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 led by sixth-year head coach Lou Holtz and played its home games on campus 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
Record	10–3
Head coach	Lou Holtz (6th season)
Defensive coordinator	Gary Darnell (2nd season)
Captain	Rodney Culver
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium (c. 59,075, grass)
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

On September 7, 1991, NBC started televising Notre Dame's home games;^[2] it became the first Division I-A football program to have all of its home games televised exclusively by one television network.

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	[3]
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	[4]
Rankings from AP 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 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

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

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

• Jerome Bettis 11 Rush, 111 Yds

^[5]

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

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

Michigan State

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

At Purdue

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

At Stanford

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

Pittsburgh

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

At Air Force

See also: 1991 Air Force Falcons football team

USC

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

Navy

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

Tennessee

At Penn State

See also: 1991 Penn State Nittany Lions football team

At Hawaii

See also: 1991 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team

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

^[6]

References

1. "Notre Dame Yearly Results (1990-1994)". College Football Data Warehouse. David DeLassus. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
2. Sandomir, Richard (August 25, 1991). "COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Notre Dame Scored a $38 Million Touchdown on Its TV Deal". New York Times. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
3. "Vols dance an Irisg jig 35–34". Bristol Herald Courier. November 10, 1991. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Irish thwart Florida". Wisconsin State Journal. January 2, 1992. Retrieved November 12, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
5. Gainesville Sun. 1991 Sep 9. Retrieved 2018-Nov-03.
6. "Notre Dame Beats Florida, 39-28, Proves It Belongs". Los Angeles Times. January 2, 1992. Retrieved November 10, 2019.