Notre Dame Vs. Alabama Countdown: 10 To 1
10 This will be the 10th bowl game as Notre Dame’s head coach for Brian Kelly — a new school record. Like Lou Holtz (1986-96), Kelly is 5-4 in bowl games, so a victory also would give him the most for the Fighting Irish in the postseason.
The difference is that Holtz’s five victories were against teams that had a combined 54-2 record entering the game, while Kelly is seeking his first victory in a major (see No. 8)
9 Wins by Notre Dame against the Associated Press No. 1-ranked team since the advent of the poll in 1936, with the most recent occurring this Nov. 7 at home versus then top-ranked Clemson.
The most among Football Bowl Subdivision schools is 10 by …Alabama. How fitting it would be tie the mark today against the Crimson Tide.
8 Consecutive losses by Notre Dame in what is classified as “major” bowls. It began with the 1995 Fiesta Bowl versus Colorado (41-24) and continued most recently with the 2018 College Football Playoff setback in the Cotton Bowl to Clemson (30-3). The average score in those defeats was 38-17.
The school-record 27-year streak without defeating a No. 1-ranked team ended this season… so it would be apropos to end the major bowl drought as well during this campaign.
7 Touchdowns per game scored by Alabama while averaging 49.7 points, just ahead of the 48.4 output by 2019 national champion LSU. Since the start of the 2019 season, the Crimson Tide has scored at least 35 points in 24 consecutive games. Notre Dame is averaging 35.2 points per game.
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6 Notre Dame is seeking its sixth bowl victory over a No. 1-ranked team in the polls: Texas in both the 1971 and 1978 Cotton Bowls, Alabama in the 1973 Sugar Bowl and 1975 Orange Bowl (the Crimson Tide was No. 2 in the AP but No. 1 in UPI poll) and Colorado in the 1990 Orange Bowl.
All those foes were undefeated coming into the contest, and so were 7-0-1 Stanford in the 1925 Rose Bowl (before there were polls), 11-0 and No. 3 West Virginia in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl and 12-0 and No. 4 Texas A&M in the 1993 Cotton Bowl. The Irish won those showdowns as well, so this could be the ninth win overall in the postseason versus an undefeated squad.
5 Alabama head coach Nick Saban is attempting to become the first coach ever to own a 5-0 record against Notre Dame. He won all three meetings versus the Fighting Irish from 1997-99 while at Michigan State, and he is 1-0 at Alabama following the 2013 BCS Championship Game victory (42-14).
The only other two coaches who were 4-0 versus the Irish were Chicago’s Amos Alonso Stagg (1893-99) and Northwestern’s Ara Parseghian (1959-62), who two years later would begin a legendary career with the Fighting Irish.
4 Over the past four years Notre Dame’s 43-7 record (.860 winning percentage) is the 4th-best in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Not so coincidentally, the top three also are in this year's CFP: Clemson (51-4, .927), Alabama (49-4, .925) and Ohio State (44-4, .917).
Meanwhile, the team that debuted at No. 2 in the first College Football Playoff poll the last four years went on to win the national title: Clemson (2016) Alabama (2017), Clemson (2018) and LSU (2019) — and this year it was Notre Dame that debuted at No. 2.
3 This is the third time an 11-0 and No. 1-ranked Alabama team will face Notre Dame in a bowl. The first was a one-point loss (24-23) in the 1973 Sugar Bowl, the second a two-point setback (13-11) in the 1975 Orange Bowl … so to follow the bowl symmetry, how about a 3-point Irish win this time?
2 Victories Notre Dame is attempting to record against a No. 1-ranked team in the same season. Auburn accomplished it just two years ago in a span of three weeks versus Georgia and … Alabama.
Georgia avenged the loss to Auburn in the SEC Championship before eventually losing to the Crimson Tide in overtime in the national title game.
1 With this 1 victory versus No. 1, Notre Dame would:
• Improve to 1 game over .500 in bowl games, where it currently is 19-19 all time.
• Be 1 win away from its first national title in 32 years.
• Record arguably its greatest upset in school history as a 20-point underdog. Notre Dame reportedly was a 19-point underdog when it traveled to Oklahoma in 1957 and ended the Sooners' NCAA-record 47-game winning streak — and that came after losing the previous two games that season — including 34-6 to No. 4 Michigan State the game prior. (The Irish also had lost 40-0 at home to Oklahoma a year earlier.)
This year's Irish also lost by a similar score to No. 3 Clemson (34-10) the game before facing Alabama.
Screw it! How about Notre Dame 34, Alabama 31 this time for that three-point symmetry in bowls?
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