Notre Dame-Bye Week: 10 To 1
10-Year contract extension that former Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis (2005-09) signed during the bye weekend in 2005. After the 34-31 loss at home to No. 1 USC on Oct. 15, the Irish defeated BYU the following weekend to improve to 5-2, leading to the immense vote of confidence for the first-year head coach.
In this year’s bye week in October, Notre Dame vice president and director of athletics Jack Swarbrick also declared publicly to ESPN.com that despite a 2-5 start to this season, most recently an Oct. 15 home loss to a different California team (Stanford), head coach Brian Kelly will return for an eighth year in 2017 to lead the Fighting Irish.
9 This is the ninth time under Kelly that Notre Dame has a bye during the regular season. It is 7-1 the week after such games. Included are a 28-3 win over No. 15 Utah in 2010 when the Irish were 4-5 to turn around the season, and a 24-20 victory at Temple last year. The lone defeat was 31-17 at home to USC in 2011.
8 This year marks only the eighth time Notre Dame is 2-5 or worse at this point of the season: The others occurred in 1933 (3-5-1 finish), 1956 (2-8), 1960 (2-8), 1963 (2-7), 1997 (7-6), 2003 (5-7) and 2007 (3-9).
This year’s team will attempt to join Bob Davie’s debut campaign in 1997 as the only one to finish with a winning record.
7 After seven games, this is only the second time Kelly is 2-5 in his 27 seasons as a head coach. He had the same start in his first season at Central Michigan in 2004, when the Chippewas finished 4-7. That is the lone losing campaign of his career.
6 Straight years Notre Dame has won — at minimum — eight games, dating back to Kelly's debut in 2010. The Irish are one of only 10 teams to achieve that feat during that span, joining Alabama, Boise State, Florida State, LSU, Northern Illinois, Oklahoma, Oregon, Stanford and Wisconsin.
Notre Dame has to finish 6-0 hereafter to keep the streak alive.
5 Not one of Notre Dame’s five defeats this season were to an opponent that is currently ranked, an unprecedented feat in Irish football annals. Two of them are below .500 (Michigan State and Duke), while a third is at .500 with Texas sporting a 3-3 mark.
4 Against Miami next weekend, Notre Dame will attempt to avoid its fourth three-game losing streak under Kelly. The first came during a 1-3 start in 2010, the second a four-game slide to end the 2014 regular season, and the third was dropping the last two games of 2015 and the opener this season.
Gerry Faust (1981-85) had the most such slumps at Notre Dame with four.
3 Quarterback sacks recorded by the progressing Irish defense in the 17-10 loss to Stanford last week. That matched the season total of three through the first six games. Notre Dame is tied for 122nd in the 128-team FBS in that category, joining Vanderbilt with the lowest ranking among Power 5 Conference schools.
2 The loss to Stanford put Kelly in second place for most career losses (28) by a Notre Dame football coach, breaking the tie he had with predecessor Weis (35-27). He is 2 short of matching the record 30 during Lou Holtz’s 11 seasons from 1986-96.
1 Only one 2016 Notre Dame opponent is ranked by the Associated Press: Navy (Nov. 5) at No. 24. No Irish team has ever had a season where all of its foes finished unranked.
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