2000 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

The 2000 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 2000 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by Bob Davie and played its home games at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

2000 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Fiesta Bowl, L 9–41 vs. Oregon State
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 16[1]
AP	No. 15[1]
Record	9–3
Head coach	Bob Davie (4th season)
Offensive coordinator	Kevin Rogers (2nd season)
Offensive scheme	Option
Defensive coordinator	Greg Mattison (4th season)
Base defense	4–3
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium (c. 80,232, grass)
Seasons ← 1999 2001 →

2000 NCAA Division I-A independents football records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 15 Notre Dame  %			–						9	–	3
UCF			–						7	–	4
Middle Tennessee			–						6	–	5
Connecticut			–						3	–	8
Louisiana Tech			–						3	–	9
Louisiana–Lafayette			–						1	–	10
Louisiana–Monroe			–						1	–	10
Navy			–						1	–	10
% – BCS at-large representative Rankings from AP Poll

Season overview

After losing ten players to the NFL, the Irish began the 2000 season signing 17 recruits^[2] Having to replace two-year starter, Jarious Jackson, Davie chose Arnaz Battle,^[3] who looked to have a rough road ahead with the Irish playing four ranked teams in a row to begin the season, including a game against the favorite to win the national championship, Nebraska. Battle, however, did have some help with three veterans named to pre-season award watchlists.^[4][5][6] The Irish started the season playing the 25th ranked Texas A&M Aggies. With Battle throwing two touchdowns and the defense holding the Aggies to only a field goal in the second half, the Irish won by two touchdowns.^[7] Moving into the rankings for the first time since early November 1999, the Irish would next face the top-ranked Cornhuskers. After coming back from being down by two touchdowns, the Irish eventually fell in overtime after they settled for a field goal and Nebraska quarterback, Eric Crouch, ran for the winning touchdown.^[8] Despite the loss, and losing Battle indefinitely to a wrist injury that he suffered on the first play of the game,^[9] the Irish felt they proved something to the country,^[10] and moved up in the rankings to 21st.

The Irish next faced the 13th ranked Purdue Boilermakers, led by Heisman Trophy-hopeful quarterback Drew Brees.^[11] The Irish defense held Brees to only 13 completed passes, while Irish backup quarterback Gary Godsey completed 14, and led the team to a last minute win with a Nick Setta field goal.^[12] Moving into the top-20 the Irish next went to Michigan State to face the 23rd ranked Spartans. Though the Spartans were led by freshman quarterback Jeff Smoker, he led the team to a win with a 68 yard touchdown pass on a fourth down attempt with a minute remaining in the game. Losing the game, the Irish hadn't won an away game in eight attempts and hadn't beaten the Spartans since 1994.^[13] Dropping almost out of the rankings again, the Irish started playing freshman quarterback Matt LoVecchio and began to roll with wins over Stanford and Navy.^[14][15] Going to Morgantown to face the West Virginia Mountaineers, LoVecchio led the Irish with two touchdown passes to Tony Fisher to give the Irish their first road win in two years.^[16] With a win over Air Force the next week, their first ever in overtime, the Irish were once again bowl eligible.^[17]

Ranked 11th, the Irish continued with wins over Boston College,^[18] Rutgers,^[19] and their first win at USC since 1992.^[20] With a 9–2 record, the Irish got a BCS Bowl bid for the first time ever, with an invitation to the Fiesta Bowl to play the Oregon State Beavers.^[21] Getting blown out by the Beavers,^[22] the Irish ended the season ranked 15th with a 9–3 record.^[1] With the end of the season, Davie was named finalist in two coach of the year awards. In addition, four Irish players were named to All-America Teams,^[21] seven players were selected to play in post-season All-Star games,^[23] and six players were selected in the 2001 NFL draft,^[24] while another three signed free agent contracts with NFL teams.^[25] The season ended on a positive note for Davie who signed a five-year contract extension.^[26]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 2	1:00 p.m.	No. 25 Texas A&M		Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN	NBC	W 24–10	80,232
September 9	2:30 p.m.	No. 1 Nebraska	No. 23	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	L 24–27 OT	80,232
September 16	1:00 p.m.	No. 13 Purdue	No. 21	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 23–21	80,232
September 23	3:30 p.m.	at No. 23 Michigan State	No. 16	Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI (rivalry)	ABC	L 21–27	74,714
October 7	2:30 p.m.	Stanford	No. 25	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 20–14	80,232
October 14	12:00 p.m.	vs. Navy	No. 20	Florida Citrus Bowl Orlando, FL (rivalry)	CBS	W 45–14	47,291
October 21	12:00 p.m.	at West Virginia	No. 20	Mountaineer Field Morgantown, WV	CBS	W 42–28	64,424
October 28	2:30 p.m.	Air Force	No. 19	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 34–31 OT	80,232
November 11	2:30 p.m.	Boston College	No. 11	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (Holy War)	NBC	W 28–16	80,232
November 18	3:30 p.m.	at Rutgers	No. 11	Rutgers Stadium Piscataway, NJ	CBS	W 45–17	40,011
November 25	3:30 p.m.	at USC	No. 11	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	ABC	W 38–21	81,342
January 1, 2001	8:00 p.m.	vs. No. 5 Oregon State	No. 10	Sun Devil Stadium Tempe, AZ (Fiesta Bowl)	ABC	L 9–41	75,428
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Roster

2000 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class WR 82 Bernard Akatu Jr QB 3 Arnaz Battle So OT 63 Brennan Curtin So C 52 Jeff Faine So RB 12 Tony Fisher Jr G 69 Mike Gandy Sr WR 6 David Givens Jr TE 87 Jabari Holloway Sr WR 21 Javin Hunter Jr WR 11 Jay Johnson Sr G 55 Jim Jones Sr RB 22 Julius Jones So C 66 JW Jordan Sr QB 8 Matt Krueger Fr QB 10 Ryan Krueger Jr FB 39 Tom Lopienski So QB 10 Matt LoVecchio Fr G 79 Sean Mahan So QB 2 Dan Novakov Jr TE 86 Dan O'Leary Sr RB 35 Tim O'Neill Jr TE 84 John Owens Jr G 72 Ryan Scarola Jr OT 75 Kurt Vollers Sr	Defense Pos. # Name Class LB 30 Rocky Boiman Jr DT 60 Darrell Campbell Fr LB 39 Anthony Denman Sr S 25 Tony Driver Sr DB 19 Glenn Earl Fr LB 41 Mike Goolsby Fr LB 51 Tyreo Harrison Jr DE 44 Grant Irons Sr DB 5 Ron Israel Jr DT 90 Lance Legree Sr LB 38 Eric Nelson Sr LB 56 Pat Ryan So S 20 Gerome Sapp So LB 99 Jason Sapp Fr SS 45 Matt Sarb Jr DT 93 B. J. Scott Sr FS 4 Justin Smith Sr CB 42 Shane Walton So DE 98 Anthony Weaver Jr CB 1 Brock Williams Sr DT 94 Andy Wisne Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class P 83 Josh Gentine So K 92 Matt McNew Sr	Head coach Bob Davie Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster Last update: 2000-11-10

Game summaries

Nebraska

Nebraska (1–0) at Notre Dame (1–0)

1 2 3 4 OT Total • No. 1 Cornhuskers 7 7 7 0 6 27 No. 23 Fighting Irish 0 7 7 7 3 24 Date: September 9 Location: Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame, Indiana Game attendance: 80,232 TV announcers (NBC): Craig Minervini (Play-by-play), Pat Haden (Color) & Bob Wischusen (Sideline)

See also: 2000 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team and College GameDay (football)

Purdue

See also: 2000 Purdue Boilermakers football team

Vs. Oregon State (Fiesta Bowl)

Notre Dame (9–2) vs. Oregon State(10–1)

1 2 3 4 Total No. 10 Fighting Irish 0 3 0 6 9 • No. 5 Beavers 3 9 29 0 41 Date: January 1, 2001 Location: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ Game attendance: 75,428 TV announcers (ABC): Sean McDonough (Play-by-play), Ed Cunningham (Color) & Leslie Gudel (Sideline) Source: Box Score

Main article: 2001 Fiesta Bowl

See also: 2000 Oregon State Beavers football team

Rankings

See also: 2000 NCAA Division I-A football rankings

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
— = Not ranked

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Final
AP	—	—	23	21	16	—	25	20	20	19	15	11	11	11	11	10	15
Coaches Poll	—	—	22	23	18	—	—	—	22	19	16	12	11	10	10	10	16
BCS	Not released									—	14	12	11	11	11	11	Not released