List of Notre Dame Fighting Irish head football coaches explained

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program is the college football team of the University of Notre Dame, located in South Bend, Indiana. The team competes as an Independent at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Notre Dame has produced more All-Americans than any other Football Bowl Subdivision school. Additionally, seven Fighting Irish football players have won the Heisman Trophy. Notre Dame is one of only two Catholic universities that field a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the other being Boston College, and one of a handful of programs independent of a football conference. The team plays its home games on Notre Dame's campus at Notre Dame Stadium, also known as the "House that Rockne Built", which has a capacity of 80,795.

Key

	Number of coaches^[1]
GC	Games Coached
W	Wins
L	Loses
T	Ties
W–L %	Win–loss percentage

Coaches

Tenure Coach Years Record Pct. National titles (consensus & shared)^[2] 0 1887–89, 92–93 None 5 7–4–1 .625 1 1894 1 3–1–1 .700 2 1895 1 3–1–0 .750 3 1896–98 3 12–6–1 .658 4 1899 1 6–3–1 .650 5 1900–01 2 14–4–2 .750 6 1902–03 2 14–2–2 .843 7 1904 1 5–3–0 .625 8 1905 1 5–4–0 .556 9 1906–07 2 12–1–1 .893 10 1908 1 8–1–0 .889 11 1909–10 2 11–1–2 .857 12 1911–12 2 13–0–2 .933 13 1913–17 5 34–5–1 .863 14 1918–30 13 105–12–5 .881 1924, 1929, 1930 15 1931–33 3 16–9–2 .630 16 1934–40 7 47–13–3 .770 17 1941–43, 46–53 11 87–11–9 .855 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949 18 1944 1 8–2–0 .800 19 1945, 63 2 9–9–1 .500 20 1954–58 5 32–18–0 .640 21 1959–62 4 17–23–0 .425 22 1964–74 11 95–17–4 .836 1966, 1973 23 1975–80 6 53–16–1 .764 1977 24 1981–85 5 30–26–1 .535 25 1986–96 11 100–30–2 .765 1988 26 1997–2001 5 35–25 .583 2001* 0 0–0 .000 27 2002–2004 3 21–15 .583 Interim 2004** 1 0–1 .000 28 2005–2009 5 35–27 .565 29 2010–2021 12 113***–40 30 2021–present 3 19-8 .704 Totals 31 coaches 133 seasons 920–330–42 George O'Leary did not coach a single practice or game, being fired five days after being hired; he had misrepresented his academic credentials. Kent Baer served as interim head coach for one game at the 2004 Insight Bowl, after Tyrone Willingham was fired. Does not account for vacated wins.

Notes and References

1. A running total of the number of coaches of the Fighting Irish.
2. Web site: 2016 Media Guide Notre Dame Football. University of Notre Dame. August 13, 2017.