For the first time in 17 years, Notre Dame and Penn State are set to face off on a football field. This time, there's a lot on the line, as the 7-seed Fighting Irish will play the 6-seed Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl, with a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship on the line.
Two of college football's most storied programs, battling it out on one of the biggest stages for an opportunity to capture the most illustrious prize in the sport: it doesn't get bigger than that.
Adding to the excitement is the deep history between Notre Dame and Penn State, even if more modern college football fans aren't as steeped in the tradition. There's plenty of excitement and buzz between the two fanbases, which share plenty of cultural and geographical crossover.
In the 1980s, the Nittany Lions and the Fighting Irish played every year. And it was a hotly contested rivalry -- the all-time series is split at an even 9-9-1. Neither team has won more than three in a row in the series since 1976.
Ahead of such an anticipated clash, it felt appropriate to dive into the history between Notre Dame and Penn State.
The start
Penn State and Notre Dame first met on the gridiron in 1913, when Fighting Irish coach Jesse Harper -- who also coached basketball and baseball -- led his team to a 14-7 win against Bill Hollenback and the Nittany Lions. Notre Dame, captained by a young man named Knute Rockne (more on him later), finished the 1913 season 7-0 with other impressive wins against Texas and Army.
It took 13 years for Notre Dame and Penn State to play again. This time Rockne was in his ninth year coaching the Irish. Notre Dame won its third straight game to open the season by downing Penn State, led by Hugo Bezdek (who was also the baseball coach and athletic director), 28-0 in State College in 1926.
Two years later Rockne and Bezdek met once more in Philadelphia. Notre Dame improved to 3-0 against the Nittany Lions with a 9-0 victory.
Playing annually
That was that for almost 50 years until the 1976 Gator Bowl saw No. 15 Notre Dame secure a 20-9 victory against No. 20 Penn State in the Irish's first non-January bowl in program history. That was a cornerstone win for then second-year coach Dan Devine, a former College Football Hall of Famer and national championship winner with Notre Dame in 1977.
As two independent institutions with relatively close proximity and storied histories, Notre Dame and Penn State finally scheduled an annual series with alternating home-and-home bouts starting in 1981. It was also in that 1981 season that Penn State scored its first victory against the Irish, as coach Joe Paterno led PSU to a thrilling 24-21 victory.
That annual series, from 1981-92, was, largely, a decade of dominance for Penn State. The Nittany Lions won eight games in that span and accrued two separate three-game winning streaks. Paterno was there for all of it, boasting an impressive 6-1 record from 1981-87.
Legendary Irish coach Lou Holtz went 0-2 against Penn State in his first two years at Notre Dame. It all changed in 1988, when Notre Dame entered its late-season showdown against the Nittany Lions with a 9-0 record and national title aspirations. The Fighting Irish continued that march by beating Penn State 21-3 inside Notre Dame Stadium. Notre Dame finished the year by beating No. 3 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl and claimed its first consensus national championship in 11 years.
Notre Dame got another win against Penn State in 1989, marking the program's win streak against the Nittany Lions since 1976, and entered the 1990 season as heavy favorites to claim another national title. Even after an early season loss to Stanford, Holtz's team climbed all the way back to No. 1 ahead of Nov. 17's showdown against Penn State.
But, in front of a packed Notre Dame Stadium, Penn State tight end Al Golden -- the same Al Golden that currently serves as Notre Dame's defensive coordinator -- caught a touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter that tied the game 21-21. An interception from Penn State Darren Perry gave the Nittany Lions possession with less than two minutes to play. They eventually kicked a game-winning field goal to finish the stunning upset.
The annual series ended in 1992's "Snow Bowl," when Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer completed a last-second touchdown to Jerome Bettis, and then converted on a 2-point attempt, in the driving snow to hand the No. 8 Irish a win against No. 22 Penn State. Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1993 -- ending its long run as an independent -- and Notre Dame was removed as a fixture on the schedule.
A brief revival
In 2002, Notre Dame and Penn State announced that they had scheduled a new home-and-home series for 2006-07. The first game, played in South Bend on Sept. 9, 2006, gave second-year Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis a cornerstone 41-17 win against No. 17 Penn State, which was still under the guidance of Paterno.
Penn State got its revenge at home in 2007. Running back Austin Scott rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries while Penn State's defense held Notre Dame, led by quarterback Jimmy Clausen, to just 144 total yards of offense. That included a net zero yards rushing.
That was that. As of now, the two sides have no future scheduled meetings outside of the postseason, though Notre Dame did recently announce it would be reviving rivalries against Big Ten foes Michigan and Michigan State in the future.