Irish Hoping to Stop Bowl Skid at 8

Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn practices in the Superdome in New Orleans Friday, Dec. 29, 2006. Notre Dame faces Louisiana State in the Sugar Bowl January 3rd. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon - AP)

NEW ORLEANS -- Knute Rockne. Touchdown Jesus. Eight national championships. Win one for the Gipper. All part of the Notre Dame lore. Then there's something that seems a bit out of place under the Golden Dome: Eight straight bowl losses, tied with South Carolina and West Virginia for the longest postseason skid in NCAA history.

Without an upset of No. 4 LSU in Wednesday night's Sugar Bowl _ and the Tigers are a 9 1/2-point favorite in what is a de facto home game _ the Fighting Irish will have a most unwanted record all to themselves.

Too bad they don't have the Gipper for this one.

"We know the history. We know the facts," offensive tackle Ryan Harris said Sunday. "We just don't want to lose another one."

Notre Dame (10-2) used to be one of the nation's best postseason teams, winning 13 of its first 19 bowl appearances. But things started going downhill after a 24-21 victory over Texas A&M in the 1994 Cotton Bowl.

The following season, the Irish accepted an undeserved Fiesta Bowl invitation on the heels of a mediocre 6-4-1 season. Not surprisingly, they were hammered 41-24 by a superior Colorado team that finished No. 3 in the rankings.

They also seemed to fall under some sort of bowl curse, as if they were being punished for a trip they didn't deserve. College football's most famous program lost the next one. And the next one. And the ... well, you get the picture.

It's not like the Irish have lost a bunch of heartbreakers, either. Most of them haven't been close, with six of the eight defeats by double-figure margins.

There was a 27-9 loss to LSU in the 1997 Independence Bowl, a 41-9 blowout by Oregon State in the 2001 Fiesta, a 28-6 setback to North Carolina State in the 2003 Gator, and another hammering by Oregon State, this one 38-21 at the 2004 Insight (adding to the humiliation of being sent to the Phoenix area's backup bowl, played in a baseball stadium).

Last season, the Irish kept things going by giving up a school-record 617 yards in a 34-20 loss to Ohio State at the Fiesta Bowl.

It doesn't really matter who's on the sideline. Lou Holtz lost his final two bowls at Notre Dame. Bob Davie went 0-3. Tyrone Willingham lost two straight. Charlie Weis turned things around during the 2005 regular season, but his first bowl followed the usual pattern.

"We've heard about it pretty much every single day," star safety Tom Zbikowski moaned. "We're tired of talking about it."