1991 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

The 1991 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 1991 NCAA Division I-A football season.[1] The team was coached by Lou Holtz and played its home games at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

1991 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Sugar Bowl champion
Sugar Bowl, W 39–28 vs. Florida
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 12
AP	No. 13
1991 record	10–3
Head coach	Lou Holtz (6th season)
Captain	Rodney Culver
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium (c. 59,075, grass)

1991 NCAA Division I-A independents football records
	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 9 East Carolina			–					11	–	1	–	0
No. 4 Florida State			–					11	–	2	–	0
No. 3 Penn State			–					11	–	2	–	0
No. 21 Tulsa			–					10	–	2	–	0
Louisiana Tech			–					8	–	1	–	2
No. 13 Notre Dame			–					10	–	3	–	0
Akron			–					5	–	6	–	0
Memphis			–					5	–	6	–	0
Army			–					4	–	7	–	0
Cincinnati			–					4	–	7	–	0
Southern Miss			–					4	–	7	–	0
South Carolina			–					3	–	6	–	2
Southwestern Louisiana			–					2	–	8	–	1
Louisville			–					2	–	9	–	0
Northern Illinois			–					2	–	9	–	0
Tulane			–					1	–	10	–	0
Navy			–					1	–	10	–	0
Rankings from AP Poll

Starting on September 7, 1991, the National Broadcasting Company started televising Notre Dame Home football games.[2] Notre Dame became the first Division I-A football team to have all of its home games televised exclusively by one television network.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 7	1:30 p.m.	Indiana	No. 7	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN	NBC	W 49–27	59,075
September 14	3:30 p.m.	at No. 3 Michigan	No. 7	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI (rivalry)	ABC	L 14–24	106,138
September 21	1:30 p.m.	Michigan State	No. 11	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (Megaphone Trophy)	NBC	W 49–10	59,075
September 28	12:00 p.m.	at Purdue	No. 8	Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, IN (Shillelagh Trophy)	ABC	W 45–20	67,861
October 5	11:00 p.m.	at Stanford	No. 8	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA (Legends Trophy)	ESPN	W 42–26	70,798
October 12	1:30 p.m.	No. 12 Pittsburgh	No. 7	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 42–7	59,075
October 19	8:30 p.m.	at Air Force	No. 5	Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO	ESPN	W 28–15	52,024
October 26	1:30 p.m.	USC	No. 5	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (Jeweled Shillelagh)	NBC	W 24–20	59,075
November 2	4:00 p.m.	Navy	No. 5	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 38–0	59,075
November 9	1:30 p.m.	No. 13 Tennessee	No. 5	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN	NBC	L 34–35	59,075
November 16	3:30 p.m.	at No. 8 Penn State	No. 12	Beaver Stadium University Park, PA	ABC	L 13–35	96,672
November 30	11:00 p.m.	at Hawaii	No. 18	Aloha Stadium Honolulu, HI	ESPN	W 48–42	50,000
January 1, 1992	8:00 p.m.	vs. No. 3 Florida	No. 18	Louisiana Superdome New Orleans, LA (Sugar Bowl)	ABC	W 39–28	76,447
Rankings from Coaches' Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Roster

1991 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class FB 6 Jerome Bettis So RB 40 Tony Brooks Jr TE 86 Derek Brown Sr RB 5 Rodney Culver Sr WR 87 Lake Dawson So WR 10 Adrian Jarrell Jr T 65 Lindsay Knapp Jr TE 80 Oscar McBride So C 76 Gene McGuire Sr QB 3 Rick Mirer Jr FB 15 Mike O'Neill Sr G 61 Tim Ruddy So TE 84 Irv Smith Jr G 75 Aaron Taylor So	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 47 Pete Bercich So S 9 Jeff Burris So CB 13 Tom Carter So FS 32 Willie Clark So CB 29 John Covington So LB 31 Demetrius DuBose Jr LB 44 Jim Flanigan So DT 55 Oliver Gibson So FS 25 Mike Lalli Jr LB 46 Brian Ratigan Jr CB 21 Rod Smith Sr DT 97 Bryant Young So	Special teams Pos. # Name Class P 28 Craig Hentrich Jr	Head coach Lou Holtz Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Season summary

Indiana

1 2 3 4 Total Hoosiers 3 14 3 7 27 • Fighting Irish 7 21 14 7 49 Date: September 7 Location: Notre Dame Stadium Game attendance: 59,075

Scoring summary 1 IND Bonnell 48 yard field goal IND 3–0 1 ND DuBose 49 yard interception return (Hentrich kick) ND 7–3 2 IND Green 5 yard run (Bonnell kick) IND 10–7 2 ND Culver 19 yard run (Hentrich kick) ND 14–10 2 IND Green 1 yard run (Bonnell kick) IND 17–14 2 ND Mirer 46 yard run (Hentrich kick) ND 21–17 2 ND T. Brooks 13 yard run (Hentrich kick) ND 28–17 3 IND Bonnell 29 yard field goal ND 28–20 3 ND Mirer 6 yard run (Hentrich kick) ND 35–20 3 ND I. Smith 58 yard pass from Mirer (Hentrich kick) ND 42–20 4 IND Walker 5 yard pass from Green (Bonnell kick) ND 42–27 4 ND Mirer 1 yard run (Hentrich kick) ND 49–27

See also: 1991 Indiana Hoosiers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
22–5–1	1958	W 18–0

• Jerome Bettis 11 Rush, 111 Yds

[3]

at Michigan

1 2 3 4 Total Fighting Irish 0 7 7 0 14 • Wolverines 3 14 0 7 24 Date: September 14 Location: Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI

Scoring summary 1 MICH Carlson 23 yard field goal MICH 3–0 2 MICH Howard 29 yard run (Carlson kick) MICH 10–0 2 MICH Powers 16 yard run (Carlson kick) MICH 17–0 2 ND Bettis 3 yard pass from Mirer (Hentrich kick) MICH 17–7 3 ND T. Smith 35 yard pass from Mirer (Hentrich kick) MICH 17–14 4 MICH Howard 25 yard pass from Grbac (Carlson kick) MICH 24–14

See also: 1991 Michigan Wolverines football team and Michigan–Notre Dame football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
9–13	1990	W 28–24

Michigan State

See also: 1991 Michigan State Spartans football team, Michigan State–Notre Dame football rivalry, and Megaphone Trophy

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
37–18–1	1990	ND, 20–19

at Purdue

See also: 1991 Purdue Boilermakers football team and Notre Dame–Purdue football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
39–21–2	1990	W 37–11

at Stanford

See also: 1991 Stanford Cardinal football team and Notre Dame–Stanford football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
5–2	1990	L 31–36

Pittsburgh

See also: 1991 Pittsburgh Panthers football team and Notre Dame–Pittsburgh football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
35–16–1	1990	W 31–22

at Air Force

See also: 1991 Air Force Falcons football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
16–4	1990	W 57–27

USC

See also: 1991 USC Trojans football team and Notre Dame–USC football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
35–23–4	1990	W 10–6

Navy

See also: 1991 Navy Midshipmen football team and Navy–Notre Dame football rivalry

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
54–9–1	1990	W 52–31

Tennessee

See also: 1991 Tennessee Volunteers football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
2–1	1990	W 34–29

at Penn State

See also: 1991 Penn State Nittany Lions football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
7–7–1	1990	L 21–24

at Hawaii

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

vs. Florida (Sugar Bowl)

1 2 3 4 Total • Fighting Irish 0 7 10 22 39 Gators 10 6 0 12 28 Date: September 14 Location: Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA Game attendance: 76,447 Game weather: Indoors TV announcers (ABC): Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf

Main article: 1992 Sugar Bowl

See also: 1991 Florida Gators football team

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
First meeting

[4]

References

1. "Notre Dame Yearly Results (1990-1994)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
2. Sandomir, Richard (1991-08-25). "COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Notre Dame Scored a $38 Million Touchdown on Its TV Deal". New York Times. nyyimes.com. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
3. Gainesville Sun. 1991 Sep 9. Retrieved 2018-Nov-03.
4. "Notre Dame Beats Florida, 39-28, Proves It Belongs". Los Angeles Times. January 2, 1992. Retrieved November 10, 2019.