At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Notre Dame and Virginia will meet for just the fifth time on a football field. The Irish will look to move a win closer to the College Football Playoff, while the Cavaliers will aim to play spoiler after upsetting Pittsburgh last weekend. In a head-to-head matchup that has become best known in the men’s lacrosse scene, here’s how Notre Dame has taken a 4-0 series lead.
1989: Notre Dame 36, Virginia 13 (East Rutherford, New Jersey)
Here it is. The first of 445 consecutive games Notre Dame football has played without a national championship.
Week One of the 1989 campaign pitted the defending national champion Irish against the only 10-win team in Virginia program history. Notre Dame looked plenty the part of its preseason pedigree, bolting out to a 33-0 lead at halftime thanks to five consecutive scoring drives out of the gate. Virginia would render the final score more respectable down the stretch, but the Irish still left the Garden State with a three-score win to start the season.
In the week that followed, Notre Dame moved into the AP Poll’s No. 1 spot and would remain there for more than two months. During their 11-game, season-opening win streak, the Irish toppled the likes of No. 2 Michigan, No. 17 Air Force, No. 9 USC, No. 7 Pittsburgh and No. 17 Penn State. However, a late-November loss at No. 7 Miami (FL) would kill off their run at a title defense, setting Notre Dame up for an Orange Bowl defeat of Colorado.
2015: Notre Dame 34, Virginia 27 (Charlottesville, Virginia)
In 2014, Notre Dame entered a partnership with the Atlantic Coast Conference by which it would schedule five schools from the conference every season. That brought on the resumption of the series and Notre Dame’s first visit to Scott Stadium a year later.
The Irish entered their Week Two trip to Charlottesville having crushed fledgling Texas in the season opener. But Virginia, a team that would go 4-8 in 2015, hung with Notre Dame, taking a 14-12 lead into halftime. Though the visitors pulled back into a 26-14 lead with a pair of touchdowns, momentum swung back to Virginia after starting Irish quarterback Malik Zaire went down with an ankle injury that ended his season.
Onto the field stepped backup signal-caller DeShone Kizer, who would eventually face the pressure of leading a game-winning two-minute drill. With Virginia up 27-26, Notre Dame needed only a field goal but struggled to move within range. Inside the final 20 seconds, the Irish had made it only to the Virginia 39-yard line. From there, Kizer uncorked a rainbow that dropped into the arms of wide receiver Will Fuller for a touchdown, stunning the home crowd.
After the seven-point victory, Notre Dame again maintained its case as a championship contender until the final week of the season, when an equally heartbreaking loss to Stanford put the Irish in the Fiesta Bowl at 10-2.
2019: Notre Dame 35, Virginia 20 (South Bend, Indiana)
Four years later, Virginia debuted at Notre Dame Stadium with its highest ranking since 2007. Off to a 4-0 start, the 18th-ranked Cavaliers squared off with No. 10 Notre Dame on the final Saturday of September, a week after Notre Dame’s primetime loss at Georgia.
The first half of this meeting played out similarly to the one contested in 2015, with Virginia carrying a 17-14 lead into the midway break behind terrific quarterback play from Bryce Perkins. The Cavaliers would keep their upset prospects alive with a successful onside kick to begin the second half, but their luck ran out after that point. Notre Dame’s defense — specifically its pass rush — went to town on Virginia, totaling eight sacks and forcing five turnovers. Ade Ogundeji took a fumble recovery to the end zone, while Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa brought one back inside the 10-yard line. Meanwhile, Notre Dame took control in the ground game, scoring three rushing touchdowns on the day through Tony Jones Jr. while limiting the Cavaliers to four second-half rushing yards.
In an 11-win season smeared by an ugly October loss at Michigan, Notre Dame would go on to defeat Iowa State in the Camping World Bowl. Virginia would win nine games for the first time since, you guessed it, 2019, losing in the ACC Championship game to defending national champion Clemson.
2021: Notre Dame 28, Virginia 3 (Charlottesville)
In another game dominated by the Notre Dame defense, the Irish went to Charlottesville in the midst of a weird season. They had started the year winning ugly against Florida State and Toledo before blowing out ranked Wisconsin in Chicago and losing to College Football Playoff qualifier Cincinnati at home. All the while, Brian Kelly couldn’t settle on a full-time quarterback between Jack Coan, Tyler Buchner and Drew Pyne. Eventually, as Week One starter Coan returned to his role as the top option, Notre Dame began to win big — much like it’s doing now — en route to an 11-1 season.
This was win number nine for Notre Dame, which feasted on the absence of Virginia starting quarterback Brennan Armstrong. Nearly pitching a shutout, the Irish defense took pressure off of an offense that didn’t have its prettiest night. But Coan and company played effectively enough, the transfer throwing for three touchdowns en route to a 25-point victory.
Only 16 days after the final regular season game, Kelly bolted for the head coaching job at LSU, leaving current head coach Marcus Freeman to lead the Irish in their Fiesta Bowl loss to Oklahoma State.
