2024 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
| 2024 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football | |
|---|---|
Sugar Bowl champion Orange Bowl champion | |
| |
| Conference | Independent |
| Ranking | |
| Coaches | No. 2 |
| AP | No. 2 |
| Record | 14–2 (.875) |
| Head coach |
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| Offensive coordinator | Mike Denbrock (1st in current stint, 2nd overall season) |
| Offensive scheme | Multiple |
| Defensive coordinator | Al Golden (3rd season) |
| Base defense | 4–3 |
| Captains | |
| Home stadium | Notre Dame Stadium |
Uniform | |
The 2024 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame as an independent during the 2024 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Fighting Irish were led by Marcus Freeman in his third year as Notre Dame's head coach. They played their home games at Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana.
| Conf. | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| No. 2 Notre Dame ^ | – | 14 | – | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UConn | – | 9 | – | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UMass | – | 2 | – | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Despite an upset loss as heavy favorites against Northern Illinois, Notre Dame proceeded to win their next ten games, including ranked wins over Louisville, Navy, and Army, and made their third College Football Playoff appearance. They defeated the Indiana Hoosiers, 27–17, in their first-round home game, a game which marked the first time a home game aired on ESPN and ABC since 1990, due to ESPN's ownership of the College Football Playoff. The Irish would then defeat the #2 Georgia Bulldogs, 23–10, in the quarterfinal Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl victory was the program's first win in a New Year's Six bowl game since 1994, ending the Irish's ten game losing streak in such games. The Irish then defeated the #4 Penn State Nittany Lions, 27–24, in the semifinal Orange Bowl. With the win, the Irish improved to 7–0 against AP-ranked teams during the season, the team's most ranked wins in the poll era. Also with this win, Freeman, who is of mixed black and South Korean ancestry, became the first African American, as well as the first Asian, head coach to reach a Division I college football national championship. The Irish fell to Ohio State in the championship game 34–23.
Notre Dame was one of four teams (the others being Ohio State, Penn State, and Texas) to play 16 games in 2024; no NCAA Division I team had played more than 15 games since the 1914 Carlisle Indians. The Fighting Irish finished the season ranked second overall (the program's highest final ranking since 1993) and tied with Ohio State for the second-best win percentage in the country (.875), behind only the 13–1 Oregon Ducks (.929).