Post-Season Schneid

For those still living under rocks

In case you missed it, ND is currently enjoying an 8-game bowl losing streak, tied for the longest in NCAA history. Here's a recap of the carnage for the Irish, whose streak comes with an average score of 34-18:

2006 FIESTA BOWL OHIO STATE 34 –– NOTRE DAME 20
TEMPE, Ariz. (Jan. 2, 2006) — Notre Dame’s return to national prominence under first-year head coach Charlie Weis was capped by the first Irish appearance in a Bowl Championship Series game in five years. Unfortunately, the result was not indicative of the team’s success in the regular season as the fifth-ranked Irish suffered a 34-20 loss to fourth-ranked Ohio State in the 2006 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.

2004 INSIGHT BOWL OREGON STATE 38 — NOTRE DAME 21
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Playing under an interim head coach at the conclusion of one of the most tumultuous months in Notre Dame football history, the Irish ended the 2004 season with a loss to Oregon State in the Insight Bowl at Bank One Ballpark in downtown Phoenix. Derek Anderson passed for 358 yards and four touchdowns as Notre Dame fell to Oregon State, 38- 21.

2003 GATOR BOWL NORTH CAROLINA ST. 28 — NOTRE DAME 6
JACKSONVILLE — Progress can be measured in different ways. While Notre Dame's 28-6 loss to North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl might have put a damper on an otherwise brilliant season, it did serve as an indicator of the progress the Irish made it in a very short period of time.

2001 FIESTA BOWL OREGON STATE 41 — NOTRE DAME 9
TEMPE — Oregon State used four third quarter touchdowns, capitalizing on two Notre Dame turnovers, to defeat the Irish 41-9 in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

Notre Dame’s trip to the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl was its 11th New Year’s Day Bowl game in 14 years and second in the four-year tenure of Irish head coach Bob Davie. The loss was its fifth straight bowl game defeat, a drought that goes back to the 1994 Cotton Bowl win over sixth-ranked Texas A&M.

“That football team out there impressed me.” Davie said.

1999 GATOR BOWL GEORGIA TECH 35 — NOTRE DAME 28
JACKSONVILLE — Nearly all the pre-game speculation in the Notre Dame camp prior to the 1999 Gator Bowl matchup with Georgia Tech centered around the physical condition of Irish quarterback Jarious Jackson. Though Jackson wasn’t quite 100 percent, his gutty contributions and those of record-setting Irish tailback Autry Denson nearly were enough to carry green-clad Notre Dame to victory at Alltel Stadium.

Instead, it was the big-play offense of Georgia Tech that paved the way for a 35-28 Yellow Jacket victory in a rematch between the same two teams that had opened the 1997 regular season in the dedication game of the expanded Notre Dame Stadium.

1997 INDEPENDENCE BOWL LSU 27 NOTRE DAME 9
SHREVEPORT — The rematch track record alone didn’t bode well for the Irish.In 12 previous bowl games that had been rematches of regular-season contests, the same team had won both games on only four occasions.

It had been tough enough for Notre Dame to venture into Louisiana once, with the Irish coming away with an impressive 24-6 conquest of 11th-rated LSU in Baton Rouge in mid-November. Now, Bob Davie’s crew was assigned to return to that same state, this time to Shreveport, for a Independence Bowl date with those same Tigers of LSU.

And the Irish showed signs early on making it two straight against Gerry DiNardo’s team. Then came Rondell Mealey. He, more than any other single player, accounted for the eventual 27-9 LSU triumph.

1996 ORANGE BOWL FLORIDA STATE 31 — NOTRE DAME 26
MIAMI — Notre Dame’s 1996 Orange Bowl matchup with eighth-ranked Florida State qualified as a historic occasion, since the Irish and Seminoles comprised the final combatants in Miami’s venerable Orange Bowl facility before the game’s switch to Joe Robbie Stadium for 1997.

The game itself was not without its challenges for Lou Holtz’s sixth-ranked team that was without injured quarterback Ron Powlus and leading rusher Randy Kinder — and found itself facing a Florida State offensive attack averaging 48.4 points and 551.5 yards per game.

Still, backup quarterback Tom Krug, all-star split end Derrick Mayes and their Irish teammates combined to keep the Seminoles on their heels most of the evening until a 17-point fourth-quarter rally wiped out a 12-point Notre Dame lead and gave Florida State a 31-26 win for its 11th consecutive postseason victory.

1995 FIESTA BOWL COLORADO 41 — NOTRE DAME 24
TEMPE — If holding the Heisman Trophy winner in check ranked as the only goal, Notre Dame’s defensive performance against fourth-rated Colorado in the 1995 Fiesta Bowl might have qualified as impressive.

Unfortunately for the Irish, there proved to be far more to the Buffaloes’ potency than runningback Rashaan Salaam. Though he did score three touchdowns on runs of five, one and one yards, Notre Dame limited him to 83 net yards on 27 attempts, for a 3.1-yard average with no gain greater than 13 yards.

The same could not be said for quarterback Kordell Stewart. Running the Colorado option attack with precision, Stewart threw for 226 yards and a touchdown and — more impressively — scuttled the Irish defense with 143 rushing yards on only seven carries. He easily earned the game’s offensive MVP award and had more to do than anyone else with Colorado scurrying out to a 31-3 lead on its way to an eventual 41-24 victory over Notre Dame.

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One way or another, the result of the matchup against LSU in the 2007 Sugar Bowl will be a defining moment.