

There is a connection between the 2024 team and that legendary ‘43 team. This year’s Irish squad is the only Notre Dame team since the 1943 championship group to beat at least three consecutive top-10 opponents (No. 9 Indiana, No. 2 Georgia and No. 5 Penn State). 

1966

Ara Parseghian just missed a national title in his first season with the Irish in 1964, as an upset in the final game at Southern Cal denied the Irish an improbable turnaround from a 2-7 effort in 1963. That loss was avenged in Parseghian’s third year, however, when a 51-0 demolition of the Trojans in Los Angeles left little doubt who was the top team in the nation in 1966. 

1977

In the ‘uncanny’ realm of historical coincidences, the 2024 Notre Dame path to a national championship game is eerily similar to the third-year under Dan Devine in 1977. Coming off a Gator Bowl victory over Penn State to end the 1976 season, the Irish were ranked No. 3 in the nation but lost their second game of the season in sweltering heat at unranked Mississippi. 

The 1977 Fighting Irish had two excellent running backs in Jerome Heavens and Vagas Ferguson, along with all-star tight end Ken MacAfee who finished third in Heisman Trophy balloting that year. The ‘24 team is powered by a talented backfield that features Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price along with its own talented tight end, Mitchell Evans. 

Joe Montana took over as the starting quarterback for the ‘77 team against Michigan State and big wins over No. 5 Southern Cal at home, at No. 15 Clemson and a destruction of No. 1 Texas 38-10 in the Cotton Bowl vaulted the Irish from No. 5 to No. 1 after all the postseason games were played. 

Special recognitions should be given to Washington and Warren Moon, who upset No. 4 Michigan 27-20 in the Rose Bowl and an Arkansas team, led by Lou Holtz, who upset No. 2 and previously undefeated Oklahoma 31-6 in the Orange Bowl that allowed Notre Dame’s epic jump up in the final poll. 

1988

Holtz moved from Arkansas to Minnesota before taking over at Notre Dame in 1986. His second Irish team rose as high as fourth and then moved up to seventh again in ‘87 after a victory over No. 10 Alabama. It was his third year, however, when the Irish broke through for their 11th consensus national title with a run-first quarterback and swarming defense that featured a big-play safety who started his career as wide receiver. 

That run-first quarterback for the 1988 title team, Tony Rice, rushed 700 yards then set the Notre Dame single-season quarterback record of 884 yards in 1989. This season’s starting quarterback, Riley Leonard, is just 18 yards off of Rice’s mark with 866 yards heading into the Ohio State game. 

It should be pointed out, however, that prior to 2002 the NCAA did not count bowl stats for season statistical records. Rice ran for 50 yards in the 1990 Orange Bowl against top-ranked Colorado, perhaps making the true single-season quarterback rushing record 934 yards. 

The wide receiver turned big-play safety in 1988 was Pat Terrell, forever known for his denial of a two-point conversion against No. 1 Miami FL that season. The 2024 big play safety for Notre Dame is consensus All-American and 2023 Nagurski Awardwinner Xavier Watts, who also began his Irish career catching passes and his penchant for game-turning plays – that included a 100-yard interception return at Southern Cal – continues to power the Irish defense. 

There is another historical call back between the 1988 and 2024 teams. Notre Dame’s offensive line has dealt with a myriad of injuries this season, forcing the Irish to deploy three different starting lineups (with a fourth looming as starting left tackle for the entire season, Anthonie Knapp, will miss the national championship game due to injury). 

 

The 1988 team also was challenged at key times on its offensive line. Injuries to guards Tim Grunhard and Tim Ryan saw Mike Brennan and Joe Allen step up in the legendary victory over top-ranked Miami FL in October. Brennan, who joined the team as a walk-on and earned a scholarship before the ‘88 season, also started due to an injury situation in the Fiesta Bowl title game win over No. 3 West Virginia. 

TWO TITLES, TWO SPORTS

You can also draw a connecting line between Mike Brennan and current Irish student-athletes Jordan Faison and Tyler Buchner. Brennan was a stand out lacrosse player in high school and saw action in 10 games for the Notre Dame lacrosse team in 1987. Faison and Buchner are hoping to become the first college football players to win a national title in men’s lacrosse and football on Monday night. 

Faison played in all 17 games, scoring 22 goals with eight assists, for the 2024 Irish men’s lacrosse team that finished 16-1 and won its second consecutive national championship. Buchner saw action in 11 games as a defender for Kevin Corrigan’s team in ‘24. 

There have been some previous Notre Dame football players who have come close to national titles in two different sports. Dick Arrington finished third at the 1965 NCAA wrestling meet while Bob Golic earned a fourth-place finish in 1977 and improved to third-place in 1978. Notre Dame discontinued its wrestling program in 1992. 

Raghib ‘Rocket’ Ismail, a member of the ‘88 title team, was an All-American sprinter for the Notre Dame track and field team and finished second in the 1991 NCAA Indoor 55-meter sprint. 

ALREADY HISTORIC

No matter the outcome on Monday night, the 2024 Notre Dame football team has already accomplished a number of ‘firsts’ in program history. The modern iteration of college football lends itself to more games and opportunities to achieve records and noteworthy statistical numbers. There have been a number of trailblazing achievements by the Irish this season. 

• Notre Dame will play 16 games in 2024, three more than any Irish football team has played before. They also will play on the latest date in a season (January 20th of the next calendar year) and are the first Notre Dame football team to compete and win a game in six consecutive months. 

• In those six consecutive months of competition, Notre Dame is the first college football program to defeat a ranked team in each of them:
  • No. 7 Texas A&M on Aug. 31
  • No. 15 Louisville on Sept. 28
  • No. 24 Navy on Oct. 26
  • No. 18 Army on November 18
  • No. 9 Indiana in December 20
  • No. 2 Georgia on Jan. 2
  • No. 5 Penn State on Jan. 9

• The seven ranked wins for the Irish this season are the most of any FBS team and the most in the history of the program for a single year, surpassing the six ranked wins by the 1989 team. 
• The 14 wins for the Irish in 2024 are the most in a single season in program history. 
• In keeping with the No. 14 theme, the victory over Penn State in the Orange Bowl is the 14th ranked win of the Marcus Freeman era at Notre Dame, more than any other Irish head coach in his first four years at the school and is tied with Georgia for the most of any FBS program over the past three seasons. 
• Notre Dame boasts four consecutive bowl victories – the 2023 Gator Bowl, 2024 Sun Bowl, 2025 Sugar Bowl and 2025 Orange Bowl – which is the best run in school history and will continue into the 2025 season. The previous best bowl win streaks was three twice from 1992-94 (Sugar, Cotton twice) and 1975-79 (Orange, Cotton twice). 
• Notre Dame will play their fifth Big Ten Conference team in the national title game when they face No. 6 Ohio State. The ‘24 team has claimed wins over Purdue, Southern Cal, Indiana and Penn State. It marks the first time since 1968 the Irish will face five teams from the Big Ten. The ‘68 squad finished 3-2 against the Big Ten slate. 
• Anthonie Knapp became the first true freshman to start more than 13 games in a season (he started the first 15 games) in 2024. Sam Young (2006), KeiVarae Russell (2012) and Jaylon Smith (2013) each started 13 games in their rookie years. 

• Riley Leonard, Jeremiyah Love, Beaux Collins, Aamil Wagner, Jack Kiser, Drayk Bowen, Adon Shuler and Xavier Watts will all push their program record for starts in a season to 16 when the Irish take the field against Ohio State. 
• Jeremiyah Love scored at least one rushing touchdown in the first 13 games of the season. That set a new program standard for consecutive games with a rushing touchdown and also was the best streak ever to start a season. 
• Riley Leonard’s 16 rushing touchdowns are the most for an Irish quarterback in a single season. Leonard’s 16 scores also rank fifth on the career list for rushing touchdowns by a signal caller at Notre Dame and he has rushed for more touchdowns in an Irish uniform than legendary quarterbacks Terry Hanratty (voted into the College Football Hall of Fame this week), Joe Theismann, Paul Hornung and Joe Montana. 
• Jack Kiser has started all 15 games in 2024 and will be playing in his program-record 70th game on Monday night. 
• Xavier Watts became the 17th Notre Dame player to repeat as a Consensus All-American and joined Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter from Colorado as the only two Consensus All-American repeats in the country this season. 

In a program that prides itself on both its tradition and its place in the current landscape of college football, the 2024 team has already paid tribute to the past through its performance this season and is poised to write another legendary accomplishment into the record books when they face Ohio State in the College Football Playoff Championship game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday, January 20.