2003 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

The 2003 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 2003 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by Tyrone Willingham and played its home games at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. The Irish finished the season at 5–7 and failed to become bowl eligible. The season was punctuated by a pair of three-game losing streaks and ugly blowout losses against Michigan, USC and Florida State.

2003 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Conference	Independent
2003 record	5–7
Head coach	Tyrone Willingham (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Bill Diedrick
Offensive scheme	West Coast
Defensive coordinator	Kent Baer
Base defense	4–3
Captains	Darrell Campbell Vontez Duff Omar Jenkins Jim Molinaro
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium (c. 80,795, grass)

2003 NCAA Division I-A independents football records
	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
Connecticut			–						9	–	3
Navy			–						8	–	5
Troy State			–						6	–	6
Notre Dame			–						5	–	7
Rankings from AP Poll

Season overview

The 2003 season began with the Irish losing a number of key players to graduation, including Arnaz Battle and center Jeff Faine. They were boosted, however, by the return of running back, Julius Jones, who was reinstated to the team after a year of academic ineligibility.[1][2] In Willingham's first full year of recruiting, he signed a top-5 class.[3] Of the 20 recruits signed, 12 were four-star recruits (high school recruits are rated on a star scale, with one star indicating a low-quality recruit and five stars indicating the highest-quality recruit). These new recruits included future stars Victor Abiamiri, Chinedum Ndukwe, Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija, and Tom Zbikowski[4]

Carlyle Holiday and Ryan Grant in the back field versus Washington State

The Irish began their season ranked 19th and facing the hardest schedule in the nation.[5][6] They opened against the Washington State Cougars, playing the team for the first time in the history of the program.[7] The Irish came back from being down by 19 points to win in overtime, but Carlyle Holiday struggled as quarterback.[8] In the next game against rival Michigan, the Wolverines avenged their 2002 loss by beating the Irish by a score of 38–0 in the first shutout in the series in 100 years and the largest margin of victory ever between the two teams.[9] After another loss to Michigan State,[10] many Irish fans were calling for Holiday to be taken out of the game in favor of freshman Brady Quinn, who saw his first collegiate action in the fourth quarter of the Michigan rout.[11] Holiday was replaced as starter for the next game against Purdue.[12]

In Quinn's first start, the Irish were bolstered with Quinn's 297 passing yards on 59 attempts. However, Purdue's defense intercepted four of Quinn's passes and sacked him five times en route to a 23–10 Boilermaker victory.[12] Quinn remained as the starter and, with Willingham's acknowledgment that the running game needed to take more of a role in the next game,[13] got his first win against Pittsburgh. He was helped by Julius Jones' school-record 262 rushing yards.[14] Notre Dame lost their next three games, including Willingham's second straight 31 point loss to USC,[15] a last minute loss to Boston College,[16] and their first home shutout since 1978 to Florida State.[17] The Irish players began to call the season disappointing, as the team needed to win their last four games to make a bowl game.[18] They looked to have a chance of becoming bowl eligible, as their next three games were a last minute win that improved their streak to 40 games over Navy,[19] a win on senior day over the Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars,[20] and a win over Stanford that saw the Irish offense finally connect in the season.[21] Notre Dame lost their final game to Syracuse, however.[22] With a 5–7 record, the Irish finished with the twelfth losing season in the history of the Notre Dame football program.[23]

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 6	2:30 p.m.	Washington State	No. 20	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN	NBC	W 29–26 ^OT	80,795
September 13	3:30 p.m.	at No. 5 Michigan	No. 19	Michigan Stadium Ann Arbor, MI (rivalry)	ABC	L 0–38	111,726
September 20	2:30 p.m.	Michigan State		Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (Megaphone Trophy)	NBC	L 16–22	80,795
September 27	2:30 p.m.	at No. 22 Purdue		Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, IN (Shillelagh Trophy)	ABC	L 10–23	64,614
October 11	6:00 p.m.	at No. 15 Pittsburgh		Heinz Field Pittsburgh, PA (rivalry)	ESPN	W 20–14	66,421
October 18	2:30 p.m.	No. 5 USC		Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (Jeweled Shillelagh)	NBC	L 14–45	80,795
October 25	12:00 p.m.	at Boston College		Alumni Stadium Chestnut Hill, MA (Holy War)	ABC	L 25–27	44,500
November 1	2:30 p.m..	No. 5 Florida State		Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN	NBC	L 0–37	80,795
November 8	2:30 p.m.	Navy		Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (rivalry)	NBC	W 27–24	80,795
November 15	2:30 p.m.	BYU		Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN	NBC	W 33–14	80,795
November 29	8:00 p.m.	at Stanford		Stanford Stadium Stanford, CA (Legends Trophy)	ABC	W 57–7	46,500
December 6	1:00 p.m.	at Syracuse		Carrier Dome Syracuse, NY	ABC	L 12–38	48,170
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

Game summaries

Washington State

1 2 3 4 OT Total Washington St 12 7 0 7 0 26 • Notre Dame 0 3 3 20 3 29 Date: September 6 Location: Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, IN Game start: 2:30 p.m. EST Television network: NBC

Scoring summary 1 7:52 WSU Sammy Moore 15-yard pass from Matt Kegel (kick failed) Wash St 6–0 1 4:56 WSU Drew Dunning 20-yard field goal Wash St 9–0 1 :31 WSU Drew Dunning 29-yard field goal Wash St 12–0 2 2:37 WSU Isaac Brown 12-yard fumble return (Drew Dunning kick) Wash St 19–0 2 :10 ND Nick Setta 37-yard field goal Wash St 19–3 3 10:10 ND Nick Setta 32-yard field goal Wash St 19–6 4 12:09 ND Nick Setta 39-yard field goal Wash St 19–9 4 10:32 ND Rhema McKnight 11-yard pass from Carlyle Holiday (Nick Setta kick) Wash St 19–16 4 5:03 ND Julius Jones 19-yard run (Nick Setta kick) Notre Dame 23–19 4 3:03 ND Nick Setta 47-yard field goal Notre Dame 26–19 4 :53 WSU Sammy Moore 34-yard pass from Matt Kegel (Drew Dunning kick) Tie 26–26 OT ND Nick Setta 40-yard field goal Notre Dame 29–26

[24]

Roster

2003 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class TE 48 Jerome Collins Jr QB 9 Pat Dillingham Jr TE 88 Anthony Fasano So TE 14 Gary Godsey Sr RB 4 Ryan Grant Jr QB 7 Carlyle Holiday Jr RB 22 Julius Jones Sr T 70 Jim Molinaro Sr QB 10 Brady Quinn Fr	Defense Pos. # Name Class CB 9 Jason Beckstrom Sr DE 90 Brian Beidatsch Jr S 27 Lionel Bolen Jr DE 92 Kyle Budinscak Sr S 8 Quentin Burrell Jr CB 6 Carlos Campbell Jr DT 60 Darrell Campbell Sr S 31 Jake Carney So DB 19 Glenn Earl Sr LB 41 Mike Goolsby Sr DE 99 Jason Sapp Sr DE 44 Justin Tuck Jr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 13 Nick Setta Sr	Head coach Tyrone Willingham Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt Roster Last update: 2003-12-06

References

1. Soukup, Andrew (November 14, 2003). "After a year away from Notre Dame, Jones came back to finish what he started". The Observer. UK. Archived from the original on July 22, 2009. Retrieved August 24, 2007.
2. Haugh, David (August 25, 2003). "Golden Opportunity: Julius Jones a Legend?". The Sporting News. Retrieved August 24, 2007.
3. "Scout.com Team Recruiting Rankings". Scout.com. Retrieved August 24, 2007.
4. "Scout.com Football Recruiting:Notre Dame". Scout.com. Retrieved August 24, 2007.
5. "2003 NCAA Football Rankings – Week 2 (Aug. 31)". ESPN. August 31, 2003. Retrieved February 18, 2008.
6. "2003 Irish Schedule Ranked As Most Difficult In The Country". UND.cstv.com. December 8, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
7. "Irish Take The Stage With Cougars For First Time". UND.cstv.com. September 4, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
8. "No. 19 Irish Triumph Over Washington St. In OT, 29–26". UND.cstv.com. September 6, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
9. "Irish Fall To No. 5 Michigan". UND.cstv.com. September 13, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
10. "Fighting Irish Fall To Michigan State, 22–16". UND.cstv.com. September 20, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
11. Hettler, Joe (November 12, 2004). "Carlyle Holiday: Taking one for the team". The Observer. UK. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
12. "Irish Fall To No. 22 Purdue, 23–10". UND.cstv.com. September 27, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
13. Federico, Chris (October 8, 2003). "Runaway problem". The Observer. UK. Archived from the original on October 26, 2007. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
14. "Fighting Irish Run To Victory, 20–14". UND.cstv.com. October 11, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
15. "Irish Fall To No. 5 USC". UND.cstv.com. October 18, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
16. "Irish Fall To Boston College, 27–25". UND.cstv.com. October 25, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
17. "Irish Fall To No. 5 Florida State". UND.cstv.com. November 1, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
18. Coyne, Tom (October 26, 2003). "Clock Ticking for Struggling Irish". CSTV.com. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
19. "Fitzpatrick Field Goal Sinks Midshipmen, 27–24". UND.cstv.com. November 8, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
20. "Notre Dame Defeats BYU In Home Finale, 33–14". UND.cstv.com. November 15, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
21. "Notre Dame 57, Stanford 7". ESPN. November 29, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
22. "Football Falls To Syracuse, 38–12". UND.cstv.com. December 6, 2003. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
23. Rovell, Darren (December 19, 2003). "Independent's stay? Irish renew NBC deal". ESPN. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
24. ESPN