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The top five Notre Dame football head coaches of all time

By Corbin Whitney

23 Nov1996: Head coach Lou Holtz of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is carried off the field by his team after defeating the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 62-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Daniel/Allsport
23 Nov1996: Head coach Lou Holtz of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is carried off the field by his team after defeating the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 62-0 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Daniel/Allsport /
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1. Knute Rockne (1918-1930)

Notre Dame football
The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, (L-R) quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, fullback Elmer Leyden, left halfback Jim Crowley, and right hafback Don Miller. George Strickler, Knute Rockne’s student publicity aide posed the four players, dressed in their uniforms, on the backs of four horses from a livery stable in town. (Photo by Notre Dame University/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

Overall Record: 105-12-5

Win Percentage – .881

Consensus All-Americans (ND Only) – 10

National Titles – 4

NFL Draft Picks – n/a

Length of Tenure – 13 Seasons

Yep, you guessed it… or did you? As a Notre Dame fan, one of the first people that come to mind when “Notre Dame head coach” is mentioned is Knute Rockne. Rockne was the one who started it all, if it weren’t for him, it’s quite possible these coaches wouldn’t have been able to have the success they did at Notre Dame.

Rockne was tied with Frank Leahy for first in the national title category with four. According to ncaa.com, these titles came in 1919, 1924, 1929, and 1930. He also has had the longest coaching tenure to date (13 seasons), which sadly ended due to his death.

Lastly, Rockne came in first in winning percentage with a whopping .881. This is the highest out of any coach on this list and sportsreference.com mentions that it is the highest amongst any major college football coach ever.

One thing that possibly hurt Rockne’s average slightly was the fact that he coached before the NFL started drafting, therefore I had him tied for last with Frank Leahy.

Rockne’s average rank was 2.0, which was the lowest amongst all five coaches listed and what ultimately earned him the number one spot.

Takeaways

While the top coach in the list (Knute Rockne) might have seemed like the obvious choice, it was much closer than you might think. Ara Parseghian was only .2 average behind Rockne and Frank Leahy was .4 average behind Rockne.

One last thing to note is that Brian Kelly’s coaching career is not over at Notre Dame and things are looking very up after the team finished 12-0 this past season (2018) which led the team to its first College Football Playoff birth, since it began back in 2014. To add to this Notre Dame has its highest ranked recruiting class since 2013 with the 2020 class, while the cycle is still far from over a finish at that spot or even higher would be monumental in Notre Dame’s efforts in reaching another national championship.

Next. Todd Lyght, Aaron Taylor get Hall of Fame Votes. dark

Brian Kelly has the chance to move up on this list, by the end of his career at Notre Dame, and for our sake as Irish Fans, let’s hope he does!

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