Notre Dame's Home Property Value
Throughout his career at Notre Dame, eighth year Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly has outlined the three tenets that help define a quality campaign.
“You’ve got to start with a win, you’ve got to win your home games, and you’ve got to win your rivalry games,” Kelly summarized of the prime objectives any college head coach has entering a season.
The Irish were 0-for-3 in 2016, beginning with the 50-47 loss double-overtime loss at Texas in the opener.
USC always is Notre Dame’s arch rival, but because Stanford and Navy are the only other consistent mainstays on the current slates, they too are categorized as traditional rivals the way Purdue, Michigan State or Michigan used to be. Regardless, the Irish were 0-for-3 there too in 2016.
Finally, most telling of all usually is how serve is held at home. In 2016 Notre Dame was 2-4, marking the fourth time since 1964 it finished under .500 on its home turf. The others were 1983 (2-3), 1984 (2-3) and 2007 (1-6).
Amazingly, in the 22 seasons from 1990 through 2011, the Irish finished unbeaten at home only once, a 6-0 ledger in 1998. Under Kelly, though, Notre Dame began reclaiming the home field as an advantage. It finished unscathed in both 2012 and 2015, and the 21-3 record at home from 2012-15 was the best by a four-year graduating group at the school since the Class of 1992 also posted the same mark from 1988-91.
In the 67 football seasons since 1950, Notre Dame has finished unbeaten and untied at home 13 times, or an average of about once per five years. From 1999 through 2011 it had a school-record drought of 13 straight seasons of not going unblemished at home (the previous record had been eight from 1956-63).
The final overall Irish record in those 13 seasons since 1950 when it finished perfect at home was 130-19-2 (.868), with national titles in 1966, 1973, 1977 and 1988, sharing a fifth title in 1964, and near misses in 1970 (No. 2 at 10-1) and 1989 (No. 2 at 12-1), plus the 12-0 and No. 1 ranking in 2012 prior to the BCS Championship debacle versus Alabama.
Among Notre Dame’s three Hall-of-Fame coaches hired since 1950, Ara Parseghian finished unbeaten at home four times in his 11 seasons from 1964-74, Dan Devine twice in six years, and Lou Holtz three times (consecutively from 1987-89) in his 11 years.
Neither Parseghian nor Devine was able to do it back-to-back. Notre Dame did not lose at home in 1969 and 1970, but in 1969 it did have a 14-14 tie with USC.
Among Notre Dame’s seven home games in 2017 while christening the new Campus Crossroad construction, it should be heavily favored in four: Temple (Sept. 2), Miami (Ohio) (Sept. 30), Wake Forest (Nov. 4) and Navy (Nov. 18).
The Oct. 28 matchup against North Carolina State should be plenty “winnable” as well. Finally, while the Irish might be deemed the potential underdog at home against Georgia (Sept. 9) and USC (Oct. 21), ESPN’s Football Power Index still gives Notre Dame a 51.2 percent chance of defeating the Bulldogs and a surprising 56.8 percent advantage versus the Trojans. Georgia has not had a regular season game north of the Mason-Dixon line since 1965, and USC has lost on its last two trips to South Bend.
Not finishing unbeaten at home doesn’t mean the Irish are destined for a bad season. But an unblemished mark at home usually guarantees a good and perhaps even a great one.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne's Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD,
@BGI_MattJones, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook