1976 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team

	1976 NCAA Division I Independents football records
	Rankings from AP Poll

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
	1976 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Gator Bowl champion
Gator Bowl, W 20–9 vs. Penn State
Conference	Independent
Ranking
Coaches	No. 12
AP	No. 12
1976 record	9–3
Head coach	Dan Devine (2nd season)
Offensive coordinator	Merv Johnson (2nd season)
Captain	Willie Fry
Captain	Mark McLane
Home stadium	Notre Dame Stadium
	Seasons ← 1975 1977 →

The 1976 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1976 NCAA Division I football season.

Schedule[]

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result
September 11	4:20 p.m.	No. 9 Pittsburgh	No. 11	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (rivalry)	ABC	L 10–31
September 18	2:30 p.m.	Purdue		Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN (Shillelagh Trophy)		W 23–0
September 25	2:30 p.m.	at Northwestern		Dyche Stadium Evanston, IL (rivalry)		W 48–0
October 2	1:30 p.m.	at Michigan State	No. 18	Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI (Megaphone Trophy)		W 24–6
October 16	2:30 p.m.	Oregon	No. 14	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN		W 41–0
October 23	1:10 p.m.	at No. 19 South Carolina	No. 12	Williams-Brice Stadium Columbia, SC		W 13–6
October 30	1:00 p.m.	vs. Navy	No. 11	Cleveland Municipal Stadium Cleveland, OH (rivalry)		W 27–21
November 6	1:30 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	No. 11	Grant Field Atlanta, GA		L 14–23
November 13	12:50 p.m.	No. 10 Alabama	No. 18	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN	ABC	W 21–18
November 20	1:30 p.m.	Miami (FL)	No. 13	Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, IN		W 40–27
November 27	4:00 p.m.	at No. 3 USC	No. 13	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Los Angeles, CA (Jeweled Shillelagh)	ABC	L 13–17
December 27	9:00 p.m.	vs. No. 20 Penn State	No. 15	Gator Bowl Jacksonville, FL (Gator Bowl)	ABC	W 20–9
Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Eastern time

1976 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
TE	`83`	Buth, DougDoug Buth	7.0 !Sr
TE	`87`	Driscoll, JohnJohn Driscoll	5.0 !Jr
RB	`40`	Eurick, TerryTerry Eurick	5.0 !Jr
WR	`82`	Haines, KrisKris Haines	3.0 !So
RB	`30`	Heavens, JeromeJerome Heavens	3.0 !So
RB	`25`	Hunter, AlAl Hunter	5.0 !Jr
T	`62`	Huffman, DaveDave Huffman	3.0 !So
G	`65`	Hughes, ErnieErnie Hughes	5.0 !Jr
WR	`80`	Kelleher, DanDan Kelleher	7.0 !Sr
RB	`21`	Knott, DanDan Knott	5.0 !Jr
TE	`81`	MacAfee, KenKen MacAfee	5.0 !Jr
T	`71`	McDaniels, SteveSteve McDaniels	5.0 !Jr
G	`60`	Meyer, HowardHoward Meyer	3.0 !So
QB	`3`	Montana, JoeJoe Montana	3.0 !So
G	`57`	Moore, EltonElton Moore	7.0 !Sr
RB	`14`	Orsini, SteveSteve Orsini	5.0 !Jr
T	`50`	Tull, BobBob Tull	5.0 !Jr

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
SS	`20`	Bradley, LutherLuther Bradley	5.0 !Jr
SS	`33`	Browner, JimJim Browner	3.0 !So
DE	`89`	Browner, RossRoss Browner	5.0 !Jr
SS	`28`	Christensen, RossRoss Christensen	5.0 !Jr
LB	`24`	DeCicco, NickNick DeCicco	5.0 !Jr
DT	`72`	Dike, KenKen Dike	5.0 !Jr
FS	`41`	Dubenetzky, JohnJohn Dubenetzky	7.0 !Sr
LB	`42`	Eastman, TomTom Eastman	7.0 !Sr
DE	`94`	Fry, WillieWillie Fry	5.0 !Jr
LB	`55`	Golic, BobBob Golic	3.0 !So
FS	`10`	Harrison, RandyRandy Harrison	5.0 !Jr
LB	`58`	Heimkreiter, SteveSteve Heimkreiter	3.0 !So
LB	`51`	Johnson, PetePete Johnson	5.0 !Jr
LB	`54`	Russell, MarvMarv Russell	7.0 !Sr
DT	`74`	Weston, JeffJeff Weston	5.0 !Jr

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class
P/QB	`7`	Restic, JoeJoe Restic	3.0 !So

Overall record	Last meeting	Result
33–7–2	1975	W 31–7

by Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
• Notre Dame	3	21	0	3	27
Navy	0	14	0	7	21

This College football 1970s season article is a stub. You can help The American Football Database by expanding it.

v · d · e	Conf			Overall
1976 NCAA Division I Independents football records
Team	W	L	T	W		L		T
No. 1 Pittsburgh		–		12	–	0	–	0
No. 17 Rutgers		–		11	–	0	–	0
San Diego State		–		10	–	1	–	0
No. 12 Notre Dame		–		9	–	3	–	0
Colgate		–		8	–	2	–	0
Boston College		–		8	–	3	–	0
Cincinnati		–		8	–	3	–	0
Memphis State		–		7	–	4	–	0
North Texas State		–		7	–	4	–	0
Penn State		–		7	–	5	–	0
Villanova		–		6	–	4	–	1
South Carolina		–		6	–	5	–	0
Virginia Tech		–		6	–	5	–	0
Army		–		5	–	6	–	0
Florida State		–		5	–	6	–	0
Illinois State		–		5	–	6	–	0
Richmond		–		5	–	6	–	0
West Virginia		–		5	–	6	–	0
Georgia Tech		–		4	–	6	–	1
Temple		–		4	–	6	–	0
Air Force		–		4	–	7	–	0
Dayton		–		4	–	7	–	0
Louisville		–		4	–	7	–	0
Navy		–		4	–	7	–	0
Indiana State		–		3	–	7	–	0
Hawaii		–		3	–	8	–	0
Holy Cross		–		3	–	8	–	0
Miami (FL)		–		3	–	8	–	0
Syracuse		–		3	–	8	–	0
Utah State		–		3	–	8	–	0
Northeast Louisiana		–		2	–	9	–	0
Southern Miss		–		2	–	9	–	0
Tulane		–		2	–	9	–	0

Rankings from AP Poll