1991 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

1991 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
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
Record	10–3
Head coach	Lou Holtz (6th season);
Defensive coordinator	Gary Darnell (2nd season)
Captain	Rodney Culver
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium
	Seasons ← 1990 1992 →

1991 NCAA Division I-A independents football records
v t e	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 State		–		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

The 1991 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame as an independent during the 1991 NCAA Division I-A football season. Led by sixth-year head coach Lou Holtz, the Fighting Irish compiled a record of 10–3 with a win over Florida in the Sugar Bowl. The tam played home games at Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana.

On September 7, NBC started televising Notre Dame's home games became the first NCAA Division I-A program to have all of its home games televised exclusively by one television network.<games;^[1]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 7	1:30 p.m.	Indiana	No. 7	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, 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 Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 49–10	59,075
September 28	12:00 p.m.	at Purdue	No. 8	Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, IN (rivalry)	ABC	W 45–20	67,861
October 5	11:00 p.m.	at Stanford	No. 8	Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA (rivalry)	ESPN	W 42–26	70,798
October 12	1:30 p.m.	No. 12 Pittsburgh	No. 7	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 42–7	59,075
October 19	8:30 p.m.	at Air Force	No. 5	Falcon Stadium Colorado Springs, CO (rivalry)	ESPN	W 28–15	52,024
October 26	1:30 p.m.	USC	No. 5	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 24–20	59,075
November 2	4:00 p.m.	Navy	No. 5	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 38–0	59,075
November 9	1:30 p.m.	No. 13 Tennessee	No. 5	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN	NBC	L 34–35	59,075	^[2]
November 16	3:30 p.m.	at No. 8 Penn State	No. 12	Beaver Stadium University Park, PA (rivalry)	ABC	L 13–35	96,672
November 30	11:00 p.m.	at Hawaii	No. 18	Aloha Stadium Halawa, 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	^[3]
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Game summaries

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, South Bend, IN
Game attendance: 59,075
TV announcers (NBC): Dick Enberg, Bill Walsh, and John Dockery

Jerome Bettis 11 Rush, 111 Yds

^[4]

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
TV announcers (ABC): Brent Musburger, Dick Vermeil, and Cheryl Miller

Michigan State

At Purdue

At Stanford

Pittsburgh

At Air Force

USC

Navy

Tennessee

At Penn State

At Hawaii

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

^[5]

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
OT	`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 Sr.	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	`89`	Karmeeleyah McGill	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

Gary Darnell (defensive coordinator)
Skip Holtz (wide receivers)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible

Injured
Redshirt

References

^ Sandomir, Richard (August 25, 1991). "College Football; Notre Dame Scored a $38 Million Touchdown on Its TV Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
^ "Vols dance an Irisg jig 35–34". Bristol Herald Courier. November 10, 1991. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Irish thwart Florida". Wisconsin State Journal. January 2, 1992. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Gainesville Sun. 1991 Sep 9. Retrieved 2018-Nov-03.
^ "Notre Dame Beats Florida, 39-28, Proves It Belongs". Los Angeles Times. January 2, 1992. Retrieved November 10, 2019.

This college football 1991 season article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1991_NBC_Deal-1] Sandomir, Richard (August 25, 1991). "College Football; Notre Dame Scored a $38 Million Touchdown on Its TV Deal". The New York Times. Retrieved April 6, 2008.

[2] "Vols dance an Irisg jig 35–34". Bristol Herald Courier. November 10, 1991. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

[3] "Irish thwart Florida". Wisconsin State Journal. January 2, 1992. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.

[4] Gainesville Sun. 1991 Sep 9. Retrieved 2018-Nov-03.

[5] "Notre Dame Beats Florida, 39-28, Proves It Belongs". Los Angeles Times. January 2, 1992. Retrieved November 10, 2019.

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