To wrap up our celebration of the 18 Stripes 5-year anniversary I wanted to look back at my favorite moments on the field since the 2016 season began. You could also call these the best moments, as well. Whatever you call it we’re having a good time. Instead of ranking the moments from worst to best I figured it’s better to go by year and work our way to present time. It doesn’t start off too well but improves quickly, I swear!
2016
Fireworks in New Jersey
50-33
Sitting at 1-3 coming off one of the most embarrassing losses of the 21st Century and after finally firing BVG 6 days prior, the Irish took to MetLife Stadium for a neutral site matchup against Syracuse. With zero expectations for a reeling program there were a bunch of exciting big plays to reclaim some fun including a 79-yard St. Brown touchdown, Cole Luke 2-point return, Brown scoring again from 67 yards, C.J. Sanders with a 93-yard kickoff touchdown, a Kevin Stepherson 54-yard score, and Dexter Williams 59-yard touchdown run.
Blowing a 20-0 Lead But Not Losing Against Miami
30-27
A rare moment to smile from 2016.
Any win over Miami is a good win, no matter the circumstances. As 2.5-point underdogs the Irish jumped out to a 20-0 lead only to surrender 27 straight to the Hurricanes. In a rare occurrence for this 2016 squad the clutch gene showed itself. First Josh Adams rumbled for a 41-yard touchdown, then Notre Dame forced a 3 & out with a solid 23-yard punt return from Chris Finke to set up Justin Yoon’s game-winning 23-yard field goal with 30 seconds left.
2017
Waking Up at Boston College
49-20
This game was a slog with Notre Dame leading 14-10 with a Wimbush interception before halftime, Wimbush fumble to open the 2nd half, and Boston College cutting the lead to just 1-point. Notre Dame would eventually erupt for 5 touchdowns through 296 yards on only 25 plays to win comfortably and deliver the largest margin of victory in this series since 1997.
The Opening Drive at Michigan State
38-18
Notre Dame took the ball to start this road game and moved very smoothly to take a lead including a quick comeback to Claypool for 10 yards, incomplete middle screen to Adams, screen to Claypool for 10 yards, bubble screen to St. Brown for 2 yards, 40-yard post to St. Brown, read-option from Wimbush for no gain, and finally a draw from Wimbush for a 16-yard touchdown. Just 1:55 of game-time elapsed and the Irish never looked back in a 20-point win.
Early Bedtime for USC
49-14
New York Jets legend Sam Darnold had no chance.
Te’Von Coney caused a sack fumble on USC’s first play from scrimmage, 3 plays later Wimbush found St. Brown for a 26-yard touchdown, and we were off to the races. Notre Dame led 28-0 at halftime, built their largest lead (31-0) in the series in 51 years, scored the most points in the series in 40 years, gained the most rushing yards against USC in 67 years, all in one of the most fun night games in Irish history.
Love’s INT vs. NC State
35-14
This was supposed to be a trap game and by halftime Notre Dame led 21-14, in control but far from secure. On the opening drive of the 3rd quarter, NC State was driving in Irish territory when cornerback Julian Love picked off Ryan Finley and took it back to the house. Two series later for Notre Dame and Josh Adams scored from 77 yards out to seal this win.
Book to Boykin in the Citrus
21-17
It kind of felt like a thing at the time but we still weren’t sure. Miles Boykin finished with only 12 catches on the year and Book was still the backup. With hindsight, this play makes so much more sense! Both would become major factors in the year to come and teamed up to give us a fun bowl win.
2018
Finke Climbs the Heavens vs. Michigan
24-17
This was really early in the game and wasn’t exactly a game-winning touchdown but it was part of a 14-0 first quarter blitz that felt so, so good and set the tone for the rest of the game.
White men can jump.
It’s also one of the more iconic photos of the Brian Kelly era. Too bad the ref is partially in the way.
The Book Opens vs. Wake Forest
56-27
Yes, I know I called for this switch at quarterback against some stiff resistance from the Irish faithful. I think we can stop bringing up this genius decision I’m just a mere mortal, you guys. Even I didn’t expect the efficiency we witnessed that day in Winston-Salem. In his 2nd career start (and 1st of actually taking over the full-time job) Book threw for 325 yards, rushed for 43 more, and added 5 total touchdowns in a romp over Wake Forest.
Alize’s Throw Back Dagger vs. Stanford
38-17
Happier times for the Chip Long era.
In terms of pure joyous cackling has there ever been a greater touchdown scored over the past 5 seasons? I’ll set the scene: Notre Dame has just completed a 10-play touchdown drive in the 4th quarter and subsequently picks off Cardinal quarterback K.J. Costello on the very next play from scrimmage thanks to Te’von Coney. The ball is at the 35-yard line of Stanford with 8:10 remaining and the Irish nursing a comfortable 31-17 lead. Milk the clock and get into field goal range? NOPE. The offense executes a perfect throwback touchdown to an enormously wide open Alize Mack.
Dexter Goes for 97 at Virginia Tech
45-23
The final score of this game doesn’t do justice to a disappointing and frustrating 1st half that saw Notre Dame only leading by 1 point at the break. Notre Dame forced a punt to open the 3rd quarter but got pinned deep in their own territory, made worse by a loss of 2 yards from Dexter Williams on 1st down. The next play would go a lot different.
Book to Boykin Part 2 vs. Pitt
19-14
Our 4th straight game from this season featured a rough go of it in the 1st half as Notre Dame could muster only 2 field goals from 5 offensive series. With just over 7 minutes remaining and the Irish trailing by 2 points, Book would find Boykin on consecutive completions the last being a 35-yard game-winning touchdown.
Tony Jones Seals Things vs. USC
24-17
Remember the Boykin block on the Jones cut-back?
Notre Dame trailed 10-7 at halftime with a perfect regular season on the line inside the Los Angeles Coliseum. A strong 3rd quarter gave the Irish a tenuous 17-10 lead as a 3rd & 5 near midfield approached with under 4 minutes remaining in the game. You could’ve forgiven a conservative play-call in the circumstances and the Notre Dame defense playing well but instead a flare pass to Tony Jones sealed the 12-0 season in front of the Trojan fans.
2019
D-Line Obliterates Virginia
35-20
It’s been rare in recent years where the Irish trailed at halftime but this was one of those games. Things would change rapidly as Notre Dame piled on 5 sacks in the 3rd quarter to completely batter Cavaliers quarterback Bryce Perkins. This led to a much more comfortable 18-point lead and ultimately a 35-20 win at home.
Lenzy Turns into Lil’ Rocket vs. USC
30-27
Our last meeting against USC.
This home victory over USC got tighter in the 2nd half as the Trojans scored 3 touchdowns over the final 18+ minutes. However, the Irish owned the 1st half and would build a 20-3 lead through the middle of the 3rd quarter. Back in the 2nd quarter with under 5 minutes remaining, Braden Lenzy took an end-around and turned on the jets for a 14-3 lead. Notre Dame hasn’t lost to USC in 1,686 days by the way.
Book Shushes the Crowd vs. Virginia Tech
21-20
Notre Dame was tied with the Hokies at halftime thanks largely to 5 separate 3 & out series mixed in with a redzone interception from Ian Book, plus an excruciating fumble by Jafar Armstrong that was returned 98 yards for a touchdown. The Irish trailed by 6 in the 4th quarter, saw a Doerer field goal miss after an 82-yard drive before another 87-yard drive resulted in Ian Book’s infamous shushing of the crowd after scoring the game-winning touchdown for the 1-point win.
Lea Breaks the BC Offense
40-7
Notre Dame entered this game as 20.5-point favorites so it wasn’t expected to be close. It would not be even remotely close. The Irish defense stifled Boston College all day long forcing 8 punts, 5 series’ of 3 & out, while allowing only 11 first downs, 191 total yards, and just 7 points in the 2nd largest win over the Eagles in series history.
Comeback to Cruise at Stanford
45-24
14 Stanford fans watched Notre Dame race back for a win in 2019.
This game featured Notre Dame attempting to overcome a 5-game losing streak in Palo Alto. At first, it looked like another California nightmare with Stanford jumping out to a 17-7 lead. With under 5 minutes remaining in the 1st half an Isaiah Foskey punt block turned the tables. From that point forward, Notre Dame out-scored Stanford 38-7 for a stress-free 2nd half and easy victory.
Fun Camping vs. Iowa State
33-9
Would Notre Dame be motivated to face a 5-loss Big 12 team and yes it wouldn’t be a problem at all. The Irish jumped out to a 10-0 lead and put the Cyclones to bed early in the 2nd half thanks to a rumbling 84-yard touchdown run from Tony Jones, Jr. Iowa State’s offense never really got going with only a trio of field goals and just 272 total yards.
2020
Pitt Embarrasses Itself
45-3
I’m including this game due to the hilarity of Pittsburgh’s offensive ineptitude with backup quarterback Joey Yellen who threw 3 interceptions to just 101 yards on 27 overall pass attempts. We also saw receiver Ben Skowronek catch 2 touchdown passes for 107 yards on the way to a complete route. It would be the biggest win over Pitt in 24 years.
3 Straight TD’s to Upset Clemson
47-40
Big Game Brian made an appearance.
Of course, no one could forget. Notre Dame failed on a 4th down and gave the ball back to Clemson with 2:10 remaining in the the 4th quarter while trailing by 7 points. They’d get the ball back–and with overtime included–score 21 points on 3 straight possessions piling up 141 yards on 18 plays. Seriously, the Irish had the ball down a touchdown on their 9-yard line with 1:48 to play and won the game.
Not Losing to Phil Jurkovec
45-31
A couple weeks before Notre Dame faced Clemson, the Eagles of BC were leading Clemson 28-10 shortly before halftime. Jurkovec was going to beat the Tigers and the message boards would start on fire! Well, Clemson rallied for the win but BC did have a 10-3 lead over Notre Dame until late in the 1st quarter. From there, the Irish would out-score Boston College 35-6 and everything went pretty swell over the last 3 quarters.
UNC’s 2nd Half Punt-Fest
31-17
The box score of this second half still looks absurd to this day and is Clark Lea’s departing masterpiece. Heck, we can even include most of the 1st half, too. North Carolina scored touchdowns on each of their first 2 possessions and would manage just 1 field goal over their concluding 9 offensive drives. In the 2nd half, the Heels gained only 58 yards. Usually I’ll total that up with a calculator but nope, not needed for this game.
Good article! Is it a hot take to say that USC 2017 was the most enjoyable game for me since I started following ND in 2005?
I was coming to the messages to ask if the 2017 team was everyone’s favorite team (of the past 25 years, at least)
Much of 2017 was a blast but November sucked way too bad to put them atop the list.
I still think my favorite team was 2012. Timing had a lot to do with it; it had been so long since we’d had a really good team to root for, and it kind of came out of nowhere, which made it even more fun.
Interesting. I remember 2012 having quite a few frustrating games that were way closer than they needed to be (Pitt, Purdue, BYU, USC, BC, Michigan) in addition to several white knucklers (Pitt & Stanford).
The 2017 stretch of MSU-Miami (OH)-UNC-USC-NCST felt like ND was unbeatable and they were having fun kicking the other team’s asses. That Miami game sucked so hard to me only because of how good and enjoyable they were 2 weeks prior. (But yea, looking at their last 3 games of blowout, TD win v Navy and 4th Q collapse at Stanford – woof)
It was for me, with Oklahoma 2012 being a very close second.
Those two come to mind for me right away, and I think you’d also have to find a spot on the podium for 37-0 vs Michigan as well.
I think what puts USC 2017 over Michigan 2014 is the sheer unexpectedness of the domination. That USC team was *good*. We didn’t really know about Michigan, and there was a “well maybe Michigan is just terrible this year” thought that was kind of inescapably creeping into my mind by the 3rd quarter of that game.
Oklahoma 2012 only doesn’t count for me because I missed the first half so I don’t feel like I truly experienced the whole thing, but I think that’s a reasonable answer.
The four other ones in the discussion IMO are 2006 Michigan State, 2012 Stanford, 2012 USC, and 2020 Clemson.
For me it’s Clemson, UM 2014, OU 2012 as a clear top 3 in some order. There are lots of others in a tier below.
Please don’t ban me (or raise my subscription price) but, personally, Clemson 2020 doesn’t do a whole lot for me.
It was a very exciting game and a great win, no doubt. But the fact that it was effectively canceled out a month later and occurred in front of a quarter full stadium really takes a lot of the luster off it. And as much as I hate Dabo, eh…it’s Clemson. They’re not anything even close to a rival. Mostly I wish they’d just go away.
Yeah, it was exciting in the moment and obviously the result was good, but also it was clear that week after that we were basically even with Clemson if you took off one of their best defenders and the #1 pick in the NFL draft. It was not surprising in the least bit when they beat us down a month later.
The USC 2017 win aftermath was much more pleasant – it was a “ooh, this team might be really good” sense.
They got back Tyler Davis for the second game and we lost Jarrett Patterson, a loss compounded by the fact that the relatively untested Zeke Correll had to play through an ankle sprain to replace him. That right there was an enormous swing; obviously flipping DJ for Lawrence was big too, but the Davis/Patterson situation was underplayed in both games IMO. I hated the potential impact of that situation and, what do you know, Book faced pressure up the middle all night.
Another thing underplayed in both games was the absence of our top two receivers. I know, we’ve all been waiting for Austin forever and who knows what he would’ve provided – probably a hell of a presence, but who knows. But we do have an idea of what we have in Lenzy. In 2019, McKinley had 89 yards from scrimmage and 1 TD against teams not named New Mexico or Bowling Green; against the same group, Lenzy had 358 yards and 3 TDs. In basically half a season because Long (justifiably, from what we’ve heard) didn’t trust him enough in the first half.
Would I argue that missing Patterson, Austin, and Lenzy is equivalent to missing Lawrence, Davis, and Jones*? No. Lawrence alone would make that suggestion ridiculous. But Patterson/Davis being a head-to-head scenario magnifies that impact, and missing our only outside speed threats mattered. That win in South Bend mattered.
* Skalski is a bum, don’t care if he was there or not.
Alize Mack’s TD was so satisfying. It had been forever since we successfully executed a knockout punch against a good opponent.
I will never forget the image of Pat Narduzzi steaming up his plastic face shield in impotent rage.
This probably says more about my sad life in the year of the pandemic, but honestly Wu intercepting that pitch and scoring against Clemson is probably the only time I was genuinely joyfully happy in 2020. The end of the game was stressful and more of a relief to actually win, but at that moment everything was right.
All the ones above were great, to add a fresh one: Dexter scoring on his first touch against Stanford following his 4 game suspension was really awesome. Left no doubt that he was going to have a senior season redemption and felt really deserved for him hanging in there and earning his moment.
And to add another redemption-related one, I recall being extremely happy for Brandon Wimbush that the demolition of Florida State went so well in 2018. I think many of us, myself included, were dreading another slog in the mold of Ball State and Vanderbilt when Book was sidelined, but thankfully we just ran it down their throats and Wimbush did plenty enough to make it a blowout.
1) Beating Clemson and looking like we belong with the big boys.
2) Destroying Clay Helton.
3) Dex returning from injury and immediately taking it to the house.
The last 5 years have really been a blast! I was really happy to find y’all again after you departed OFD and reading your articles is always great
I think my favorite moment is a tie between 2017 USC and 2020 Clemson 1
Now getting it out of the way yes I know we got smacked by Clemson later and the quarterback and blah blah blah but I’ve been born and raised in upstate South Carolina and had to suffer through “noder lame overrated pawwwwwlll” in real life for 18 years so finally beating the #1 team in the country and it being Clemson made it a night for a lifetime
But 2017 USC was pantsing those damn dirty Trojans by 5 touchdowns in our place after all the hype they got
Couldn’t agree more, that USC game was magical. Not 15 years ago, ND stood literally 0 chance of beating them; the game was over before the kickoff, then we take the PAC-12 champs in primetime and embarrass them.
I give the slight edge to 17 USC due to the completeness of the win, it was utter annihilation in all regards. Clemson was magical and special, but minus 2 Micheal Mayer miscues and a book fumble could have been a smooth comfortable win. The USC game was so thoroughly cathartic in every performance. I remember sitting on the couch watching it with my brother, and after josh Adam’s big run, I told him “this is the greatest ND game we’ve ever seen”.
If I’m not being too much of a bother, I’d like more of both please!
Cheers 18S, love this site, love the community, thank you for putting out amazing content!
Great article and would like to know what this list would look like without any restrictions on timeline.
What’s the first game that you can remember when you’re feet didn’t touch the ground?
91 Snow Bowl? 93 FSU? 02 FSU? 05 MU? 06 MSU?
I am 38 so the Holtz era has some of my fondest memories followed by 02, 05, 06, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20.
Conversely, what are the memories that you cant shake and haunt you? 90 CU, 93 BC, 05 USC, 11 MU, 16 TX, DUKE, NCST, NAVY, 17 MIAMI, 19 MU
Also, what is the most talented team you can remember? 90, 15? Maybe even 05?
Most disappointing? Also 90? 93 because they didn’t finish business? 07, 08, 09? Also 15? 16 of course, 19?
2009 and 2015 are the 2 most disappointing. Both teams were packed to the gills with top-tier talent and coaching (Weis in 09, BVG in 15) screwed it up. It didn’t help that both Alabama teams that won those years’ national titles ended up seeming extremely gettable by comparison to some of the teams they’ve had since. 09 was early Saban and they weren’t Death Star Bama yet. In 15 their team was basically ‘pound Derrick Henry up the middle until guys start to fall over’.
Earliest great one I remember is ’93 FSU – I had just applied to ND (not sure if I had been accepted yet, memory is much too fuzzy). Haunting ones include ’94 Michigan, my first game in the stadium and one we really should’ve won; all the QB FORCE/Shoelaces losses to ****ing Michigan; ’05 USC (I really thought the Laws sack iced the game); ’10 Navy, when we were just run off the field by a ****ING FULLBACK DIVE, BOB; ’15 Stanford, the BVG special-iest of BVG specials (on the play that setup the FG, Joe Schmidt was left to cover 2 or 3 guys in the middle of the field because he was the only one who knew where he was supposed to be); ’17 Stanford (should’ve hammered them); ’19 Michigan.
The most talented team I can truly remember – I was around but didn’t really follow the program until I applied, so I don’t remember the absurdly talented early 90’s teams – has to be 2015. That team was beyond loaded on both sides of the ball. Without looking it up I would say there are around 15-20 key contributors from that team that are still drawing NFL paychecks. The offensive line, L to R, was Stanley, Q, N. Martin, Elmer, McGlinchey. Defensive line was Rochell, Tillery, Day, Okwara. Fuller, ESB, Adams, Prosise, Smythe at the skill positions. Just stupid talented, but… BVG.