1970 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

1970 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
National champion (FACT, Matthews, Sagarin), Cotton Bowl champion
Cotton Bowl Classic, W 24–11 vs. Texas
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 5
AP	No. 2
Record	10–1
Head coach	Ara Parseghian (7th season)
Captains	Larry DiNardo Tim Kelly
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium
Seasons ←  1969 1971  →

1970 NCAA University Division independents football records

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 2 Notre Dame			–					10	–	1	–	0
Villanova			–					9	–	2	–	0
No. 16 Air Force			–					9	–	3	–	0
No. 13 Georgia Tech			–					9	–	3	–	0
Boston College			–					8	–	2	–	0
No. 19 Houston			–					8	–	3	–	0
West Virginia			–					8	–	3	–	0
No. 17 Tulane			–					8	–	4	–	0
No. 18 Penn State			–					7	–	3	–	0
West Texas State			–					7	–	3	–	0
Cincinnati			–					7	–	4	–	0
Florida State			–					7	–	4	–	0
Virginia Tech			–					5	–	6	–	0
Syracuse			–					6	–	4	–	0
Dayton			–					5	–	4	–	1
Pittsburgh			–					5	–	5	–	0
Rutgers			–					5	–	5	–	0
Utah State			–					5	–	5	–	0
Colgate			–					5	–	6	–	0
Southern Miss			–					5	–	6	–	0
New Mexico State			–					4	–	6	–	0
Miami (FL)			–					3	–	8	–	0
Northern Illinois			–					3	–	7	–	0
Marshall			–					3	–	6	–	0
Buffalo			–					2	–	9	–	0
Navy			–					2	–	9	–	0
Army			–					1	–	9	–	1
Xavier			–					1	–	9	–	0
Holy Cross			–					0	–	10	–	1
Rankings from AP Poll

The 1970 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1970 NCAA University Division football season.

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance	Source
September 19	2:30 p.m.	at Northwestern	No. 6	Dyche Stadium Evanston, IL (rivalry)		W 35–14	50,049
September 26	1:30 p.m.	Purdue	No. 6	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)		W 48–0	59,075
October 3	2:30 p.m.	at Michigan State	No. 4	Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI (rivalry)		W 29–0	76,103
October 10	1:30 p.m.	Army	No. 3	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)		W 51–10	59,075
October 17	3:50 p.m.	at No. 18 Missouri	No. 3	Memorial Stadium Columbia, MO	ABC	W 24–7	64,200
October 31	1:30 p.m.	vs. Navy	No. 3	John F. Kennedy Stadium Philadelphia, PA (rivalry)		W 56–7	45,226
November 7	1:30 p.m.	Pittsburgh	No. 2	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)		W 46–14	59,075
November 14	1:30 p.m.	Georgia Tech	No. 1	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN (rivalry)		W 10–7	59,075	[1]
November 21	1:30 p.m.	No. 7 LSU	No. 2	Notre Dame Stadium Notre Dame, IN		W 3–0	59,075	[2]
November 28	4:15 p.m.	at USC	No. 4	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (rivalry)	ABC	L 28–38	64,694
January 1, 1971	2:00 p.m.	vs. No. 1 Texas	No. 6	Cotton Bowl Dallas, TX (Cotton Bowl Classic)	CBS	W 24–11	73,000	[3]
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time Source: [4]

Game summaries

Northwestern

	1	2	3	4	Total
Notre Dame	14	14	7	0	35
Northwestern	0	14	0	0	14

Purdue

See also: 1970 Purdue Boilermakers football team and Shillelagh Trophy (Notre Dame–Purdue)

Purdue Boilermakers at Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
Purdue	0	0	0	0	0
Notre Dame	10	14	7	17	48

at Notre Dame Stadium • South Bend, Indiana

• Date: September 26
• Game weather: Rainy
• Game attendance: 59,075
• Box Score

Game information
Purdue Notre Dame Joe Theismann 16/24, 274 Yds, 3 TD Tom Gatewood 12 Rec, 192 Yds, 3 TD

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP PUR ND 1 Notre Dame 19-yard field goal by Hempel 0 3 1 80 Notre Dame Allan 4-yard touchdown run, Hempel kick good 0 10 2 Notre Dame Gatewood 17-yard touchdown reception from Theismann, Hempel kick good 0 17 2 6:09 Notre Dame Gatewood 7-yard touchdown reception from Theismann, Hempel kick good 0 24 3 Notre Dame Gatewood 20-yard touchdown reception from Theismann, Hempel kick good 0 31 4 Notre Dame 37-yard field goal by Hempel 0 34 4 Notre Dame Dewan 4-yard touchdown run, Hempel kick good 0 41 4 Notre Dame Parker 63-yard touchdown run, Hempel kick good 0 48 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 0 48

Michigan State

1 2 3 4 Total •Notre Dame 7 15 0 7 29 Michigan St 0 0 0 0 0 Date: October 3 Location: Spartan Stadium, East Lansing, MI Game attendance: 76,103 Referee: Jerry Markbreit

Scoring summary Q1 ND Barz 1 yard run (Hempel kick) ND 7–0 Q2 ND Minnix 1 yard run (Hempel kick) ND 14–0 Q2 ND Gulyas 2 yard run (Theismann run) ND 22–0 Q4 ND Parker 4 yard run (Hempel kick) ND 29–0

• Joe Theismann 12/17, 147 Yds, 13 Rush, 107 Yds
• First Notre Dame game on artificial turf
• First Notre Dame win in East Lansing since 1949

^[5]

Army

	1	2	3	4	Total
Army	0	3	7	0	10
Notre Dame	21	9	14	7	51

Missouri

Originally, Missouri was scheduled to host this game at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, but the St. Louis Cardinals forced the game to be moved to the University of Missouri campus because they anticipated hosting Game 6 of the World Series. ^[6] As it turned out, the Cardinals finished a distant fourth place in the National League East, 13 games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, and were below .500 from July 1 through the end of the season. ^[7]

1 2 3 4 Total •Notre Dame 3 0 14 7 24 Missouri 0 0 7 0 7 Date: October 17 Location: Memorial Stadium, Columbia, MO Game start: 2:50 p.m. CDT TV announcers (ABC): Chris Schenkel, Bud Wilkinson

Navy

1 2 3 4 Total •Notre Dame 7 28 7 14 56 Navy 7 0 0 0 7 Date: October 31 Location: JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Scoring summary 1 Notre Dame Dewan 3-yard run (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 7-0 1 Navy Dillon 5-yard run (Lanning kick) Tie 7-7 2 Notre Dame Barz 2-yard run (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 14-7 2 Notre Dame Barz 1-yard run (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 21-7 2 Notre Dame Gatewood 6-yard pass from Theismann (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 28-7 2 Notre Dame Gatewood 29-yard pass from Theismann (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 35-7 3 Notre Dame Allan 3-yard run (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 42-7 4 Notre Dame Diestowski 30-yard run (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 49-7 4 Notre Dame Minnix 5-yard run (Hempel kick) Notre Dame 56-7

^[8]

Pittsburgh

	1	2	3	4	Total
Pittsburgh	0	14	0	0	14
Notre Dame	7	18	6	15	46

Georgia Tech

	1	2	3	4	Total
Georgia Tech	0	0	7	0	7
Notre Dame	0	0	3	7	10

LSU

1 2 3 4 Total LSU 0 0 0 0 0 •Notre Dame 0 0 0 3 3 Date: November 21 Location: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana Game start: 1:30 p.m. EST Game attendance: 59,075 Game weather: mostly cloudy, 47 degrees, wind S 15-18 MPH Referee: Jerry Markbreit

Scoring summary 4 02:54 Notre Dame Hempel 24-yard field goal Notre Dame 3-0

USC

Notre Dame quarterback Joe Theismann completed 33 of 58 passes for a school-record 526 yards, and the Irish outgained the Trojans 557–359, but committed eight turnovers to zero for Southern Cal. ^[9]

1 2 3 4 Total Notre Dame 7 7 7 7 28 •So. Cal. 21 3 14 0 38 Date: November 28 Location: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Game start: 1:30 p.m. PST Game weather: High 50s, heavy rain TV announcers (ABC): Chris Schenkel, Bud Wilkinson

1971 Cotton Bowl vs. Texas

^[10]

#6 Notre Dame vs. #1 Texas

1 2 3 4 Total •Notre Dame 14 10 0 0 24 Texas 3 8 0 0 11 Date: January 1, 1971 Location: Cotton Bowl, Dallas, Texas Game start: 1:00 CST Game attendance: 72,000 Referee: Gene Calhoun (Big Ten) TV announcers (CBS): Lindsey Nelson, Tom Brookshier

Main article: 1971 Cotton Bowl Classic

See also: 1970 Texas Longhorns football team

Roster

1970 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class RB 22 Denny Allan FB 33 Bill Barz Jr WR John Cieszkowski TE Mike Creaney G 67 John Dampeer RB Daryll Dewan G 56 Larry DiNardo RB Bill Gallagher OT 70 Tom Gasseling WR 44 Tom Gatewood Jr RB 12 Ed Gulyas RB Denny Gutkowski RB Ron Johnson OL Gary Kos OT 73 Mike Martin RB Bob Minnix RB Chuck Nightingale C 50 Dan Novakov Jr RB Larry Parker QB Pat Steenberge WR John Tereschuk QB 7 Joe Theismann Sr WR 80 Willie Townsend So WR Bill Trapp	Defense Pos. # Name Class DB 17 Mike Crotty Jr DB 23 Clarence Ellis Jr DB 5 Terry Garner So DT 72 Mike Kadish Sr LB 42 Tim Kelly DT 75 Greg Marx Jr LB 43 Tom McHale DB 1 Tom Menie DL Bob Neidert LB 81 Jim O'Malley So LB Eric Patton DE 85 Walt Patulski Jr DB Tim Rudnick DB Ralph Stepaniak LB Rick Thomann LB 61 Mike Webb So LB Jim Wright DL Mike Zikas	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K Scott Hempel P Jim Yoder	Head coach Ara Parseghian Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

References

1. "Georgia Tech gives ND scare, Irish win 10–7". The Clarion-Ledger. November 15, 1970. Retrieved July 24, 2024– via Newspapers.com.
2. "Irish fight past LSU 3–0". Star Tribune. November 22, 1970. Retrieved October 22, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
3. "Irish stun Texas in Cotton Bowl, 24–11". Chicago Tribune. January 2, 1971. Retrieved May 2, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
4. "1970 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Schedule and Results".
5. "Irish Rout Michigan State." Palm Beach Post. 1970 Oct 4. Retrieved 2014-Dec-01.
6. South Bend Tribune, Oct. 16, 1970, p. 37.
7. "1970 St. Louis Cardinals Schedule".
8. Ocala Star-Banner. 1970 November 1.
9. South Bend Tribune, Nov. 29, 1970, pp. 1, 48.
10. Jenkins, Dan (November 30, 1970). "NOTRE DAME GOES KICKING INTO THE COTTON". Sports Illustrated . Retrieved August 25, 2019.