Published Nov 27, 2020
Notre Dame-North Carolina: By The Numbers
Lou Somogyi  •  InsideNDSports
Senior Editor

15 Game in a row won by the Fighting Irish, the longest current streak in the Football Bowl Subdivision and the third-longest at the program in the 70 years since 1950. It is surpassed only by the school-record 23 in 1988-89 and 17 in 1992-93.

Two more wins for an 11-0 finish to the regular season would tie the 1992-93 streak for second place since 1950.


Advertisement

19-2 All-time record by Notre Dame against North Carolina. That .905 winning percentage is the best by the Fighting Irish against any opponent it has faced a minimum of 20 times. At No. 2 is Navy at .855 (79-13-1) while Georgia Tech is No. 3 at .819 (29-6-1).

The Tar Heels were 1-39 coming into the game against an Associated Press top-5 ranked team.

24 Points allowed by Notre Dame in the fourth quarter during its 9-0 start. It is the fewest allowed by the Fighting Irish in an quarter this season. North Carolina entered the game outscoring the opposition 103-39 in the final 15 minutes, but lost that quarter 7-0 to the Fighting Irish.

The Tar Heels also produced only 78 yards total offense in the second half to finish with 298 — 265 under their average.


29-3 Record for fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book as the starting quarterback, and this victory put him in a four-way tie for most career victories as Notre Dame’s starter at the position.

Tom Clements was 29-5 (.853) from 1972-74, highlighted by the 1973 national title.

Ron Powlus was 29-16-1 (.641) from 1994-97, missing only two starts at the end of 1995.

Brady Quinn was 29-17 (.630) from 2003-07, and he started each of the final 46 games of his career, a school record at the position.


85.3 Yards rushing allowed per game by Notre Dame after limiting North Carolina’s prolific ground attack that had been averaging 233.5 yards per game to 87.

That is on pace to be the best at the school since the 1973 national champs permitted 82.4. However, back then it was based only on regular season data. If you included the 190 yards rushing by Alabama versus the Irish in the 1973 Sugar Bowl, the figure would be 92.2.


101 Career wins by 11th-year head coach Brian Kelly (101-37), which moves him into sole possession of second place in most football victories at the school, just ahead of 1986-96 boss Lou Holtz (100-30-2) and four behind the immortal Knute Rockne’s 105-12-5 ledger from 1918-30.


237 Straight passes thrown by Book without an interception — breaking the previous school record of 226 set by Brady Quinn in 2006. Book entered the contest with 204 and completed 23 of his 33 tosses versus the Tar Heels.

It was the eighth consecutive contest in which he was not intercepted, dating back to the second quarter in the Sept. 12 opener against Duke. Since then, Book has gone 34 quarters in a row without tossing a pick.


1947-49 Marked the last time — until now — that the Fighting Irish went undefeated and untied in November three straight years: 3-0 this year, 5-0 in 2019 and 4-0 in 2018 for a 12-0 total, highlighted by this year’s Nov. 7 victory versus then No. 1 Clemson. The 1947-49 crews were 11-0 — but did have a tie with USC in December 1948.

The school record for most consecutive wins in November is 15 under Rockne from 1919-22. Especially amazing is that in the five years from 2013-17, the Fighting Irish were 9-12 in November.

8,215 Career yards passing by Book after adding 279 more against North Carolina. That put him in second place on the all-time Fighting Irish chart, ahead of Jimmy Clausen’s 8,148 from 2007-09. Out of reach is the 11,762 by Brady Quinn from 2003-06.

With 48 yards rushing versus the Tar Heels, Book continues his ascent in that category as well with 1,445 total at Notre Dame. Only 1987-89 signal-caller Tony Rice with 2,049 — when including bowl games too, which weren’t back then — is ahead of him there.

----

• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable.

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.

• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

• Sign up for Blue & Gold's news alerts and daily newsletter.

Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts.

• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @Rivals_Singer, @PatrickEngel_, @MasonPlummer_ and @AndrewMentock.

• Like us on Facebook.

Advertisement