Stretching back to the start of the AP Poll in 1936, an unranked Notre Dame football team has defeated a team that was ranked at kickoff on 27 different occasions. In 13 of these games, Notre Dame finished the season unranked while the opponent finished in the polls.
These are the dumbest best wins from that collection.
#13
8-5 Notre Dame in 2011
31-13 Win vs. #11 MSU
This up and down season (to put it mildly) brought us the 11th best win of the Kelly era and one of the more unlikely victories following a rather, ahem, frustrating 0-2 start to the season. The 275 total yards for Notre Dame were the fourth fewest in a win during the Kelly era behind 2010 Utah (256), 2012 Michigan (239), and 2013 Michigan State (224). Sorry about that, Sparty.
This game featured future NFL star Le’Veon Bell and his 7 carries. Michigan State gained one first down on the ground. Kirk Cousins (also a future NFL star by salary) threw the ball 53 times. This was Aaron Lynch’s breakout game (1 sack, 6 quarterback hurries) and Robert Blanton had maybe his best game ever with a sack, 3 tackles for loss, 3 pass break-ups, and an 82-yard interception return.
#12
6-6 Notre Dame in 2004
27-9 Win vs. #24 Navy
Buckle up because Tyrone Willingham is going to be all over this series. It’s his greatest positive legacy at Notre Dame. If you recall, the 2004 season made absolutely no sense. This particular game was the easiest to understand for today’s article. It was Navy back when The Streak was still alive and the Irish were only mini-reeling at 4-2 with an ugly blowout loss to Purdue on their resume.
Still, Navy was 5-0 coming into the game and would end up finishing 10-2 on the season. It was the best Navy season in a really, really long time and a lot of people at the time believed this was going to be the year Navy finally won. Instead, the Middies were soundly defeated and didn’t score a touchdown until late in the 4th quarter.
#11
7-5 Notre Dame in 1983
19-18 Win vs. #19 Boston College
The second meeting in this budding rivalry saw these teams meet in the 25th Liberty Bowl in one of the coldest games in Notre Dame football history. With 11-degree temperatures and a frozen field, the Irish were able to sneak past a Doug Flutie-led Eagles squad that missed an opportunity to finish one of their best seasons in school history.
Flutie would throw for 287 yards on just 16 completions but also threw a pair of interceptions. Punting and kicking were particularly difficult on this day as the Eagles missed 3 PAT’s in the 1-point loss. It’s a sore subject in Chestnut Hill to this day. You hate to see it.
#10
5-5 Notre Dame in 1961
17-15 Win vs. #14 Syracuse
The early 60’s were a weird time for Notre Dame before Ara showed up on campus. During this 1961 season the Irish beat Oklahoma and USC with a pair of other wins over ranked teams. That’s usually a good recipe for a strong season but not for this Fighting Irish team.
This was the first modern meeting (the programs played once way back in 1914) between Syracuse and Notre Dame. The Irish had suffered 3 straight losses in the middle of the season but picked themselves up with a road win at Pitt prior to this game. The Ernie Davis-led Orangemen would absolutely blow this one.
Syracuse trailed 14-0 in the second half but came roaring back to take a 15-14 lead. With 1:35 remaining in the game they intercepted Notre Dame. Game over, right? Syracuse then threw an incompletion and ran out of bounds twice before Davis was stuffed on a 4th down attempt.
The Irish were able to line up a 57-yard field goal attempt which was hilariously short and wide left but the officials ruled Syracuse had roughed the holder and a 15-yard penalty gave Notre Dame another shot, which they nailed for the win.
#9
7-5 Notre Dame in 1984
30-22 Win vs. #15 LSU
Notre Dame came into this game 3-4 on the season with 3 straight losses. LSU was undefeated. A win for the Irish in Death Valley? Sure, why not!?
Notre Dame scored 20 unanswered points as running back Allen Pinkett rumbled for 162 yards on the day to spoil LSU’s party. The Tigers would go on to play in the Sugar Bowl which they lost to Nebraska. For their part, the Irish won their remaining regular season games before a loss to SMU in the Aloha Bowl.
#8
5-5 Notre Dame in 1961
22-20 Win vs. #12 Purdue
This wasn’t a particularly big game at the time. Early in the season neither team was ranked at kickoff. I don’t know anything about how this game played out or any details. It’s one of those post-Leahy and pre-Ara games that is seemingly lost in the ether.
However, this was in the middle of Purdue’s terrific run against Notre Dame winning 9 out of 12 meetings. Except this one, of course. The Irish would beat a downtrodden Oklahoma program on probation in the opener and sneaked by the Boilers only to lose 5 out of the last 8 games. Purdue, on the other hand, would beat a pair of top ten teams in an absolutely loaded Big Ten season to finish 12th in the country.
#7
6-6 Notre Dame in 2004
28-20 Win vs. #14 Michigan
Tyrone back yet again with another beauty from 2004 in only ways he can master. Somehow, this Irish team lost the opener in Provo to what would be a 5-6 BYU team then turned around and beat Michigan the next week. Don’t try to understand it.
This was a slow and sloppy game featuring a combined 7 turnovers. Notre Dame only had 5 possessions in the first half including 2 punts, 2 interceptions from Brady Quinn, and 1 turnover on down. The good guys kicked into gear in the second half with 4 touchdowns while all 3 Michigan turnovers came after the break which doesn’t include a massive blocked punt from Notre Dame. It always feels good to beat Michigan.
The top 6 Dumbest Best Wins coming soon…
Not totally related, but it’s a win in my book. I get the daily NYT updates and this was their blurb for B1G and PAC12 cancelling seasons. Ohio State, Penn State, and Oregon. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Screw you Michigan and USC.
I went back to look at the 2013 MSU game (the season where MSU went 13-1), and it turns out we were actually ranked at the time of the game, while they weren’t. So it won’t make this list, even though they ended the season #4 and we finished unranked.
But, one thing I did not remember about that dumb game is that in the 4th quarter, in a 1 score game, MSU called a halfback pass, from a true-freshman RB, that we intercepted. Then, on the final drive of the game, they benched their QB who had played the entire game and season, and had a 4 and out drive to seal it.
God that dumb game brings me an absurd amount of joy.
So gloriously dumb.
Kelly’s record against Dantonio at his peak is quietly impressive:
2011: 0-2 ND clonks MSU 31-13. MSU ends up winning their division, beating Georgia in a bowl game, going 11-3, and finishing in the top 10.
2013: ND beats an MSU team that goes 13-1, wins the B1G, and wins the Rose Bowl. This win almost certainly prevented MSU from playing for the national title against FSU.
2017: ND easily swats MSU aside in East Lansing, 38-13. MSU goes 10-3 and wins the Holiday Bowl.
I think this is a big reason why I want MSU on the schedule more often than not. Yes, I’ve hated every coach they’ve had during my adult life, so it gives me an enemy to root against. Yes, I’ve hated many of their players for being off the field jerks, so it gives me an enemy to root against. Yes, I’ve hated how overrated their QBs are every single year, even though they always suck (at least against us). But mostly, it’s just been so enjoyable to watch Kelly kick the hell out of Dantonio’s most important teams.
Dantonio had a running habit of making weird decisions in our games. I think it was in 11 that he called for the most obvious fake field goal of all time (I think they even called timeout beforehand), which we stuffed. “Little Giants” would’ve gone down as just another silly failed trick play if t
he officials had called the obvious delay of game or the takedown of Harrison Smithit hadn’t worked out so perfectly.2010
One of the first ND games I ever went to was the ND Syracuse game. I don’t remember much about it except my cousin and I bought scalped tickets for about $5 each. He lived on Angela across from the golf course. Everyone thought the game was over after the missed kick. Everyone was confused about the penalty including the refs since they had a conference, which lasted a few minutes. They awarded ND the penalty and another kick, which they made.. I believe the confusion was that a game could not end if the defense was penalized. It was not in the rule book as such but as a result of the game, it was changed.
That’s correct, I’ve read a couple newspaper stories and honestly the rules (or lack thereof) were super confusing.
MSU 2013 stands out to me more than anything. Yes we were ranked. But that was a brutal offensive game.
You should have a thread on the most memorable games, loss or win (as much as I hate to see losses, it’s therapeutic). 2012 served up lots of wins and heart attack moments. But the early 90s brings back awful moments that I still cant get over… BC 1993, Colorado 1990 (Rocket!!!) Tennessee 1991…
And then there is USC 2005 and FSU 2014 (too memorable…)
Games that were so important to national title implications, good or bad, but so memorable. Watching the Ben Koyack touchdown and stopping Stanford in OT on 4th down will never get old…