Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com FEBRUARY 2019 9 UNDER THE DOME 1 Media outlet shy of becoming only the 35th unanimous All-American in Notre Dame football history for junior cornerback JULIAN LOVE, with guard Quenton Nelson the most recent last year. Instead, Love became the 102nd consensus All-American (and 86th different one). Honored as a first-team All-American by the Associated Press, the Walter Camp Foundation, the Football Writers Associa- tion of America (FWAA) and Sporting News, Love missed the unanimous distinction when the final piece — the American Football Coaches Association — had him on the second team. Only two other Fight- ing Irish cornerbacks achieved the unanimous distinction: Shane Walton in 2002 and Todd Lyght — Love's position coach — in 1989. Lyght is also one of only 16 Notre Dame players to earn two consensus All-America notices. 3 Times since the 1976-77 campaign that the Notre Dame men's bas- ketball team has lost a starting senior captain to a season-ending knee injury prior to the turn of the new year. In 1976-77 it was point guard Ray "Dice" Martin, in 2011-12 forward Tim Abromaitis and this year — during an 88-80 victory versus Purdue at the Crossroads Classic Dec. 15 — wing Rex Pflueger. In both previous cases, the Fighting Irish still finished with 22 wins and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Whether Pflueger would be eligible for a medical redshirt in 2018-19 will be investigated after the season. 4 Head coaches at Notre Dame who during the 2018 calendar year earned national coach of the year honors from at least one outlet: women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw (Associated Press and USA Today), fencing coach Gia Kvaratskhelia (United States Fencing Coaches Association), hockey coach Jeff Jackson (Spencer T. Penrose Award and College Hockey News) and football coach Brian Kelly (AP, Dodd Trophy and Home Depot, so far). McGraw and Kvaratskhelia both won their second national titles with the Fighting Irish last spring, while Jackson led his skaters to the Big Ten championship and the national title game in the Frozen Four (his fourth such berth at Notre Dame), a 2-1 loss to Minnesota Duluth. Kelly directed the football program to a 12-0 regular season for the second time in his tenure. 13 Games won by the football team during the 2018 calendar year, beginning with the 21-17 triumph against LSU in the Citrus Bowl Jan. 1, followed by the 12-0 regular season. Even without counting a po- tential victory versus Clemson in the College Football Playoff Dec. 29, the 13 wins in one calendar year represent the most ever by the program. The 2012 team had 12 with a 12-0 regular season, but had no bowl game the previous January. In 1989, Notre Dame won the national title Jan. 2, and then finished the regular season 11-1 before playing the ensuing January. 116 Games coached by Brian Kelly through nine seasons at Notre Dame when including the College Football Playoff matchup ver- sus Clemson in the Cotton Bowl Dec. 29. That tied him with Ara Parseghian (1964-74) for the third most by a Fighting Irish head football coach. Kelly en- tered the contest 81-34, while Parseghian was 95-17-4 before retiring. Next year Kelly would pass Knute Rockne (1918-30), who had a 105-12-5 ledger in his 122 games at Notre Dame before his death in 1931. Lou Holtz (1986-96) coached the most games at the school with 132, finishing 100-30-2. 900 Career college head coaching victories by Notre Dame women's bas- ketball coach Muffet McGraw following a win versus Lehigh Dec. 30 — where her coaching career began with a five-year mark of 88-41 from 1982-87 before accepting the Fighting Irish post in the spring of 1987. She is the ninth wom- en's coach to reach 900 career wins. The late Pat Summit is at the top with 1,098 victories during her career at Tennessee from 1974-2012. ✦ BY THE NUMBERS PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA