By sweeping the month of November (5-0) following the 45-14 fiasco at Michigan on Oct. 26, Notre Dame enters a realm that it has seldom experienced the past 70 seasons from 1950-2019.
The current five-game winning streak is the seventh-longest to end a Notre Dame campaign in that time, and a victory this Saturday versus Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl would tie it for sixth.
Ending years with five-game or longer winning streaks has been uncommon for at least two reasons.
One is the last games of the regular season on the road tend to be against excellent teams. For example, since 1998, when trips to either USC or Stanford were almost always the regular season finale, the past two seasons (2018-19) are the first time Notre Dame has won those outings in back-to-back years.
USC was a superpower through most of the 1960s and 1970s, and then Miami grew into one in the 1980s when it often was Notre Dame's last regular season in odd-numbered years while the Trojans were for the even-numbered ones.
Notre Dame returning to the bowl scene in 1969 also made finishing a year on a winning streak challenging. From 1994 until 2008, Notre Dame set the NCAA record for longest losing streak in postseason action with nine.
In head coach Brian Kelly’s first season (2010), the Fighting Irish wrapped up their campaign with four straight victories to improve to 8-5 — and that was the school’s longest streak to end a season in 18 years. The current streak now is the longest in the past 27 years, or since 1993.
Here are the six other seasons since 1950 in which Notre Dame wrapped up a football campaign with a winning streak of at least five games, going from longest to shortest:
1. 1988 — 12
The most recent national title in school history saw the Irish finish 12-0 after losing the final three games the previous season and fashioning a mediocre 43-36-1 record the prior seven years.
2. 1973 — 11
Similar to the 1988 national champs who were outscored 80-30 in their final three games the year before, the 1973 national title winners (11-0) the season prior lost the last two contests while getting outscored 85-29.
3. 1977 — 10
Yep, another national title winner — which tells you what it takes. However, this group absorbed a loss in game 2, 20-13 at Ole Miss, before winning the final 10 games, highlighted by upsetting 11-0 and No. 1 Texas in the Cotton Bowl to claim the crown.
4. 1954 — 8
First-year head coach Terry Brennan, who was only 26 years old (current quarterbacks coach Tom Rees will turn 28 next May), lost game 2 versus Purdue before the Irish finished 9-1 and No. 4 in the country.
5. 1992 — 7
As talented as any team in the 11-year Lou Holtz (1986-96) era, the Irish stubbed their toes early with a tie against Michigan in game 2 and a 33-16 loss at home to Stanford to drop to 3-1-1. It then finished 10-1-1 and No. 4 by defeating four straight ranked teams to end the campaign, notably a 28-3 win versus 12-0 and No. 4 Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.
6. 1967 — 6
Head coach Ara Parseghian’s reigning national champs (who tied Michigan State in the penultimate contest of 1966) began the year 2-2, but closed out 8-2 and No. 5 in the country at a time when it did not participate in bowl games.
This year’s team could tie for sixth place since 1950 for longest winning streak to end a season. The one distinction might be is if Navy doesn’t win its Liberty Bowl game versus Kansas State on Dec. 31, then none of the wins would have been against a team that finished ranked.
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