Notre Dame-Boston College: By The Numbers
3-35 Record for Boston College against teams ranked in the top-5 of the Associated Press poll at the time they played them, including the No. 2 Fighting Irish in 2020. At home, BC is 0-14 versus the top 5.
Two of the victories came at Notre Dame: 41-39 versus the 10-0 and No. 1 Irish in 1993, and 14-7 against the 8-0 and No. 4 edition in 2002.
The first occurred in the 1941 Sugar Bowl when No. 5 Boston College defeated No. 4 Tennessee, 19-13. It was the last game for Frank Leahy as the Eagles’ head coach before returning to his alma mater and guiding four national titles and six unbeaten seasons at Notre Dame in 11 seasons.
4 Notre Dame is one of only four teams since 2018 to lose three or fewer games, and is fourth in winning percentage with its 31-3 mark (.912). The three teams ahead of it are 36-2 Clemson (.947), 31-2 Alabama (.939) and 29-2 Ohio State (.935) — with both the Crimson Tide and Buckeyes having games cancelled this week and the Tigers idle.
8 Straight victories recorded by Notre Dame over Boston College since 2009, with head coach and Massachusetts native Brian Kelly 7-0, notably 4-0 at Alumni Stadium plus 1-0 in Fenway Park.
Remarkably, prior to the run, the Eagles won six straight versus the Fighting Irish from 2001-08.
11 Times Notre Dame has started 8-0 since 1950, with 2020 the most recent. The others were 1964, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1988, 1989, 1993, 2002, 2012 and 2018.
In each of those years but one (2002), the final game for the Fighting Irish had national title implications on it, including the semifinal of the 2018 playoff that would have advanced it to the title game.
14 Straight victories for Notre Dame, which will remain the longest currently in the country when it next plays at North Carolina on Nov. 27.
It also now stands alone in third place for the third-longest winning streak by the Fighting Irish in the 70 years since 1950. In that span it has been surpassed only by the school-record 23 in 1988-89 and 17 in 1992-93. Until the win at Boston College, it had been tied at 13 with the 1973-74 and 2017-18 squads.
15 Times a Notre Dame player has caught three touchdown passes in a game, with fifth-year senior Ben Skowronek adding his name to the chart in the victory at Boston College. Last year, Chase Claypool snared four against Navy, tying the single-game standard set by Maurice Stovall against BYU in 2005.
17 Carries by freshman running back Chris Tyree for 74 yards. That was the most carries by a Fighting Irish freshman since Josh Adams had 18 for 168 yards in the 38-36 loss at Stanford in the 2015 regular season finale. Tyree’s work load was increased because of injuries to sophomore Kyren Williams and junior C’Bo Flemister, both of whom were projected to be cleared for the North Carolina game Nov. 27.
Tyree’s previous high was 11 carries versus Florida State on Oct. 10, finishing with 103 yards.
28-3 Record as the Notre Dame starting quarterback Ian Book, which is exactly what Tony Rice had from 1987-89, highlighted by the school-record 23-game winning streak. Two more wins as the starter would make Book the first Irish signal-caller to reach 30 victories during his career.
31 Straight wins over unranked teams to extend the school record in that category. Only Alabama has more among current Football Bowl Subdivision programs.
85 Rushing yards yielded by Notre Dame against Boston College, which is what the defense had averaged coming into the game to rank among the top-5 nationally in that category. If it maintains this pace, it will be the best figure since the 82.4 by the 1973 national champs (not including allowing 190 in the Sugar Bowl, when postseason stats were not counted back then).
100* Wins in 11th-year head coach Brian Kelly’s career at Notre Dame (100-37) with the victory against Boston College. He is the third to reach the century mark for the Fighting Irish football team, joining Lou Holtz (100-30-2 from 1986-96) and Knute Rockne, who was 105-12-5 from 1918-30.
From the NCAA’s standpoint, though, he is 79-37 because of 21 “vacated” wins in 2012-13, hence the asterisk.
195 Consecutive passes thrown by Book without an interception, or since the opener against Duke. That is the second-best streak ever at Notre Dame, behind Brady Quinn’s 226 during his 2006 senior year.
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