Texas Football: 12 biggest villains in Longhorns history

10. Notre Dame during the 1970’s

One of the more difficult all-time series for the Longhorns comes against the blue blood college football program known as the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The all-time series record between these two falls in favor of the Fighting Irish by a mark of 9-3-1. But Texas did come out on top in the last meeting between Texas and Notre Dame, in an overtime victory back in 2016.

That 2016 win for the Longhorns over Notre Dame was made memorable for one big reason, the call saying that “Texas is back folks” after the game was won in overtime.

While that was a really exciting game, there’s plenty of down moments that the Longhorns have in the series history against the Fighting Irish too. Texas had a five-game losing streak going prior in the series against Notre Dame, that lasted from 1971-2015.

The first triump for the Fighting Irish in that five-game winning streak was maybe the most costly to the Longhorns, back in 1971. Texas was dominating the competition on their way to facing Notre Dame in the 1971 Cotton Bowl, holding the No. 1 ranking in the major polls for most of the regular season.

But Notre Dame wasn’t going to take it easy on New Year’s Day 1971, to cap the 1970 season for former head coach Darrell Royal and the Longhorns. The undefeated Longhorns faced up against No. 6 Notre Dame in 1971 looking to claim another national title under that legendary head coach, but they fell short by a score of 24-11.

Fast forward to the 1977, and Jan. 2, 1978, and you get yet another role of Notre Dame playing spoiler. No. 1 Texas faced No. 5 Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl and would get thoroughly defeated by the final score of 38-10, missing out on another national title.