Lou Holtz's 11 biggest wins in his 11 seasons at Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame football was back. 

It didn’t take long to realize that during that 1986 season after Lou Holtz arrived as head coach. Something about everything Irish football just felt different. Everything was about to change, and we didn’t wait long to see that shift. Notre Dame was going to become Notre Dame again. Finally. 

Holtz did a lot and won a lot during his 11 seasons in South Bend. To honor his memory – Holtz died on Wednesday, March 4 at the age of 89 – here are 11 big games/big wins for Holtz at Notre Dame. 

11. No. 10 Notre Dame 62, Rutgers 0;Notre Dame Stadium (November 23, 1996) 

If they were going to script a storybook scenario for a coaching legend to leave, this would come close. Anything that happened in the game, and a lot did, was secondary after Holtz announced earlier in the week that his 11^th season at Notre Dame would be his last. It’s just time, he said. 

Holtz left with his 100^th – and last – win at Notre Dame in a game that went sideways shortly after kickoff. Notre Dame scored its most points since 1977 and registered its largest margin of victory since 1966. Irish players carried Holtz on their shoulders toward the north tunnel at game’s end. 

The last home game for Holtz was also the last game in Notre Dame Stadium as we knew it. Reconstruction started soon after, which necessitated Holtz holding his post-game press conference in a tent outside the building’s north entrance. Holtz said what he had to say to the media after Notre Dame rolled up 648 total yards and then walked off in tears.  

10. No. 18 Notre Dame 39, No. 3 Florida 28;Superdome, New Orleans, La. (January 1, 1992)

Notre Dame heard plenty about how it didn’t belong in this New Year’s matchup against a Florida team that was bigger and stronger and many believed better. Holtz even supposedly stole a zinger from a waiter at a New Orleans hotel in the run-up to this one to make sure the Irish were motivated. 

Holtz said the waiter asked him, “What’s the difference between Notre Dame and Cheerios?” 

Cheerios belongs in a bowl, the waiter said. And the Cheerios Bowl legend was born in a game that the waiter seemed prophetic after Florida scored a touchdown on its first series, led 13-0 and was up 16-7 at halftime. Notre Dame got going with what became its calling card under Holtz – the run game. 

Jerome Bettis ran for 150 yards in the game and scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter as the Irish scored 22 points in those final 15 minutes to stun Florida and college football. At one point in a game that saw the Irish rush for 279 yards, Holtz called 11 consecutive rush plays. That was pure Lou. 

9. No. 9 Notre Dame 27, No. 6 Texas 24;Memorial Stadium, Austin, Texas (September 21, 1996)

In Notre Dame’s first visit to Austin since 1952, the Irish seemed certain to wilt under a late-summer's Texas sun. The Longhorns led 14-3, but the Irish stayed patient with the plan, stayed with the run game, stayed with quarterback Ron Powlus and refused to fold. 

With the game tied at 24 and 59 seconds remaining, Autry Denson ran for 22 yards. Powlus then found Malcolm Johnson for 11. And when Jim Sanson booted a 39-yard field goal as the clock hit zeroes, Notre Dame’s comeback was complete as many of the 83,312 in the stands went silent. 

Denson rushed for 158 yards. Powlus was an efficient/effective 13-of-24 for 127 yards and a score and Notre Dame dominated time of possession at 34 minutes. 

8. Notre Dame 38, No. 17 USC 37;Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles (November 29, 1986)

In a game that really meant nothing, it meant everything. 

Notre Dame seemed headed for a third straight loss to a ranked team in as many weeks. The Irish trailed 37-20 with 12:26 left before quarterback Steve Beuerlein, a California native, led the comeback of comebacks. Benched earlier in the game with more than 200 family members and friends in the Coliseum stands, Beuerlein was at his best late. He tossed a touchdown pass and a two-point conversion to Tim Brown, then steered the Irish deep into USC territory to set up John Carney’s 19-yard field goal with no time remaining to give Holtz his first win over a ranked team at Notre Dame. 

It did more than that. This win, which allowed Notre Dame to finish 5-6 in Holtz’s first season, set the standard for all the success that would follow. Beating rival USC lit the fuse for Holtz-led Notre Dame teams to go 71-11-1 with a national championship and two second-place finishes from 1987 to 1993. 

7. No. 13 Notre Dame 19, No. 9 Michigan 17;Notre Dame Stadium (September 10, 1988)

Under the home lights on a Saturday night, it was a walk-on kicker, who would later become a physician, who helped the Irish sidestep seeing dreams of winning a national championship dissolve in the season opener. 

Junior Reggie Ho, at 5-foot-5 and 135 pounds, kicked four field goals after Ricky Watters started the scoring with an 81-yard punt return in the first quarter. It looked like Notre Dame would put this one on cruise control after leading 13-0. In a grinder of a game that saw Notre Dame rush for 149 yards and pass for only 60, Michigan mustered a 17-16 lead in the fourth quarter. 

Enter Ho, who capped a late scoring march with a 26-yard field goal with 1:13 remaining to help Holtz beat Michigan for a second straight time. Most importantly, Ho’s right leg kept Notre Dame undefeated and on course to win a national championship. 

6. No. 1 Notre Dame 24, No. 2 Michigan 19;Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Mich. (September 16, 1989)

Simply put, the Rocket Game. 

Twice, Michigan coach Bo Schembechler, on a rainy day in Michigan Stadium, decided that kicking the ball to someone who ran a 40-yard dash in 4.28 seconds, was a good idea. Wideout Raghib “Rocket” Ismail. Would disagree. Or, maybe, agree. 

Ismail ran both kickoffs back for touchdowns of 88 and 92 yards to become the first player in college football to do that in more than 30 years. Tony Rice threw a touchdown pass to Anthony Johnson, Craig Hentrich kicked a field goal and a crowd of more than 105,000 watched Notre Dame beat Michigan for a third straight season for the first time in program history. 

5. No. 4 Notre Dame 21, No. 1 Colorado 6;Orange Bowl, Miami, Fla. (January 1, 1990)

No longer was the Orange Bowl a House of Horrors for Notre Dame. 

The Irish had played five games during the 1980s in the old stadium in a rough part of town. They lost all five, including six weeks earlier when Miami (Fla.) snapped a 23-game Irish win streak. 

The first half of this one ended in a tie. At 0-0. Notre Dame eventually got going with touchdown runs from Ismail, who ran for 108 yards, and from Johnson. Notre Dame finished with 279 yards rushing. Afterward, Holtz declared, “We’re No. 1” after the Irish had finished 12-1 against a schedule considered the toughest in the nation. The Irish believed they had just become the first college football team to win consecutive national championship since Alabama in 1978-79. 

National championship voters disagreed. Miami, which finished 11-1, was voted the national champion. Notre Dame was No. 2.  

4. No. 11 Notre Dame 27, No. 3 Michigan 23;Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Mich. (September 11, 1993)

A white-hot national spotlight threatened to dizzy the Irish long before the largest crowd in NCAA history to that point (106,851) settled into their seats. Much of the attention earlier in the week centered on the recently released book entitled Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame football betrayed its ideals for football glory. It put Holtz and how he ran his program in the crosshairs for criticism, but Holtz wasn’t having it. 

At his weekly press conference, he constantly replied that he hadn’t read the book, didn’t plan to read the book and would have no comment about the book. 

With that cloud hanging over Notre Dame, and with unproven starter Kevin McDougal at quarterback, few gave the Irish a chance in Ann Arbor. McDougal then directed a six-play touchdown drive to start the game. By the end of it, Michigan’s 20-game regular-season win streak was history, the book became an afterthought, and Holtz was being carried off the field after the Irish dominated the day. 

That 1993 team was different, something we first learned that afternoon in Ann Arbor. 

3. No. 2 Notre Dame 31, No. 1 Florida State 24; Notre Dame Stadium (November 13, 1993)

No way was Notre Dame losing this game. Not after the run-up to a matchup that was billed as the “Game of the Century.” Not after the week before the game became a media feeding frenzy of press conferences and player and coaches interviews and hype. Not in the House that Rockne Built and definitely not with Holtz on the home sideline. 

From its basketball on grass offense, to its who’s-who on defense to its sideline swagger from head coach Bobby Bowden, everything about Florida State screamed unstoppable. That was often when Holtz was at his best. He’d scheme up something that the Seminoles wouldn’t expect. 

Nobody expected touchdown runs from Jeff Burris (two) and Adrian Jarrell. No one expected the defense to make a final stand. Then it all played out on a 59-degree day in Northern Indiana. When Shawn Wooden batted down a Charlie Ward pass on the final play, the old press box at Notre Dame shook down the thunder. The place was that up for grabs. Holtz had done it again with his third (and final) win over a ranked team during his Notre Dame tenure. 

2. No. 1 Notre Dame 34, No. 3 West Virginia 21; Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Ariz. (January 2, 1989) 

Notre Dame winning its 11^th national championship, and first since 1977, was more of a coronation than a competition when the only two undefeated college football teams in the country met in the desert in a de facto national championship game. 

After all Notre Dame had done in 1988, after the near-misses and the easy wins and the comparisons to previous Irish seasons, after it rose from the ashes after 58-7, there was no way that Notre Dame wasn’t winning this game. Holtz had taken this program too far in Year 3 to not win and, honestly, win easily. 

West Virginia had little chance even before linebacker Michael Stonebreaker separated the left shoulder of West Virginia quarterback Major Harris on the third play of the game. Nobody was stopping Notre Dame and its runaway football train in a game where the Irish rolled up 455 yards of offense behind most valuable player Tony Rice. 

It’s not the biggest or the best win for Holtz at Notre Dame. It can’t be. Because … 

1. No. 4 Notre Dame 31, No. 1 Miami (Fla.) 30;Notre Dame Stadium (October 15, 1988)

Six words, six legendary words spoken by someone who looked like a wind gust might knock him to his knees, still live in Notre Dame lore. Six words that set the stage for arguably one of the greatest regular season games that the game has ever seen. 

“Save Jimmy Johnson’s (butt) for me.” 

That’s what Holtz said when addressing his team moments before kickoff, and moments after the teams decided to get it started with a pre-game brawl in the north tunnel. As if this game needed any more gas to it, Holtz tossed a 55-gallon drum of kerosene into the mix. It was on. 

It had it all. Subplots and storylines. Memorable plays and momentum swings. Moments where all look lost, only to have all be found. These were the kind of games Notre Dame had lost for too long. Under Holtz, these were the kind of games Notre Dame would so often win. 

On this day, and for the rest of Holtz’s days at Notre Dame, it didn’t get any better. For Notre Dame. For Holtz. 

Also considered: No. 16 Notre Dame 26, No. 9 Michigan 7 (September 17, 1987); No. 8 Notre Dame 17, No. 22 Penn State 16 (November 14, 1992); No. 4 Notre Dame 24, No. 7 Texas A&M 21 (January 1, 1994); No. 17 Notre Dame 38, No. 5 USC 10 (October 21, 1995); No. 7 Notre Dame 37, No. 10 Alabama 6 (November 14, 1987). 

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Lou Holtz's 11 biggest wins in his 11 seasons at Notre Dame