The class ratings were based on 1) impact on the program through production, championship contention and talent level of other classes around them, 2) balance at the various positions and 3) overall depth in number of major producers.
THE 1968 RECRUITING CLASS
Players Signed: 33 scholarship players plus several walk-ons, led by Ed Gulyas
Record At Notre Dame From 1969-71: 26-5-1 (.828), highlighted by 24-11 upset of No. 1 Texas in the 1971 Cotton Bowl.
Associated Press Final Rankings: No. 5 (1969), No. 2 (1970), No. 13 (1971).
LEADERS IN THE LINEUP
Quarterback: Bill Etter
Fullbacks: Andy Huff, John Cieszkowski
Halfbacks: Ed Gulyas, Bob Minnix
Split End: Tom Gatewood
Offensive Line: John Dampeer, Jim Humbert, Dan Novakov
Defensive Line: Walt Patulski, Mike Kadish, Greg Marx, Fred Swendsen, Mike Zikas
Linebackers: Eric Patton, Rick Thomann, John Raterman
Defensive Backs: Clarence Ellis, Ralph Stepaniak, Mike Crotty
Punter: Jim Yoder
IMPACT
The NFL drafted 11 players from this class, with Patulski, Kadish and Ellis in the first round, and Marx in the second. Ara Parseghian and his staff assembled one of the two or three best overall defensive hauls in school history, and nine players from that group were two- or three-year starters.
Those same nine started on Parseghian’s “Mirror Defense” in the defeat of No. 1 Texas in the 1971 Cotton Bowl. The vaunted wishbone of the Longhorns tallied only 11 points after averaging 41.2 during the season and extending their winning streak to 30 games.
In 21 games during this group’s junior and senior years (1970-71), the Irish defense limited foes to seven or fewer points 14 times. It was a defense that repeatedly came up huge in slugfests, from consecutive 10-7 and 3-0 victories in 1970 versus teams that finished No. 13 (Georgia Tech) and No. 7 (LSU), to back-to-back 8-7 and 14-2 conquests of longtime rivals Purdue and Michigan State in 1971.
Offensively, there wasn’t as much star power besides record-setting All-American wideout and 2015 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Gatewood, but more than a half-dozen members were starters as juniors or seniors.
BALANCE
There was an impact player or All-American at virtually every position on defense.
It was headlined by a sensational front that featured first-round NFL picks Patulski (end) and Kadish (tackle), second-round choice Marx (tackle) and third-round selection Swendsen (end). Could you imagine the Irish ever recruiting four such defensive linemen in one class again? This quartet combined for 755 career tackles — 98 for lost yardage.
Patulski was the recipient of the Lombardi Award in 1971 and is the most recent Irish player to be the No. 1 overall pick of an NFL Draft.
At linebacker, the Irish featured two-year starters Patton and Thomann, as well as Raterman, who broke into a starting role as a sophomore in 1969 and accumulated 67 stops. Injuries hampered Raterman thereafter, but Patton, a fourth-round pick, netted 164 stops in 1970-71 while Thomann registered 114.
In the 4-4-3 alignment back then, all three starters in the 1970-71 secondary were from this class: first-round pick/All-America Ellis, Ralph Stepaniak and Mike Crotty. Ellis still holds the school career record for passes broken up (32) and is tied for third with Stepaniak in interceptions (13). Ellis and Stepaniak were three-year starters. Crotty recorded 142 stops, broke up 13 passes and intercepted four in two seasons.
Ellis earned Defensive MVP honors in the 1971 Cotton Bowl. In that same game, he also lined up at receiver for one play, catching a 37-yard pass to set up the game’s last score.
Spearheading the offense was Gatewood, the first black player to be elected a football captain at Notre Dame (1971). His 157 career receptions were the school record for 35 years, with 77 grabs coming in his junior year when senior QB Joe Theismann was at the throttle.
The offensive line featured three starters: tackles John Dampeer (a 1972 co-captain with Marx as a fifth-year senior) and Humbert, and center Novakov. They paved the way for five running back recruits from 1968, with walk-on Ed Gulyas the standout.
As a junior for the 10-1 squad that finished No. 2 in 1970, Gulyas paced Notre Dame in rushing with 534 yards. He also averaged 21 yards on his nine catches, with three touchdowns. The fullback tandem of Huff and Cieszkowski was productive, although each sat out a year with an injury. Huff rumbled for 1,127 yards, 4.5 yards per carry and 17 touchdowns during his career, while “Cisco’s” 774 career yards didn’t include a team-high 52-yard effort in the ’71 Cotton Bowl win.
Yoder, whose career was truncated due to an injury, was the punter in 1969-70, and he also was versatile enough to catch a 24-yard touchdown pass in the 1970 Cotton Bowl (a 21-17 loss to national champ Texas) and snare two passes for 96 yards the following year in the Cotton Bowl victory over the Longhorns.
DEPTH
There were 21 major contributors from this class, which is almost unfathomable. Included along the defensive line was Zikas, the “fifth man” in the Front Four and a seventh-round NFL pick in 1972.
The backfield didn’t have a star figure, but Gulyas was proficient for the No. 2 Irish in 1970 while Minnix was the top rusher in 1971 when Gulyas was injured. The backfield by committee also applied to fullbacks Huff and Cieszkowski.
The “what if” in this class was at quarterback when Etter’s football career was pretty much ended with a severe knee injury during a start at Miami in the fourth game of his senior season (1971). In 1969, Etter rushed for 146 yards against Navy (still a school record for Irish quarterbacks), was considered as fleet as 1969-70 starter Theismann, and he also was a 1970 Bengal Bouts boxing champion.
SUMMARY
Like just about any class, this one had a few flaws. It was 0-2-1 versus USC in its three varsity seasons from 1969-71. The ’71 senior-dominated Irish were projected as pre-season national champs, but they finished 8-2 and voted not to accept a Gator Bowl invitation. Speed in the backfield was minimal.
However, we ranked this group No. 5 not only because of impact, balance and depth, but because the 1967, 1969 and 1970 classes sandwiched between them were relatively sub-par by Notre Dame standards. Whereas six players from this 1968 class alone were drafted in the first four rounds, the 1967, 1969 and 1970 hauls had a combined total of three (Theismann in 1967, and Dave Casper and Mike Townsend in 1970).
Consequently, this 1968 unit had much more freight to carry during its three varsity seasons. That, plus their on-field success, helped put them in the top five.
https://notredame.n.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-s-top-classes-no-10
https://notredame.n.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-s-top-classes-no-9
https://notredame.n.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-s-top-classes-no-8-1
https://notredame.n.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-s-top-classes-no-7
https://notredame.n.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-s-top-classes-no-6
