Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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96 MARCH 2018 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY LOU SOMOGYI T hree losses in a season will gen- erally not be viewed as a great year in Notre Dame football lore. However, one aspect of the 10-3 season in 2017 made it at least a good and successful one: Since the start of the Associated Press poll in 1936, the recently completed campaign marked only the ninth time in those 82 seasons the Fighting Irish defeated four teams that finished in the final AP poll. Those four victories by Notre Dame — which finished No. 11 for the second time in three years — oc- curred against No. 12 USC (49-14), No. 15 Michigan State (38-18), No. 18 LSU in the Citrus Bowl (21-17) and No. 23 North Carolina State (35-14). Unlike the other nine Notre Dame teams that achieved the feat, none of the vanquished foes finished in the top 10 this season. Nevertheless, the accomplish- ment is laudable because seven of the overall 13 games Notre Dame played were against opposition who finished in the 25, and the Irish won that "best of seven" series, 4-3. No other team in the final AP top 25 played as many teams that finished ranked. Two items must be noted about the distinction achieved this year. First, from 1962-67, the AP poll listed only a top 10. It wasn't until 1968 that it returned to listing a top 20. In this survey, that is inconsequen- tial because in those six years Notre Dame did not defeat more than two teams in a season that finished in the top 20 of the United Press Inter- national (UPI) poll, which was also known as the coaches' poll. Second, the AP did not expand into a top 25 until 1989, after mostly rank- ing a top 20 from 1936-88. Thus, until 1989, there might have been other de- feated Notre Dame opponents who would have finished 21-25 had there been that many ranked. Here is the chronological order of the other eight Notre Dame teams that defeated at least four opponents who finished in the final AP rank- ings: 1943: UNPRECEDENTED Record Vs. Final Ranked Teams: 6-1 Head coach Frank Leahy's third Fighting Irish edition that won the national title is joined by 1971 Ne- braska as the only two to defeat the teams that finished No. 2 (Iowa Pre-Flight, a World War II semi-pro outfit), No. 3 (Michigan) and No. 4 (Navy). Furthermore, Notre Dame also de- feated the teams that would finish No. 9 (Northwestern), No. 11 (Army) and No. 13 (Georgia Tech) — mean- ing it defeated six teams in the final top 13, an unprecedented feat to this day during the 9-1 campaign. The lone loss came in the finale to another semi-pro team in Great Lakes — which finished No. 6 — on a last-minute Hail Mary pass. This is the lone college football Head coach Frank Leahy's 1943 squad defeated the teams that finished No. 2 (Iowa Pre-Flight, a World War II semi-pro outfit), No. 3 (Michigan), No. 4 (Navy), No. 9 (Northwestern), No. 11 (Army) and No. 13 (Georgia Tech) en route to winning the national title. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS A 'FOUR-WARD' ACCOMPLISHMENT In 2017, Notre Dame defeated at least four teams that finished ranked in the Associated Press poll for the ninth time in its storied history