2003 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
| 2003 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football | |
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| Conference | Independent |
| 2003 record | 5–7 |
| Head coach | Tyrone Willingham (2nd year) |
| Offensive coordinator | Bill Diedrick |
| Offensive scheme | West Coast |
| Defensive coordinator | Kent Baer |
| Base defense | 4–3 |
| Captain | Darrell Campbell |
| Captain | Vontez Duff |
| Captain | Omar Jenkins |
| Captain | Jim Molinaro |
| Home stadium | Notre Dame Stadium (c. 80,795, grass) |
| 2003 Division I-A independents football records | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Connecticut | – | 9 | – | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Navy | – | 8 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Troy | – | 6 | – | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notre Dame | – | 5 | – | 7 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rankings from AP Poll | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Scoring summary | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
7:52
|
WSU | Sammy Moore 15-yard pass from Matt Kegel (kick failed) | Wash St 6–0 |
| 1 |
4:56
|
WSU | Drew Dunning 20-yard field goal | Wash St 9–0 |
| 1 |
:31
|
WSU | Drew Dunning 29-yard field goal | Wash St 12–0 |
| 2 |
2:37
|
WSU | Isaac Brown 12-yard fumble return (Drew Dunning kick) | Wash St 19–0 |
| 2 |
:10
|
ND | Nick Setta 37-yard field goal | Wash St 19–3 |
| 3 |
10:10
|
ND | Nick Setta 32-yard field goal | Wash St 19–6 |
| 4 |
12:09
|
ND | Nick Setta 39-yard field goal | Wash St 19–9 |
| 4 |
10:32
|
ND | Rhema McKnight 11-yard pass from Carlyle Holiday (Nick Setta kick) | Wash St 19–16 |
| 4 |
5:03
|
ND | Julius Jones 19-yard run (Nick Setta kick) | Notre Dame 23–19 |
| 4 |
3:03
|
ND | Nick Setta 47-yard field goal | Notre Dame 26–19 |
| 4 |
:53
|
WSU | Sammy Moore 34-yard pass from Matt Kegel (Drew Dunning kick) | Tie 26–26 |
| OT | ND | Nick Setta 40-yard field goal | Notre Dame 29–26 | |
The 2003 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 2003 NCAA Division I-A football season. The team was coached by Tyrone Willingham and played its home games at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. The Irish finished the season at 5–7 and failed to become bowl eligible. The season was punctuated by a pair of three-game losing streaks and ugly blowout losses against Michigan, USC and Florida State.
The 2003 season began with the Irish losing a number of key players to graduation, including Arnaz Battle and center Jeff Faine. They were boosted, however, by the return of running back, Julius Jones, who was reinstated to the team after a year of academic ineligibility. In Willingham's first full year of recruiting, he signed a top-5 class. Of the 20 recruits signed (including freshman quarterback Randy Moulder and running back Travis Thomas), 12 were four-star recruits (high school recruits are rated on a star scale, with one star indicating a low-quality recruit and five stars indicating the highest-quality recruit). These new recruits included future stars Victor Abiamiri, Chinedum Ndukwe, Brady Quinn, Jeff Samardzija,and Tom Zbikowski
The Irish began their season ranked 19th and facing the hardest schedule in the nation. They opened against the Washington State Cougars, playing the team for the first time in the history of the program. The Irish came back from being down by 19 points to win in overtime, but Carlyle Holiday struggled as quarterback. In the next game against rival Michigan, the Wolverines avenged their 2002 loss by beating the Irish by a score of 38–0 in the first shutout in the series in 100 years and the largest margin of victory ever between the two teams. After another loss to Michigan State, many Irish fans were calling for Holiday to be taken out of the game in favor of freshman Brady Quinn, who saw his first collegiate action in the fourth quarter of the Michigan rout. Holiday was replaced as starter for the next game against Purdue.
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