FALCONS FLY IN FOR A BEAUTIFUL FALL WEEKEND
It is an absolutely beautiful Fall Friday here in South Bend with full sun and temperatures in the 70’s. The forecast becomes unseasonable and USF-like a few weeks ago–in the 80’s for tomorrow’s kickoff.
The campus seems a bit quiet…perhaps sedate in anticipation for the USC Trojans in two weeks. There are not too many Air Force fans to be seen on campus right now.
It was relatively quiet at Armando’s this morning, too. But the fresh haircut is indeed perfect. Speaking of fresh, Freshmen Stephon Tuitt and Aaron Lynch also had their cuts for gameday. Young Aaron at 6’6″ and 265 lbs was not the biggest man in the shop. Stephon really fills a chair at 6’7″ and 295 lbs.
Luncheon speakers today will be Joe Restic and Jerome Heavens representing the ’77 National Championship team. At 3:30pm at Gate A at the stadium, the Dan Devine statue will be formally dedicated. Such is the tradition for ND coaches who have won National Championships…and hopefully a BK statue will be erected soon. Cierre Wood and Jonas Gray will also speak. With nearly 300 combined rushing yards vs. Purdue, they must be feeling pretty good.
The Rockne Heritage Society dinner tonight will feature ND great Rocky Bleier. Drafted in the 16th round and #417 by the Steelers, no one gave him much of a chance coming out of ND to make it in the NFL. Heart goes a long way.
My friend Big Mike ND has been preparing and circulating his own gameday notes among his friends. I think he does an excellent job. His preview for the Air Force game is here. Thanks Mike.
Unlike the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy, which date to the earliest years of the republic, the U.S. Air Force Academy is a relatively new institution. In the years following World War II, the Air Force was formed as a separate branch of the military and a new academy for its officers was founded in Colorado Springs in 1955. Its first football game with Notre Dame would come nine years later.
With its initial game with Army, Notre Dame gained its first notoriety in the media capitals of the East when the Irish defeated the heavily favored Cadets, 35-13, at West Point in 1913. Following that first monumental game, for generations the Army game was the highlight of each season. While the early decades of the Notre Dame-Army series set up many titanic clashes, ND’s series with Navy often has lacked the same historical pizzazz as Army. Nevertheless, ND’s series with the Midshipmen has been a hallmark of Irish football schedules for over eighty years. When the university dedicated its sparkling new stadium in 1930, Navy was the opponent chosen for the dedication game.
Air Force, on the other hand, does not share the same historical connotations for Notre Dame as Army and Navy. Nevertheless, it has been an interesting history. Dating back to 1964, Ara Parseghian’s first season at the helm for ND, the Irish and Falcons have played a total of 28 times over the past 47 seasons. The Irish hold a commanding 22-6-0 record in games played between the schools.
ND won the first eleven times they played the Falcons, making Air Force one of two schools against which ND won its first ten games (North Carolina is the other). In those first eleven series games, the Irish won by an average of 23 points per game. Then along came Gerry Faust. Faust bewildered Irish fans for a number of reasons, but perhaps one of the more perplexing things about his tenure as Irish coach was that, following his first season at ND, he could not beat Air Force. In 1982, the Irish lost to the Falcons for the first time, 30-17. ND followed that defeat with losses to Air Force in each of the next three seasons. The four-game losing streak to the Falcons still stands as the only time that Air Force has beaten ND in consecutive games.
When Lou Holtz came onto the scene in 1986, the balance of power in this series shifted back to Notre Dame. During his tenure, Holtz’s Irish beat the Falcons the first seven times the schools played. In 1996, however, Air Force, fueled by a questionable call that negated a potential game-winning touchdown by Irish WR Raki Nelson, defeated ND in overtime, 20-17. It stood as Holtz’s first (and only) loss to a service academy during his time at ND. Only weeks after that devastating defeat, the legendary coach stepped down.
Air Force has been a less frequent opponent for the Irish in recent years; since Lou’s departure, the schools have played only four times. In 2000, 2002 and 2006, the Irish beat the Falcons, once in South Bend, and twice in Colorado Springs. In the most recent series game played in 2007, however, the Falcons took advantage of playing the Irish during ND’s “season from Hell,” defeating the woeful Golden Domers, 41-24, at Notre Dame Stadium. That 17-point defeat stands as ND’s worst ever loss to Air Force.
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Other notes:
-Notre Dame’s 28-point victory over Purdue last weekend was the biggest win over the Boilermakers by the Irish since a 35-0 shellacking in the 1996 home opener.
-Saturday’s win also stands as ND’s biggest win in any game since a 35-0 victory over Nevada at the start of the 2009 season.
-The Irish have won 12 of their last 14 games against the Falcons, dating back to 1986. The only losses both came at Notre Dame (1996 & 2007).
-Notre Dame holds a 10-4 (.714) record against Air Force at Notre Dame Stadium.
-The Irish hold a 130-26-5 (.823) record against the three service academies. Since 2007, however, ND holds only a 2-3 record against Air Force, Army, and Navy.
-Saturday’s game will be the first this season in which the Irish do not face a team from one of the six BCS conferences. They will face another non-BCS foe in three weeks when Navy travels to Notre Dame to renew that long-running series.
-These schools are tentatively scheduled to meet again in 2013 in Colorado Springs.
-In the ongoing competition between Michigan and Notre Dame for college football’s all-time best winning percentage, here is where things stand after last weekend:
Michigan won at home against Minnesota, moving their record to 889-308-36, for an all-time winning percentage of .7356. This week, Michigan plays its first road game of the season, traveling to Northwestern.
Notre Dame won at Purdue, moving their record to 848-297-42, for an all-time winning percentage of .7321. This week, Notre Dame hosts Air Force.
Michigan’s lead stands at 35/10,000ths of a point.
The Irish look for their fourth straight win in the wake of their shaky start to the season. The game kicks off at 3:30 p.m. EDT on NBC.
Go Irish! Beat Falcons!
Big Mike
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This season’s pre-game emails are dedicated to the late John Lentz, a true Notre Dame Man.
GO IRISH.
BEAT FALCONS!
Abe
