No team had ever won college football’s national championship with two losses. The 2007 LSU football team became the first, surviving a chaotic and crazy season and a pair of triple-overtime losses to become the first, thanks to some come-from-behind mojo and dominance of the running game on both sides of the ball.
The first two years of the Charlie Weis era at Notre Dame had been promising, with major bowl trips in 2005 and 2006, even if the latter year ended on a dour note. There was still a belief the Irish were going to get better, as Weis’ highly ranked recruiting classes began to take on more prominent roles. Those hopes crashed hard against reality. The 2007 Notre Dame football team had an awful 3-9 campaign. They were unranked to begin the season and never provided a reason for pollsters to rethink that.
This article offers a snapshot of 2007 sports, a year that saw a historic NFL season, one that included a perfect regular season for one team, and a magical postseason ride for another.