In the long tradition of Notre Dame football, there have been a lot of great quarterbacks. These are the five best to ever play for the Fighting Irish:
When people think of Notre Dame football, they think of a long tradition of excellence. This tradition of excellence begins with the long line of great Notre Dame quarterbacks. Even in the years where running backs starred ahead of the quarterback, a good signal-caller was still required if you wanted to win championships. That’s why Notre Dame has had such a long history of excellence; their tradition of great quarterback play.
This is a tradition that is well worth recognition. It’s good to recognize the great quarterbacks of a program if only to remind oneself of what the Notre Dame gold standard should be. This is what players like Ian Book are trying to live and play up to.
Unfortunately, when a team has as long a history as Notre Dame, there’s going to be numerous more than deserving players to miss this list. There are just too many talented players to recognize.
Another challenge is the difficulty in comparing different eras of the quarterback position because it has changed so much over time. Harry Stuhldreher and Brady Quinn had exponentially different expectations on them. So, you need to compare how successful they were at doing what they were expected to do.
Also, please note that these rankings are based on their time with Notre Dame. This is not ranking Notre Dame alumni based on their NFL careers. Sorry, Joe Montana. Cheers Brady Quinn.
In general, players are being graded against their complete resume. This means that they’re expected to have been winners, preferably National Champions. It will help to have received honors like All-American, because this shows that they were the best in the game, for their particular era.
Statistics, meanwhile, are also important. It helps to be Notre Dame’s all-time leading passer. However, in the interest of fairness, this will be graded on a scale. Tommy Rees maybe second all-time in touchdown passes, but that’s largely based on when he played. It won’t help him to get ranked ahead of someone like Harry Stuhldreher.
Now that those ground rules are established, here are the five best Notre Dame quarterbacks of all-time:
Brady Quinn sits, without a doubt, the best Notre Dame quarterback of the 21st century. If you were to only go by statistics, Quinn would find himself as the best quarterback in the history of Notre Dame football. However, he did have the benefit of playing in the 21st century, when the game has evolved to include exponentially more passing.
Still, as it stands Quinn holds the Notre Dame quarterback record for career passing yards with 11,762. That’s 3,614 more than the quarterback with the second-most career passing yards, Jimmy Clausen.
More impressive is his record for career touchdowns with Notre Dame. He threw 95 touchdowns for Notre Dame. Tommy Rees is second all-time on the Notre Dame career touchdown list, with 61.
Most of Quinn’s damage was done during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. He threw for 69 touchdowns over these two seasons, still good for most in the history of a Notre Dame quarterback. Those two seasons, individually, rank 1st and 3rd for passing touchdowns over a single season. Over those two seasons, he threw for a combined 7,345 yards which were good for 1st and 4th most in program history.
During his time with the Irish, Quinn won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and the Maxwell Award. He was an All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist in 2006.
Of course, as with everything associated with Notre Dame football in the past couple of decades, Quinn had one fatal flaw. He couldn’t win a National Championship or a major bowl game. He lost the Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl in 2005 and 2006 respectively. In both those seasons, he also lost to excellent USC teams. He couldn’t even win the Insight Bowl against Oregon State in his sophomore season.
Don’t hold any of that against Quinn, though. Simply recall that Notre Dame has never had a better, or more prolific, college passer. Just remember that a generation has grown up knowing Quinn as the gold standard Notre Dame quarterbacks.
If you need more convincing on Brady Quinn, just remember he made Charlie Weis look good.
As a member of the “Four Horsemen of Notre Dame,” Harry Stuhldreher is the oldest Notre Dame quarterback to make this list. A starter from 1922 through the 1924 season, and only standing 5 feet and 7 inches, Stuhldreher had a shockingly historic career with Notre Dame.
Being of an era where quarterbacks almost never threw the ball, it is difficult to judge Stuhldreher against Notre Dame quarterbacks, like Brady Quinn. However, his career completion percentage of 64% was good then and is still good today.
His best season, which was the 1924 season, only came with four touchdown passes, while completing an outstanding 76% of his passes. Still, that was good enough to make it as an All-American.
If you needed any more proof that Stuhldreher came from a unique era for the quarterback position, he was once described as a “solid blocker.” It was his job to run, and organize, the “Notre Dame Box,” which is the offense that Knute Rockne ran. It consisted of four in the backfield, two ends, and unbalanced formations. Often, Stuhldreher would line up over the guard, to create an imbalance for the defense to contend with. This made it Stuhldreher’s job to distribute the football in triple options, throw, and block.
In the 1924 season, Stuhldreher led a Knute Rockne coached team to an undefeated record, and a trip to the Rose Bowl. There, the Irish beat Stanford by a score of 27-10. It was the first National Championship season of the eleven in Notre Dame’s history.
You won’t find Stuhldreher at the top of any record books. Records aren’t why he’s on this list, though. The simple fact is that Stuhldreher is a legend. Almost a myth, like Perseus, he’s a hero to the Notre Dame faithful. He, and the Four Horsemen, put Notre Dame firmly on the college football map.
Tony Rice might be faster. Joe Montana may be more accurate. Jimmy Clausen might have a bigger arm. None of them touch the immortal greatness that comes with being the quarterback of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.
Harry Stuhldreher is one of the nine Notre Dame quarterbacks in the College Football Hall of Fame, as he was elected in 1958.
It’s not fair that Joe Theismann is mostly remembered for the horrific leg injury which ended his football career, and not the brilliance of his career itself. Theismann took over starting from Terry Hanratty during his sophomore season, and never looked back.
Over the course of his career he threw for 4,411 yards and 16 touchdowns, for a career passer rating of 136.1. This, in the era of ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’ was incredibly impressive. His career record as the starter at Notre Dame was 20-3-2.
Theismann led the Irish to the Cotton Bowl in both the 1969 and 1970 seasons. He went 1-1 in those games, losing to Texas in the 1970 Cotton while beating the Longhorns in the 1971 Cotton Bowl. Had it not been for a shocking loss to a mediocre USC team, that 1970 would have been an undefeated, National Champion.
The kicker about the USC loss is that it was likely the best individual performance of Joe Theismann’s college career. He threw for 526 yards in a torrential downpour. To this day, that stands as the Notre Dame record for passing yards in a single game. He also set a record, at the time, for completions in a game against the Trojans with 33.
At the time, 2,429 yards passing and 16 touchdowns were a single season, school records for passing. His 31 career touchdowns are 10th all-time in Notre Dame history for a quarterback. Meanwhile, his 526 passing yards against USC still stands as the most yards passing in a single game in program history.
Joe Theismann was an All-American during the 1970 season, while also being an Academic All-American. In 2003, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
During his Heisman trophy campaign, Notre Dame publicly changed the pronunciation of Theismann’s name. It had been pronounced “Thees-man,” but was switched to “Thighs-man” so it would rhyme with Heisman. He, unfortunately, he only came in second place for the 1970 Heisman Trophy. This, and his lack of a National Championship, remain the only black marks in his career with Notre Dame.
Angelo Bertelli is not one of those guys who isn’t on the top of most people’s lists of “All-time great Notre Dame quarterbacks.” He should be though. Nicknamed “The Springfield Rifle,” because he grew up near the Springfield Armory, Bertelli is the second greatest quarterback in the program’s history.
Among his list of accomplishments; Bertelli was a two time All-American, won a National Championship, was Sportsnews Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, and he won the Heisman Trophy. With that list of accomplishments, it’s shocking he isn’t more revered by Notre Dame lore.
He suffers from the same issue as his coach. Frank Leahy lives in the shadow of Knute Rockne. He didn’t make Notre Dame a household name. He brought the program back to life, but it’s not like he was the first one to coach Notre Dame to multiple National Championships. At the same time that Leahy didn’t coach long enough ago to be the program builder, he was too long ago for those alive today to remember his playing days.
Leahy would describe Bertelli as the best passing, but worst rushing quarterback that he’d ever known. However, Bertelli’s lack of rushing ability didn’t stop him from bringing his coach’s T-Formation to fruition. It was out of this formation he threw four touchdown passes in a single game against Stanford.
The T-Formation was, traditionally, a running formation. Essentially, the fullback and two running backs lined up side by side, behind the quarterback. This made it easy to give to any of the backs, make any of them a blocker, and run options from this formation.
Because Bertelli wasn’t worth much as a runner, his option became throwing the ball downfield to the ends. He was deadly doing this, and it’s what made his career in South Bend so special.
Bertelli started for Notre Dame from 1941-1943. During that 1943 season, Bertelli completed 69.4% of his passes and threw 10 touchdowns. Over, the course of his career at Notre Dame he threw for over 1,500 yards. This helped him to become known as the greatest passer Notre Dame had ever had.
Immediately following his time at Notre Dame, quarterback Angelo Bertelli would serve in World War II. He was a marine corps officer at Iwo Jima and Guam. The College Football Hall of Famer was captain of the Marine Corps football team.
Johnny Lujack is the greatest quarterback in Notre Dame football history. That sounds strange, but it’s true. Angelo Bertelli’s successor, Lujack, was with Notre Dame for three different National Championships.
He was twice a unanimous All-American selection. He was the AP Player of the Year, Sportsnews Player of the Year, and Heisman Trophy winner. All of those honors came in his legendary 1947 season. He’s also in the College Football Hall of Fame. To go along with his honors in football, he lettered in four sports while at Notre Dame.
That’s quite the resume.
Lujack’s time at Notre Dame would be broken up by World War II. This allowed his career to span from 1942 until 1947. He served in the United States Navy, tracking down German U-Boats. Upon returning to Notre Dame, Lujack made himself an American sports legend.
Lujack led Notre Dame to two straight National Championships in 1946 and 1947. During those two seasons, Notre Dame didn’t lose a single game and only had one tie. That was a 0-0 finish against Army, at Yankee Stadium.
While not as accomplished as a passer as Bertelli, Lujack brought the running game back to the quarterback position for Notre Dame. He had a career passer rating of 119.1, and a career completion percentage of 51.4%. These are obviously not numbers that jump off the page, but they were excellent for the time period he played in.
His rushing ability was excellent. During the 1947 season, Lujack averaged 11.6 yards per carry. This helped him to operate the T-Formation, and keep opposing defenses honest. It also opened up the offense to score 32 points per game in that unbeaten, untied, 1947 run.
Like Bertelli, Lujack played during a forgotten time in Notre Dame history. The nation was either engaged in or just getting over World War II. He played post-Rockne but pre-modern memory. It’s simply too easy for the casual, or simply modern fan to forget about Lujack’s greatness.
He may not be the most common of names, but his resume and talent are so great that it is impossible to deny that Johnny Lujack is the greatest Notre Dame quarterback ever.
Notre Dame has five quarterbacks in the College Football Hall of Fame who didn’t make this list. They are Frank Carideo, Ralph Guglielmi, Paul Hornung, John Huarte, and Bob Williams. Hornung and Huarte both won the Heisman Trophy but did not make this top 5 Notre Dame quarterbacks of all-time list.
Here’s the thing, there are nine Notre Dame quarterbacks in the College Football Hall of Fame. Being in the Hall of Fame isn’t a prerequisite to making this list. Making the list of top-5 Notre Dame quarterbacks ever is about an all-around resume, not whether or not they received one particular honor.
Frank Carideo was a two time All-American and two-time National Champion but just missed this list. Ralph Guglielmi was an All-American too but lacks an all-around resume to make the top-5 Notre Dame quarterbacks list. Paul Hornung has a Heisman Trophy that even he agrees should have gone to Jim Brown. John Huarte, an All-American and Heisman winner, narrowly missed the list. Meanwhile, Bob Williams, who was an All-American and National Champion, is also on the outside looking in on this list.
That isn’t to say that these aren’t amazing players, who deserve recognition in their own right. But, really, the legacy of a Notre Dame quarterback is more than being an All-American. It’s about winning championships and waking up the echoes of past glory.
Tony Rice, Joe Montana, and Terry Hanratty all deserve mention as well.
Rice, of course, led Notre Dame to its only National Championship under Lou Holtz, was an excellent dual-threat who overcame academic struggles to star for the Irish. Montana may be the best NFL quarterback ever, and he had some great performances with Notre Dame. However, with the Irish, he didn’t start with any consistency. He did win two Cotton Bowls and a National Championship, though. Finally, Terry Hanratty was an All-American, but perhaps better known for being the player who got injured to make way for Joe Theismann.
Statistically, a case could be made for Jimmy Clausen and Ian Book. The issue is they don’t have resumes that extend deeply beyond those stats. Granted, Book will still have another year to potentially change that.
Oh, and Gus Dorais, who played quarterback for Notre Dame in 1913, when the Irish attacked Army with the forward pass.