Notre Dame Is On The Verge Of Setting An All-Time Scoring Record

Notre Dame has had plenty of win-loss success over the last six seasons, but the Fighting Irish have not been able to get over the hump from a championship standpoint. A big reason for that has been the offense, which has often not been in the same universe as the programs winning championships.

We are just three games into the season, so we don't yet know if this offense is championship worthy. But the Notre Dame offense is certainly scoring at a rate we haven't seen for a very long time, and with a 40-point game this weekend against Central Michigan, Notre Dame could establish a new all-time scoring record.

Notre Dame opened the season with three straight games with at least 40 points, something that had only been done two previous times in program history, and the last time was 1932. The other season was 1900.

The 1900 team owns the all-time record, scoring at least 40 games in each of the first four games that season. That Notre Dame team scored 55 points against Goshen High School, 68 points against Englewood High School, 64 points against South Bend Howard Park Club, and 57 points against Cincinnati. Interestingly, that team went 2-3-1 the rest of the year, scoring just 16 total points and getting shut out three times.

Scoring 40 points or more against Central Michigan would tie that all-time record for most 40-point games to start a season. But it would break the all-time record for most consecutive games with at least 40 points during any stretch of games.

Along with the 1900 season, Notre Dame has scored at least 40 points in four straight games just three other times in program history. That would be the 1991 season, the 1996 season, and the current streak that includes the bowl game at the end of the 2022 season and the first three games of the 2023 season. Should Notre Dame score 40 or more points against Central Michigan it would be the first five-game stretch of 40+ games in program history.

Notre Dame beat South Carolina by a 45-38 score in the Gator Bowl to end the 2022 season, beat Navy 42-3 to start the 2022 season, beat Tennessee State 56-3, and beat NC State by a 45-24 score this past weekend.

The last time that happened was 1996, the final season of the Lou Holtz tenure. That season Notre Dame beat Navy 54-27, beat Boston College 48-21, beat Pittsburgh 60-6 and beat Rutgers 62-0.

I don't care who your opponents are, when you do something that hasn't been done in your program's over 140 years of existence its an incredible achievement, should the offense be able to get that done this weekend against Central Michigan.

Notre Dame's 143 points in the last three games is the most by an Irish offense in three straight games since it scored 170 points in the aforementioned stretch in 1996 that began with the win over Boston College through the win over Rutgers.

There are much bigger games coming up where the offense will need to show that its current scoring streak is the new normal, and not a very talented team beating up inferior opponents. That will ultimately tell us just how good Notre Dame can be, but there's no doubt the current streak is evidence things are moving in the right direction.

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