On Saturday, Charlie Weis accomplished a historic feat that very few coaches in the 122 year history of football at the University of Notre Dame have attained. Even the "three stooges," Gerry Faust, Bob Davie, and Tyrone Willingham, in all their glorious ineptitude, never once lost to the Midshipmen of Navy, going 13-0 in the annual series.
From 1962 to 2007 the Irish never lost a single game to Navy, stringing together the longest wining streak by one team against a single opponent in college football history. In the long lineage of the rivalry, only Elmer Layden, Terry Brennan, Joe Kuharich, and now Charlie Weis have ever lost to Navy twice in their careers. And it may be worth noting, no coach has lost to Navy thrice.
Elmer Layden — a former member of Knute Rockne's vaunted Four-Horseman — succeeded his mentor after a plane crash prematurely ended Rockne's career and his life. Layden has long been considered the greatest Irish coach never to win a national championship, going 47-13-3 as head coach/athletic director, and furthering Notre Dame's growth in the national mindset of the sport. Layden dropped games to one very good (8-1) and one solid (6-3) Navy team in 1934 and 1936 respectively.
Terry Brennan (32-18), still the youngest coach in the history of the school, was also hired to succeed his own mentor, Frank Leahy, at only 25 years of age. His two losses to Navy occurred back to back, in 1956 and 1957. Although Brennan's Irish team was horrible in 56 and only mediocre in 57, both Navy teams that he lost to were one loss squads.
Joe Kuharich (17-23) may be the closest comparison to Weis of the bunch. After a time as a head coach of the Chicago Cardinals (1952) and Washington Redskins (1954-1958, 1955 Coach of the Year), Kuharich took the post at Notre Dame and immediately attempted to implement a complicated, pro-style system that the team was never able to fully execute. Statistically the worst coach in Notre Dame history — possessing the only losing all time record — his losses to Navy ( in 1960 and 1961) also came against solid squads, with the 1960 team going to the Orange Bowl (losing to Missouri). In retrospect, the biggest knock against Kuharirch was his inability to adjust to the simplicity of the college game. Many feel that was the main culprit behind his creation off and oversight over the darkest period in Fighting Irish football history.
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