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Notre Dame Fighting Irish |
Alabama Crimson Tide © |
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Played October 4, 1986 at Legion Field Birmingham, Alabama |
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Teams' Belt Records
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Team |
Belt Reigns |
Overall Record |
Home Record |
Away Record |
Neutral Record |
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W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
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| Notre Dame | 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | .667 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .500 | 5 | 2 | 0 | .714 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Alabama © | 2 | 15 | 3 | 0 | .833 | 7 | 2 | 0 | .778 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .750 |
Previous Belt Meetings
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Sugar Bowl |
Notre Dame © |
24 |
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Alabama |
23 |
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1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
Final |
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|
Notre Dame |
0 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
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Alabama |
7 |
14 |
7 |
0 |
28 |
First-year coach Lou Holtz brought his 1-2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish to Birmingham to meet the 2nd ranked, 4-0 Alabama Crimson Tide of coach Ray Perkins. Alabama had lost all four of their previous games to Notre Dame including one Belt match-up but this Irish team, while talented, lacked discipline during the Gerry Faust era & Holtz was still restoring that when this match-up with the Crimson Tide occurred. Alabama's QB Mike Shula threw 3 touchdown passes to lead the Crimson Tide to a 28-10 victory over Notre Dame. Alabama got the scoring going early when WR Greg Richardson took a Notre Dame punt & returned it 66 yards for a touchdown giving the Crimson Tide a 7-0 lead. Early in the 2nd quarter, Shula found WR Al Bell open for a 52-yard touchdown pass pushing the Alabama lead to 14-0. Notre Dame got a break when Shula fumbled at the Alabama 11-yard line late in the quarter & Irish QB Steve Beuerlein hit WR Tim Brown for an 8-yard touchdown pass. Alabama came right back with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Shula to TE Howard Cross for a 21-7 lead. Notre Dame got the final points of the 1st half when PK John Carney hit a 22-yard field goal on the last play of the half but the Irish still trailed 21-10 at the intermission. Both defense settled in for the 2nd half with the only points coming in the 3rd quarter when Shula connected with Bell for a 22-yard touchdown pass. Shula finished with 191 yards passing with 3 touchdowns but an interception while Bell had 5 catches for 99 yards with his 2 touchdowns. One of the sacks delivered by Alabama's All-American LB Cornelius Bennett on Beuerlein is memorialize in a painting favored by Crimson Tide's fans. Beuerlein threw for 66 yards with a touchdown but an interception & back-up QB Terry Andrysiak threw for 90 yards with an interception in the loss. Alabama finished the season 10-3; ranked 9th nationally while the Fighting Irish finished 5-6. Notre Dame would play for The Belt again in 6 weeks.
