Notre Dame Football: Breaking Down the Last 14 Years and a Look Ahead to 2011

With expectations once again through the roof in 2011, I thought now would be as good a time as ever to put things into perspective a bit regarding Notre Dame football and year two of the Brian Kelly era.

No one is doubting the talent level in South Bend this year—it's unquestionably the most talented football team on BOTH sides of the ball since the Lou Holtz era.

With that said, the schedule is absolutely brutal. The Irish face an unprecedented 10 teams in the top 50 of the "Rivals.com Preseason 120 Countdown."

Despite the extremely difficult slate, most analysts predict the Irish to finish right around 9-3 or 10-2.

So to really put things in perspective in regards to just how special this season can potentially be, we need to take a look back at the previous 14 years (and three head coaches) to properly examine where things went wrong in the past and why there is so much optimism surrounding the future.

Let's take a look.

1997 Season Under Head Coach Bob Davie

1997 was the first year of the post-Lou Holtz era under head coach Bob Davie—the Irish defensive coordinator from 1994-96.

1997 also marked the first of nine seasons between 1997 and 2010 where the Irish failed to finish the season ranked in the Top 25.

Once again failing to meet extremely high preseason expectations, the Irish started the season out 1-4, losing to Purdue, Michigan State, Michigan and Stanford.

Notre Dame did manage to regroup and finish the season 7-5 before losing to No. 15 LSU in the Independence Bowl, 27-9.

1998 Season (Davie)

In 1998, the Irish entered the season ranked No. 22 before jumping up to No. 10 after a 36-20 win in their home opener against the fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines.

Unfortunately, after what looked like the beginning of a special season in South Bend, the Irish were pummeled by Michigan State in the second week of the season, 45-23.

Notre Dame went on to win their next eight games, upping their record to 9-1 and rising to No. 9 in the polls, before falling to USC in the final week of the season, 10-0.

The Irish would once again close the season with a bowl game loss, falling to Georgia Tech, 35-28, in the Gator Bowl and finishing the season ranked No. 22 in the polls.

1999 Season (Davie)

The Irish entered the 1999 season ranked No. 18 in the country, but lost three-straight close games early on to ranked teams—No. 7 Michigan, No. 20 Purdue, and once again to No. 24 Michigan State.

Sitting at 1-3, the Irish reeled off four-straight impressive wins to get to 5-3, and re-entered the polls at No. 24 before their highly anticipated matchup with No. 4 Tennessee—a game played under the lights in Knoxville.

The Irish were embarrassed by the Volunteers, 38-14, and the loss would send them reeling towards a 5-7 record after closing the season with four-straight losses.

2000 Season (Davie)

The 2000 season was extremely close to being a special season in South Bend as the Irish fell to No. 1 ranked Nebraska, 27-24, in overtime during the second week of the season.

Notre Dame would lose another close one to Michigan State (see a pattern here?) in East Lansing, falling 27-21 to the Spartans in the fourth week of the season.

The Irish would reel off seven-straight wins to finish 9-2, ranked No. 10 in the country, and setting up a BCS matchup with the No. 5 ranked Oregon State Beavers in the Fiesta Bowl.

Once again the Irish were extremely overmatched from an athletic standpoint, falling 41-9 to the Beavers behind touchdown receptions from future Bengals teammates, Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmanzadeh.

2001 Season (Davie)

The 2001 season was quite simply a disaster, and as a result brought the Bob Davie era to a close. Notre Dame once again started the season off poorly, losing to Nebraska, Michigan State (AGAIN!) and Texas A&M to fall to 0-3 in September.

Having to choose between Matt LoVecchio and Carlyle Holiday at quarterback proved to be too much for Davie to overcome as the Irish finished the season 5-6.

After Davie was fired, Notre Dame hired George O'Leary as their next coach, in what would turn out to be the shortest head coaching tenure in school history—five days.

O'Leary resigned from the position citing "discrepancies in his resume" and as a result, the Tryone Willingham era would get underway two weeks later. 

2002 Season Under Head Coach Tyrone Willingham

The Tryone Willingham era started off with a bang. The Irish opened up the 2002 season with an 8-0 record while climbing all the way to No. 4 in the polls.

Unfortunately, the curse of Boston College came back to haunt them as the unranked Eagles defeated the Irish, 14-7, in South Bend.

The Irish would end up getting absolutely crushed by USC in their final game, finishing the season with a 10-2 record and a disappointing invite to the Gator Bowl to face NC State.

The Irish would close the season with yet another bowl game loss, falling to the 17th-ranked Wolfpack, 28-6.

2003 Season (Willingham)

Unfortunately for Tyrone Willingham, his first season would be by far his best, as the Irish opened the 2003 season with a 2-6 record.  

Willingham was forced to pull quarterback Carlyle Holiday in favor of a highly touted freshman—Brady Quinn.

Although Quinn struggled as a true freshman, the experience would later prove invaluable as his career blossomed under the next head coach at Notre Dame.

The Irish finished the 2003 season at 5-7, placing Willingham squarely on the hot seat heading into his third year as head coach of the Irish.

2004 Season (Willingham)

The 2004 season would be Tyrone Willingham's last. The Irish opened up with a stunning 20-17 loss at BYU.

Notre Dame would attempt to salvage Willingham's job, getting to 5-2 and climbing back into the polls at No. 24, only to lose four of their last five games, including embarrassing losses to USC and to Oregon State in the Insight Bowl.

Willingham was actually fired prior to the bowl game in a highly criticized move, but things were about to get worse. Urban Meyer turned down the Irish in favor of the head coaching job at Florida; many felt the position in South Bend was no longer a desirable one.

After going a week without a head coach, Notre Dame hired the offensive coordinator from the New England Patriots and the Charlie Weis era was officially underway.

2005 Season Under Head Coach Charlie Weis

The Charlie Weis era also started off with a bang, as the Irish opened up the season with wins over two ranked teams—No. 25 Pitt and No. 3 Michigan.

Unfortunately, the Irish continue to allow Michigan State on their schedule and were beaten at home, 44-41, in overtime once again.

Notre Dame would only lose once more in the regular season, falling at home to USC in the infamous "Bush Push" game.

Finishing the season at 9-2 and ranked No. 6 in the country, Notre Dame received a BCS invite to play Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.

Once again, the Irish finished their season with a bowl game loss, falling to the Buckeyes 34-20.

2006 Season (Weis)

In year two of the Charlie Weis era, the Irish entered the season with a No. 3 preseason ranking and a roster full of offensive superstars that included a Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Brady Quinn, wide receivers Jeff Samardzija and Rhema McKnight and running back Darius Walker.

Once again the Irish lost early in the season, getting blown out at home by the 13th-ranked Michigan Wolverines, 47-21.

Notre Dame would eventually get to 10-1 and were ranked fifth in the country before getting blown out once again by USC, 44-24.

The Irish still earned a BCS invitation to play LSU in the Sugar Bowl and were embarrassed by the Tigers, 41-14.

After two years, Weis had compiled a 19-6 overall record, but his teams were severely outplayed in nearly every big game.

2007 Season (Weis)

The 2007 season marked the beginning of the Jimmy Clausen era—the No. 1 rated high school quarterback in the country.

It would turn out to be one of the worst seasons in the history of Notre Dame football. The Irish started the season 1-9 before winning their final two games of the year to finish with a 3-9 record—the most losses ever recorded in one season at Notre Dame.

2008 Season (Weis)

The 2008 season started out fairly promising for the Irish (especially considering the 2007 disaster). They opened with a 4-1 record—including their annual obligatory loss to Michigan State.

Unfortunately the Irish closed the season with a 2-5 record down the stretch and had to settle for an invite to the Hawaii Bowl.

On the bright side, the Irish did manage to end their nine-game bowl losing streak with a 49-21 victory over Hawaii.

2009 Season (Weis)

The 2009 Notre Dame football team couldn't catch a break and was a much better team than their record indicated.

The Irish came into the season ranked No. 23 and lost at Michigan by four points after being on the wrong end of a number of questionable calls by the officials.

Notre Dame lost to No. 5 USC by only a touchdown and were sitting with a 6-2 record after eight games.

Unfortunately for Weis, a team that could have easily been 10-2, wound up going 6-6 by losing their last four games by a combined total of 17 points.

Weis was fired at the end of the season and the Irish chose not to participate in a bowl game.

2010 Season (Under Head Coach Brian Kelly)

Finally, a picture of a Notre Dame coach smiling; and rightfully so. A team that ended up only 8-5 was about as close as you can possibly get to being 11-2.

Brian Kelly dealt with a number of bad breaks both on and off the field which included a fluke eye injury to Dayne Crist in the Michigan game, a loss on a fake field goal in overtime to Michigan State and a season ending injury to Crist in the Tulsa game.

Despite all the roadblocks Kelly encountered in 2010, he still managed to accomplish the following:

- Became the first head coach in Notre Dame football history to win a bowl game in his first season.

- Snapped an eight-game losing streak to USC.

- Led the Irish to wins in their last four games of the season, something that hadn't been done since 1992.

- Led the Irish to a 3-0 November record after going a combined 1-8 in 2008 and 2009.

- Beat No. 15 Utah, their first win over a ranked opponent in 11 attempts.

- During the season ending four-game winning streak, Kelly's defense allowed just four touchdowns and 39 total points, the least amount of points allowed by an ND defense since 1989.

Which leads us to the present...

2011 Season Prediction (Kelly)

So what exactly have we learned after the last 14 seasons? What went wrong and what do the Irish need to do in 2011 going forward?

In my opinion, it's quite simple:  

1.  Win Early.

2.  Do NOT lose to Michigan State again.

3.  Continue the new tradition Brian Kelly has established of beating USC.

4.  Get back to beating Navy again.

5.  Don't let the curse of Boston College come back to haunt you.

If the Irish can accomplish these five things, we are talking about a team who will be no worse than 10-2 and in a BCS game.

And if they can somehow manage to catch a couple breaks along the way in 2011 (God knows they are owed a few after everything that went against them in 2009 and 2010), maybe we are talking about one of those special teams—you know, like that one we saw 23 years ago.