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Notre Dame-Michigan Countdown: 10 To 1

10 Straight victories by Notre Dame during the regular season — dating back to 2012 — after coming off a bye Saturday. Two of those wins came against ranked foes, No. 21 Temple (24-20) in 2015 and No. 11 USC (49-14) in 2017. Michigan is No. 19.

Overall, the Fighting Irish are 11-1 under head coach Brian Kelly the week after a bye, with the last defeat coming at home versus USC in 2011 (31-17). The most recent win was versus New Mexico (66-14) on Sept. 14.

No. 8 Notre Dame will attempt to post its third straight victory versus No. 19 Michigan.
No. 8 Notre Dame will attempt to post its third straight victory versus No. 19 Michigan. (Andris Visockis)
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9 Games under .500 (1-10) that fifth-year Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is when facing Associated Press top-10-ranked opposition, with eight consecutive setbacks. The most recent was last week’s 28-21 defeat at No. 7 Penn State prior to playing No. 8 Notre Dame tonight.

Overall, Michigan is 1-15 in such contests since 2012.


8 Ranking of Notre Dame this week. This is the first time it is in the top 10 versus the Wolverines since 2006, when the No. 2-ranked Fighting Irish lost at home 47-21. Notre Dame has not won against the Wolverines as a top-10-ranked team at the time of the game since 1990. It was No. 11 during victories in 1993 and 2012.

7 This is the “best of seven” showdown for Kelly against the Wolverines. He started 0-2 his first two years against U-M in 2010-11 with extremely painful 11th-hour defeats, and fell to 3-1 in 2013 before responding with victories in 2014 (31-0) and 2017 (24-17) in which the Irish permitted only one touchdown on defense, and also shut out Michigan for the first time in an NCAA record 365 games.

Already 7-3 versus USC, Kelly adding a 4-3 edge against the Wolverines would be a notable achievement.


6 In each of the last six times Notre Dame defeated Michigan and USC in the same season it either won the national title (1988), had a chance to win it going into the bowl game (1989, 1990, 1993 and 2012), or was invited to the four-team College Football Playoff (2018).

This will be the 34th time overall that the Irish will play both the Wolverines and Trojans in the same year (the first coming in 1942). It has vanquished both in the same season seven times, the first in 1987 under second-year head coach Lou Holtz during an 8-1 start before finishing 8-4. It will attempt an eighth such sweep tonight.


5 Head coaches since the 20th century, at least to our knowledge, who have defeated Notre Dame at two different schools: Howard Jones (Iowa and USC), Johnny Majors (Pitt and Tennessee), Dennis Erickson (Miami and Oregon State), Nick Saban (Michigan State and Alabama) and Todd Graham (Tulsa and Arizona State).

Harbaugh will attempt to become No. 6 after having defeated the Irish in 2009 and 2010 at Stanford. He also was the starting quarterback for Michigan in 1985 and 1986 during two other victories.


4 Consecutive victories by Michigan over Notre Dame in Michigan Stadium by scores of 38-0 (2007), 38-34 (2009), 35-31 (2011) and 41-30 (2013) — or an average of 38 points per game tallied by the Maize and Blue.

Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish defense under coordinator Clark Lea has not allowed an opponent to score more than 30 points each of the last 20 games — the longest current streak in the nation.

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3 This could be only the third game in the 33-game series since 1978 that will be played in either rainy or wet conditions. The first was in the 1 vs. 2 showdown in 1989 in which Raghib “Rocket” Ismail’s two kickoff returns for touchdowns propelled Notre Dame’s 24-19 victory. There wasn't much, if any, rain during the actual game, but a deluge shortly before it left the field quite wet and slippery (although apparently not for Ismail).

The second was in 2008 at Notre Dame when the Irish jumped to a quick 21-0 first-quarter lead en route to a 35-17 victory versus a Wolverines team that would finish 3-9, its first losing season in 41 years.


2 Categories in which Notre Dame ranks No. 1 nationally: turnover margin (plus-1.67 per game) and red-zone offense (100 percent, with 19 of the 22 possible tallies resulting in touchdowns).

This becomes even more significant when contrasting it to the fact that among 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, Michigan is 109th in turnovers committed (14) and 84th in turnover margin (minus-0.29). It also is 113th in red-zone scoring efficiency itself — scoring only 16 touchdowns on 33 attempts.


1 Victory separating Notre Dame and Michigan in the 32 games the two teams have played since the series renewal in 1978, with the Fighting Irish holding a 16-15-1 edge. The Wolverines “go for the tie” tonight in a series that who knows when might be renewed again.

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