2007 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team
| 2007 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football | |
|---|---|
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| Conference | Independent |
| 2007 record | 3–9 |
| Head coach | Charlie Weis (3rd year) |
| Offensive coordinator | Michael Haywood (3rd year) |
| Offensive scheme | Pro-style |
| Defensive coordinator | Corwin Brown (1st year) |
| Base defense | 3–4 |
| Captain | John Carlson |
| Captain | Maurice Crum Jr |
| Captain | Travis Thomas |
| Captain | Tom Zbikowski |
| Home stadium | Notre Dame Stadium (c. 80,795, grass) |
| 2007 Division I FBS independents football records | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Conf | Overall | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | W | L | W | L | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Navy | – | 8 | – | 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Army | – | 3 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notre Dame | – | 3 | – | 9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rankings from AP Poll | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2007 Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team represented the University of Notre Dame in the 2007 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by Charlie Weis and played its home games at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. For the first time in school history, Notre Dame opened the season with five losses (Notre Dame's worst opening prior to 2007 was 0–3). Their nine-loss season was also a school record.
With the end of the 2006 season, two assistant coaches' contracts came up and were not renewed by the Irish. Rick Minter, the defensive coordinator who had been with the Irish since the 2005 season, was replaced by Corwin Brown, and Peter Vaas, the quarterback coach who had also been with the Irish since 2005 after David Cutcliffe left the position, was replaced by former Irish quarterback, Ron Powlus. Both Powlus and Brown played college football and had time playing in the NFL. Brown was previously an assistant coach for the New York Jets and Powlus had been Notre Dame's director of personnel development since 2005.
The Irish lost a number of players to graduation and the NFL. Former consensus All-American, and two-year starting wide receiver, Jeff Samardzija, was signed by Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs as a pitcher, while twelve others were signed onto NFL teams. Former offensive starters Brady Quinn, Ryan Harris, and Dan Santucci and defensive starters Victor Abiamiri, Derek Landri, Mike Richardson, and Chinedum Ndukwe were taken in the 2007 NFL Draft, while five others, Marcus Freeman, Chris Frome, Travis Leitko, Rhema McKnight, and Darius Walker, signed contracts with NFL teams. The team returns three starters on offense and five on defense. Despite the number of high-profile losses, Weis refused to call it a "rebuilding year," citing a number of fifth-year seniors that he owes to try to win.
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