Series History: Notre Dame vs. Louisville
Notre Dame hosts Louisville this weekend as the Fighting Irish look to improve to 4-0 on the season. It’s also a chance for Notre Dame to earn another ACC victory. Despite Louisville’s 1-3 record, the Cardinals are a dangerous football team.
Before we kick off our coverage of Louisville, let’s look back at the brief series history of the two programs.
SERIES HISTORY
The football series isn't nearly as extensive as the hoops series. This is just the third meeting between the programs, all of which have come during the Brian Kelly tenure. The series is currently tied at 1-1.
2019 - Notre Dame 35, Louisville 17
2014 - Louisville 31, Notre Dame 28
2019 — This was game one of the Scott Satterfield era, and the Cardinals fought hard against Notre Dame. In fact, Louisville jumped out to a 14-7 first quarter lead as the Irish struggled to handle quarterback Jawon Pass. Notre Dame responded quickly, with running back Tony Jones Jr. ripping off a 35-yard run to convert a 3rd-and-13. Two players later Jones sprinted into the end zone to tie it up.
Both offenses struggled to move the football the remainder of the half, and at one point they traded fumbles on three straight possession. Notre Dame took advantage of the second Louisville fumble, converting it into a 20-yard touchdown.
The Irish broke things open in the second half, eventually expanding the lead to 28-14. Jones rushed for 110 yards in the win, and wide receiver Chase Claypool hauled in five passes for 94 yards.
2014 — The first-ever meeting between Notre Dame and Louisville came during one of the worst stretches of the Brian Kelly era. After climbing all the way to No. 5 in the polls, Notre Dame lost five of its final six games, and Louisville was one of those losses.
Louisville started true freshman quarterback Reggie Bonnafon in the matchup. Bonnafon ultimately moved to wide receiver and completed just 8-21 passes, but it didn’t matter since the Cardinal offense ran all over the Notre Dame defense. Louisville racked up 229 yards on the ground, and the Cardinals out-gained Notre Dame 409-335.
Despite being out-gained, and despite Louisville’s dominance in time of possession, Notre Dame had a chance to tie the game with less than a minute remaining, but Kyle Brindza’s 32-yard field goal attempt went wide right.
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content, our premium message board and gets you a FREE subscription to Sports Illustrated! Click on the link below for more
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes.
Follow me on Twitter: @CoachD178
Follow me on Parler: @BryanDriskell
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
