Texas, Michigan State, Duke, North Carolina State, Stanford, Navy, Virginia Tech and Southern California. Those are the opponents that beat Notre Dame.
Not this decade. This year.
About the only good thing that could be said about Notre Dame’s fall was that a lot of the games were close. But when Fighting Irish fans are trying to hang their Leprechaun hats on something like only losing to a 4-8 Duke team by three points—a program it had last lost to in 1961—there’s something seriously wrong in South Bend.
This was a high-expectation season for Notre Dame.