Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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34 ✦ BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2017 FOOTBALL PREVIEW Yet the following year — even without the graduated and peer- less Hornung in the lineup — Brennan directed his third AP top- 10 finish (No. 10) in four years, highlighted by snapping Okla- homa's NCAA-record 47-game winning streak in Norman, 7-0. 2017 Bottom Line: If Notre Dame reaches 10 victories this year under Kelly, then that six- game difference in the win total from last year would be the most under the same coach (Kelly) at the school, surpassing Brennan's five. 2T. THE SECOND ARA? — 2002 Record: 10-3 Previous Year: 5-6 Win Difference: Plus 5 After a 5-6 finish in 2001 led to the ouster of head coach Bob Davie, first-year head coach Tyrone Willingham's 8-0 start the following year in his debut resurrected memories of and comparisons to Parseghian's inaugural campaign in 1964. During that 8-0 beginning in 2002, Notre Dame defeated four teams that had vanquished them the year before: No. 7 Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford — the program Will- ingham had coached from 1995-2001 before moving to northern Indiana — and at No. 11 Florida State (34-24), which had thrashed the Irish 37-0 in Notre Dame Stadium the year prior. The win at FSU was somewhat akin to 1957, when Coach It's that time — or year — again for Notre Dame football. If you've been a faithful follower of the Fighting Irish the past 20 years, you know the drill: Just when you begin to believe Notre Dame has "turned the corner" or is getting "over the hump" or "the arrow is pointing up," it implodes. Conversely, just when you are about to count them out as no longer relevant in the college foot- ball landscape, the Fighting Irish have had a habit of luring one back again with a regular season that evokes thoughts of renaissance or resurgence. Let's count the ways: 1997: Frustration The Bob Davie era begins with a 2-5 ledger, prompting immediate outrage that the first-time head coach is in over his head during a 7-6 debut campaign. 1998: Resurgence One year later, a 9-1 beginning under Davie rein- vigorates hope that the program is headed in the right direction, especially with what will be back-to- back top-five recruiting classes in 1998 and 1999. If only quarterback Jarious Jackson wouldn't have injured his knee at the end of the 10th game, a 39-36 win over LSU that improved the Irish to 9-1. Without Jackson under center the following week, the Irish lost 10-0 at USC. 1999: Frustration Notre Dame lost its final four contests to finish with seven defeats in one season (5-7) for the first time in 36 years. Prior to 2000, Sports Illustrated features an in-depth story on why it will be difficult for the football team to ever be great again. 2000: Resurgence The Fighting Irish finished the regular sea- son with seven straight wins to post a 9-2 mark and a No. 10 Associated Press ranking, earn a BCS bid (Fiesta Bowl) and the familiar "a few plays away from an 11-0 regular sea- son" refrains. The improvement even earns Davie a five-year contract extension. 2001: Frustration Davie is fired after a 5-6 season because in the words of Irish athletics director Kevin White, "We've lost credibility." 2002 Resurgence New head coach Tyrone Willingham becomes Sporting News' "Sportsman of The Year" after an 8-0 and 10-1 start as the successor. Sports Illus- trated even has a cover headline on Notre Dame that reads "What A Difference A Coach Makes," and White refers to Willingham's hiring (after los- ing George O'Leary for factual inaccuracies on his resume) as, "Divine Intervention." 2003-04: Frustration Willingham's 10-1 start is followed by going 11-15 the next 26 games, resulting in his ouster at the end of 2004 with the hope that Utah's Urban Meyer will be available. 2005-06: Resurgence Under Charlie Weis, the 1978 Irish alumnus and former offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick, back-to-back BCS bids dur- ing his 19-6 start has some believing he could join Notre Dame's pantheon of greats, especially with top recruiting classes — including No. 2 in 2008, behind only Alabama. Merely seven games into his tenure, Weis signed a 10-year extension that would carry him through the 2015 season. 2007-09: Frustration A 16-21 ledger that ensues from 2007-09 under Weis evokes comparison to Joe Kuharich's 17-23 mark from 1959-62. 2012: Resurgence Third-year head coach Brian Kelly leads a magical 12-0 regular season run that takes the Fighting Irish to the top spot in the polls for the first time since November 1993. The Fighting Irish again are the toast of college football … until the 42-14 loss to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game prompts discus- sion that, "We've still got a long way to go." 2014: Frustration A promising 6-0 start is erased with a four-game losing streak in November to drop to 7-5. It engen- ders some opinion that Kelly has "maxed out" at Notre Dame … until defeating No. 22 LSU in the Music City Bowl with a dynamic new quarterback in Malik Zaire. 2015: Resurgence With another new dynamic quarterback (DeShone Kizer) replacing the injured one (Zaire), 10-1 Notre Dame is in the College Football Playoff discussion in the regular- season finale before finishing 10-3. Like with Davie in 2001 and Weis in 2005, the upward surge led to a subsequent con- tract extension for Kelly through 2021. 2016: Frustration Ranked No. 10 in the preseason AP poll, Notre Dame is projected to put together con- secutive 10-win campaigns for the first time since 1991-93. Instead, the Irish finish 4-8. Resurgence in 2017 is on deck, or at least that's been the recent pattern. — Lou Somogyi Twenty Years Of Frustration And Resurgence Following an 11-15 run over the previous 26 games, new head coach Charlie Weis led the Irish to a 19-6 mark and two BCS bowl bids in 2005-06 before stumbling to a 16-21 mark from 2007-09. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN Terry Brennan engineered the best turnaround under the same head coach in school history, when he took the Irish from a 2-8 mark in 1956 to a 7-3 finish in 1957. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS