The Notre Dame football program has seen great quarterbacks throughout the years and because of that, the careers of a number of Fighting Irish receivers have taken off. Oftentimes, a great receiver has elevated a quarterback’s stock as well.
That symbiotic has created fireworks and launched countless NFL careers throughout the program’s history; not to mention the second most national championships among current FBS teams behind Alabama.
With all of that in mind, Slap the Sign is taking a look at the greatest duos in the passing game in Notre Dame’s timeline.
Here are the 10 greatest Notre Dame football quarterback-receiver duos of all time
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 10: Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate
- Jimmy Clausen: 2007 – 2009 (8,148 career yards passing, 60 touchdowns)
- Golden Tate: 2007 – 2009 (2,707 career yards receiving, 29 touchdowns)
Jimmy Clausen and Golden Tate would go on to the NFL to have varying degrees of success at the professional level, but both were on the same page while together in South Bend. Tate sits at No. 5 in career receptions at Notre Dame (157) and his 93 receptions and 15 touchdowns are the most in a single season of any Fighting Irish wideout ever.
That isn’t to say Clausen was a slouch. Far from it. The California native was named a midseason All-American by Sporting News midway through his junior season, his last before departing for the NFL draft, where he’d be selected in the second round.
Needless to say, though, Clausen benefitted more from Tate than vice versa. That doesn’t mean this duo didn’t do great things together.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 9: Tony Rice and Raghib Ismail
- Tony Rice: 1987-1989 (2,961 career yards passing, 34 touchdowns)
- Raghib Ismail: 1988 – 1990 (1,565 career yards receiving, nine touchdowns)
Tony Rice came to Notre Dame as the centerpiece of Lou Holtz’s first recruiting class, and while he never made it to the NFL level, he was a big-time playmaker for the Fighting Irish offense as a dual-threat menace to opposing defenses.
Raghib Ismail, himself a dual threat receiving threat that could produce big-time yardage from behind the line of scrimmage, was one of the driving forces behind that offense.
Together, Notre Dame was unpredictable and potent offensively, being a major part of the program losing just one game between the 1988 and 1989 seasons, which included a national championship and an undefeated season in 1988.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 8: Jimmy Clausen and Michael Floyd
- Jimmy Clausen: 2007 – 2009 (8,148 career yards passing, 60 touchdowns)
- Michael Floyd: 2008 – 2011 (3,686 career yards receiving, 37 touchdowns)
Michael Floyd’s 271 career receptions, 3,686 passing yards, and 37 receiving touchdowns all make the Minnesota native the all-time leader in those categories for the Fighting Irish.
What puts him so low on a list like this one is the fact that he only played two seasons with Clausen, coupled with the fact that Floyd’s two best seasons were his upperclassmen years.
No offense to Tommy Rees or Dayne Crist, but the level of quarterback play for the Fighting Irish fell off after Clausen went to the NFL. Still, Floyd deserves to be on this list in some way, shape, or form.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 7: Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija
- Brady Quinn: 2003 – 2006 (11,762 career yards passing, 95 touchdowns)
- Jeff Samardzija: 2003 – 2006 (2,593 career yards receiving, 28 touchdowns)
Jeff Samardzija became an All-Star starting pitcher in the MLB, so many will likely forget about the fact that he was Brady Quinn’s top receiving target during the latter’s legendary career in South Bend. To his credit, though, Samardzija ended up becoming one of the great Fighting Irish wideouts in his own right.
Samardzija ranks third in program history in receptions (179), receiving yards (2,593), and receiving touchdowns (27), with the latter being a record at the time the receiver-turned-ace left Notre Dame.
While Quinn’s career was forgettable in the NFL, the magic he created with Samardzija and otherwise will always be remembered in Indiana and abroad.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 6: Terry Hanratty and Jim Seymour
- Terry Hanratty: 1966 – 1968 (4,152 career yards passing, 27 touchdowns)
- Jim Seymour: 1966 – 1968 (2,113 career yards receiving, 17 touchdowns)
Terry Hanratty was an All-American and winner of the Sammy Baugh Trophy in 1967, while Jim Seymour was an All-American himself. The year prior, in 1966, the Fighting Irish claimed the national championship. That 1967 season has an unclaimed national championship.
The duo defined the middle years of the Ara Parseghian era in South Bend and was one of the early memorable pairs in the passing game for a sport that was predominantly run-based for much of its early existence.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 5: Ian Book and Chase Claypool
- Ian Book: 2017 – 2020 (8,948 career yards passing, 72 touchdowns)
- Chase Claypool: 2016 – 2019 (2,159 career yards receiving, 19 touchdowns)
One could point to recency bias as a potential reason why this duo is rated too highly, but Ian Book’s arrival and Chase Claypool’s ascension were major reasons why Notre Dame was relevant during the Brian Kelly era and making College Football Playoff fields.
Both have steady NFL employment, with Claypool being a top option on the Chicago Bears and previously the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Book being a backup on the reigning NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles and previously the New Orleans Saints.
Book and Claypool were electric together, having kept the Fighting Irish’s offense high-scoring and high-powered, otherwise known as modern.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 4: Joe Montana and Kris Haines
- Joe Montana: 1975 – 1978 (4,121 career yards passing, 25 touchdowns)
- Kris Haines: 1975 – 1978 (1,350 career yards receiving, seven touchdowns)
While Joe Montana had a true favorite target on the Fighting Irish that wasn’t Kris Haines (more on that later), the big-play devastation between Montana and Haines helped keep defenses honest during a highly-successful mid-1970s run.
While Haines wasn’t the All-American hero in South Bend that many other great receivers were, his connection with Montana was one of the main keys to the program’s second-to-last championship as of this writing.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 3: Joe Montana and Ken MacAfee
- Joe Montana: 1975 – 1978 (4,121 career yards passing, 25 touchdowns)
- Ken MacAfee: 1974 – 1977 (1,759 career yards receiving, 15 touchdowns)
Montana become a football legend in the NFL, but he began his journey under center in the spotlight in South Bend — helping Ken MacAfee become an All-American after Notre Dame’s 1977 championship season. MacAfee also took home the Walter Camp Award and Knute Rockne Memorial Trophy that season as the true star of the receiving corps.
Montana didn’t break out for the Fighting Irish until his upperclassmen years, but his heroics helped bring Notre Dame its second-to-last championship. That brilliance will stand the test of time even if Montana will always be No. 16 for the San Francisco 49ers before anyone remembers No. 3 for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 2: Steve Beuerlein and Tim Brown
- Steve Beuerlein: 1983 – 1986 (6,527 career yards passing, 27 touchdowns)
- Tim Brown: 1984 – 1987 (2,493 career yards receiving, 16 touchdowns)
Steve Beuerlein preceded Rice as the star quarterback at Notre Dame, but unlike Rice, the California native was a big pocket presence who overcame injuries in his junior season to finish up his career in South Bend as an NFL draft pick.
Tim Brown had his best season — the 1987 campaign in which he won the Walter Camp Award, was a unanimous All-American, and most notably, was named the winner of the Heisman Trophy — after Beuerlein left, but the two produced an 1,100+-yard season for Brown and a 2,200+=yard season for Beuerlein.
Notre Dame football Football QB/REC Duo No. 1: John Huarte and Jack Snow
- John Huarte: 1962 – 1964 (2,343 career yards passing, 17 touchdowns)
- Jack Snow: 1962 – 1964 (1,242 career yards receiving, 10 touchdowns)
As Saturday Blitz’ Nicholas Valdez wrote back in 2016, Notre Dame’s reputation was fundamentally by the quarterback play of John Huarte, and Jack Snow as his top flanker was a major reason why.
“The clean-cut slinger, wearing number seven on his jersey entered into the glorious ’64 season with a new game plan: throw the football,” Valdez prefaced before saying, “As soon as Huarte started throwing, the nation’s eyes were on Notre Dame. Huarte and his tremendous target, Jack Snow, were showing the state of Indiana that passing the ball could be as much a part of the Irish tradition as running it had been.”
Valdez had ranked the Huarte/Snow duo as one of the all-time duos in college football, and though no claimed championships were won during their time in South Bend, they sit atop the perch as the greatest considering the changes to the sport that’d come in the wake of Huarte’s gunslinging ways.
The definitive Notre Dame football all-time Lou Holtz team
Slap the Sign presents the definitive Notre Dame football all-time Lou Holtz team, spanning from the 1986 season to his departure from South Bend in 1996.