The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Notre Dame
Football opens season at No. 11/11 Notre Dame on Saturday
08.31.2015 | Football
Longhorns to battle Fighting Irish in clash of legendary programs
Longhorns Gameweek | Texas-Notre Dame Game Notes
Texas will open its second season under Charlie Strong by making a visit to No. 11/11 Notre Dame on Saturday, Sept. 5, for just its fourth game at Notre Dame Stadium, and 11th overall meeting between the two historic programs. The Irish and Longhorns rank second and third, respectively, on the NCAA all-time wins list. Notre Dame lays claim to 882 victories while Texas has 881. Saturday's game will be broadcast nationally on NBC at 6:30 p.m. CT. The game can be heard on the radio through the Longhorn IMG Radio Network broadcast, including flagship KTXX 104.9 FM in Austin. Pregame coverage on the Longhorn IMG Radio Network begins one hour prior to kickoff with postgame coverage for one hour following the game as well. The game can also be heard online at TexasSports.com.
In the head-to-head series, Notre Dame has an 8-2 advantage with the most recent meetings taking place in 1995-96, when the Irish came out with a pair of victories (55-27 at Notre Dame in 1995; 27-27 in Austin in '96). The Irish have won the last four meetings (victories in 1970 and 1977), with the last Texas win coming in the Cotton Bowl following the 1969 season – a 21-17 UT victory. Notre Dame holds a 2-1 series advantage at home.
UT IN OPENERS: In its previous 122 years of football, UT is 102-17-3 (.848) in season-opening games. The Longhorns are 22-10-1 (.726) when opening the year away from home with this marking the first time UT has begun the season on the road since 2010 when it defeated Rice 34-10 at NRG Stadium (then named Reliant Stadium) in Houston. Texas last opened the season with a true road game in 1995 at Hawaii (38-17 victory). The Horns have won 15 straight season openers. Charlie Strong has won four of five season openers in his head-coaching career, including a 38-7 win against North Texas last season.
STARTERS RETURNING: Texas welcomes back starters at 11 positions, including six on offense and five on defense. Ten offensive players who started a game in 2014 return, including offensive linemen Sedrick Flowers, Marcus Hutchins and Kent Perkins, who each started all 13 games. There are 12 defensive players back who had starts in 2014, including three with 10 or more. Cornerback Duke Thomas started all 13 games, safety Dylan Haines had 12, and defensive tackle Hassan Ridgeway 10. The Longhorns also return place-kicker Nick Rose.
STARTERS LOST: The Longhorns will have to replace 11 offensive and defensive starters, as well as their punter. The defense was hit hardest with six starters having departed, four of whom were taken in the 2015 NFL Draft. Two of them - DT Malcom Brown and LB Jordan Hicks - earned All-America honors in 2014. Brown, a consensus first-team All-American, was also a finalist for both the Bronko Nagurski Trophy (nation's top defensive player) and Outland Trophy (nation's best interior lineman). Texas also lost Quandre Diggs, a four-year starting cornerback, defensive end Cedric Reed, a two-time All-Big 12 player, and two-year starting safety Mykkele Thompson. In addition to starting running back Malcolm Brown, the offense lost two of its starting wide receivers in Jaxon Shipley and John Harris. Shipley ended his career third on the UT all-time receptions list (218) and sixth in receiving yards (2,510), and Harris became one of only six players in school history with at least 1,000 receiving yards in a season with 1,051. Nine of the 10 departing offensive and defensive starters were either selected in the 2015 NFL Draft or signed as free agents. William Russ and Michael Davidson each served as the No. 1 punter last season, and both were seniors. Russ ended his career No. 4 on the school's all-time punting average (42.35) chart, with all of his 66 attempts occurring last season.
NOTRE DAME SERIES: This year's game between Texas and Notre Dame will be the 11th meeting for the traditional football powers. It also is the first time the Longhorns and Fighting Irish will have met in a season opener. The earliest previous contest between the two teams came in the second game of the season in 1954 when No. 2 Notre Dame bested No. 4 Texas by the score of 21-0. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 8-2 with the Fighting Irish winning the last four meetings. The Irish won both games of a home-and-home series in 1995 and '96. The Irish also won over the Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl in 1977 and 1970. Three of the 10 previous meetings occurred in the Cotton Bowl. The last time Texas defeated Notre Dame was at the 1969 Cotton Bowl, 21-17, when the Longhorns claimed the national title. The last time Texas won at Notre Dame was in 1934 when the Horns had the advantage 7-6 over the Irish. With the 8-2 advantage in the series, Notre Dame has outscored Texas 268-117. The two victories by Texas have been decided by an average of 2.5 points.
LAST TIME vs. NOTRE DAME: Notre Dame got the best of Texas the time the Fighting Irish and Longhorns squared off on Sept. 21, 1996. It was a top-10 matchup with Notre Dame coming in No. 9 in both polls and Texas standing at No. 6/8. Notre Dame got the 27-24 win in Austin. After Texas scored to go up 24-17 with 10:53 to play, Notre Dame tallied 10 unanswered points over the final 3:53 of the game, including a 39-yard field goal by Jim Sanson as time expired.
FIRST-AND-GOAL
• Head coach Charlie Strong served as the Notre Dame defensive line coach from 1995 through 1998, the first two seasons under head coach Lou Holtz and the final two with Bob Davie.
• UT junior reserve quarterback Trey Holtz is the grandson of legendary Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz. He was the Fighting Irish head coach from 1986 to 1996, leading them to the 1988 national title. Trey Holtz was born in 1994 while his father, current head coach at Louisiana Tech University, was a Notre Dame assistant. However, Trey spent little time there as his father took over as Connecticut's head coach that same year.
• Duke Thomas, who leads the team with 23 careeer starts, is the lone senior listed in the secondary's depth chart. In fact, there are only four seniors in the entire defensive depth chart. Conversely, there are 12 freshmen (eight true/four redshirts) listed in the defensive depth chart, including three first-teamers (LBs Malik Jefferson and Edwin Freeman, and CB John Bonney).
• The offense has more experience than the defense with seven seniors listed in the depth chart, though Sedrick Flowers has the most career starts with only 14. There are eight freshmen (six true/two redshirts) in the offensive depth chart.
DID YOU KNOW: The Longhorns last opened the season vs. a ranked opponent in 1993 when they faced No. 11/10 Colorado. The Buffaloes prevailed 36-14 in Boulder. This is the third-straight Texas has faced at least one ranked nonconference foe.
BREAKING DOWN THE 2015 SCHEDULE: UT will play eight games this season against teams that reached a bowl game in 2014, and eight contests vs. programs either ranked or receiving votes in the preseason AP or USA Today Coaches poll. Those eight bowl teams (see below) all registered at least seven wins in 2014. Last season, Texas played nine teams that were in bowl games in 2013. As in most years, Texas will play a challenging nonconference schedule, with Notre Dame and Rice both reaching bowl games a year ago. UT will also face Cal, a Power 5 Conference team that missed the postseason by only one game. Texas opens the season at Notre Dame, as two of the top three winningest programs in college football history meet. Longtime Southwest Conference foes, Texas and Rice will meet for the first time since 2011, the same season the Longhorns last faced Cal.
SECOND SEASON UNDER STRONG: Texas is set to begin its second season under the guidance of Charlie Strong. Last season, the Longhorns overcame a 3-5 start to the season to reach their 53rd bowl game in program history. Prior to his stint at Texas, Strong spent the previous four seasons as Louisville head coach, re-energizing a program that had a 15-21 record in the three years prior to his arrival. He posted a 37-15 record, which included a pair of Big East Conference Championships (2011, 2012). Strong was named Big East Coach of the Year in both 2010 and 2012, and led the Cardinals to four bowl appearances with three wins. In his final two years, Louisville was the nation's fourth-winningest program, posting a 23-3 record (88.5 percent). Prior to his stint at Louisville, Strong was a long-time successful defensive coordinator, spending four years at South Carolina (1999-2002) and seven at Florida (2003-09).
