Countdown to kickoff: Notre Dame vs. Ohio State only 88 days away

To preview one of the most anticipated games for Notre Dame this century and the official start of the Marcus Freeman era, BlueandGold.com is counting down the days to the matchup against Ohio State on Sept. 3.

This daily series of 99 stories celebrates by the numbers some of the most notable names, dates, moments and memories related to the past and present of Notre Dame football. 

Today, with 88 days left until kickoff, we look back at the 1988 Fighting Irish football team, the last to ever win a national championship.

Each passing year puts the year, the players and the coaches on more of a pedestal.

It’s now been 34 years since Notre Dame won a national title in football. The Irish have had chances since then, but every time they fall short it’s a reminder of how special the 1988 team truly was.

PROMOTION: Sign up for just $1 for your first year at Blue & Gold

It’s not easy to run the table. The Irish have done it 10 times in program history. Half of those occurrences came with Knute Rockne at the helm. It’s only happened four times since World War II, and the last time ever was 1988. Lou Holtz. Tony Rice. Tony Brooks. Rocket Ismail. Chris Zorich. The names go on and on, and they resonate more and more with Notre Dame as time ticks, too.

The Irish started the season in strong fashion with a 19-17 win over No. 9 Michigan. Then they beat unranked Michigan State, Purdue, Stanford and Pittsburgh by an average margin of 25 points per game. The blowouts were impressive, but they wouldn’t have mattered if Notre Dame didn’t take care of business at home against No. 1 Miami, the defending national champion.

The Hurricanes had been a thorn in the Irish’s side for years. Notre Dame hadn’t beaten Miami in four consecutive tries and had lost five of the last six matchups. None of those five losses were close; Miami won by an average margin of 27 points. The Hurricanes had a high-flying offense led by quarterback Steve Walsh, wide receiver Andre Brown and do-it-all sensation Cleveland Gary. Head coach Jimmy Johnson‘s indifference for the pride and pedigree of Notre Dame football fell sorely on Irish supporters.

Notre Dame baseball

• Five Notre Dame baseball players earn Statesboro All-Regional honors, Bertrand named Most Outstanding Player

But if Notre Dame ever had a mental edge against its 1980s nemesis, it was in 1988, when Irish students crafted the “Catholics vs. Convicts” slogan in reference to the Miami players who were arrested and stripped of scholarships prior to the season. There was a pregame scuffle in the north end zone, and it trickled into the tunnel that led to both teams’ locker rooms.

Notre Dame players recall the Hurricanes trying to send an 11th-hour message that they were still the big, bad boys of college football, but the Irish weren’t having any of it. They stood their ground.

“There was bad blood,” Notre Dame linebacker Wes Pritchett said in Steve Delsohn‘s “Talking Irish: The Oral History of Notre Dame Football.” “There had been for several years. It hit its peak when we had the pregame fight.”

The game came down to a last-minute two-point conversion try, a confident yet perhaps cocky considering the circumstances attempt by Johnson to win outright in enemy territory. A Walsh pass was batted down by Irish defensive back Pat Terrell. Notre Dame won, 31-30, and cruised through its next four games just as easily as it went through the four prior to Miami. The Irish finished the regular season with a 27-10 win at No. 2 USC and earned the national title with a 34-21 victory over No. 3 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.

After the Miami triumph, Notre Dame knew it simply couldn’t lose any of the games it was expected to win and just had to beat USC and a bowl opponent to win it all. If over three decades of results since then are any indication, that was easier said than done. But the 1988 team handled its business, and that’s why that year is still held in such high esteem all these years later.

“In 1988, our motto was ‘never flinch,'” Terrell said in Delsohn’s book. “We heard it over and over from Lou Holtz. I mean, Holtz was a little guy. But he was not a wimp. He wanted his football team to be physical.”

Physical enough to bring Notre Dame its 11th all-time national championship.