Jan. 5, 2008
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Members of the 2007 University of Notre Dame football team combined to post a semester grade-point average above 3.0 during the ’07 fall semester, marking the fifth straight semester (and the first five times in recorded history) that the Irish football team has topped the 3.0 GPA level as a group.
Fifty-one of the 94 players registered at least a 3.0 mark for the ’07 fall semester and 15 of 25 starters (including punter, placekicker and long snapper) earned at least a 3.0.
“I’m very pleased that our football team has earned this distinction for a fifth consecutive semester,” head coach Charlie Weis said. “We are truly committed at Notre Dame to what the priorities of a student-athlete should be. Excelling in the classroom and graduating in four years are just two examples of that. I’m very proud of our team and am appreciative of all the effort put forth by them and our academic services department.”
The Irish were led in the classroom and on the field by two second-team Academic All-Americans, tight end John Carlson and defensive lineman Trevor Laws. Both Carlson and Laws were enrolled in the graduate studies program at Notre Dame during the fall semester after earning their undergraduate degrees in four years and receiving their respective diplomas last May.
Statistics for the semester cumulative GPAs of the football team were not kept prior to 1992, but before Weis’ arrival in 2005, the previous best semester cumulative GPA was 2.911. Beginning with the ’05 fall semester, the Irish football team has recorded over a 3.0 combined GPA in each semester.
Weis’ first team in 2005 surpassed the 3.0 mark for the first time ever with a 3.044 combined GPA in the fall semester of ’05. At that time, that marked the highest figure ever attained by the football team. Then, the Notre Dame players followed that up with a combined and unprecedented 3.072 mark in the spring semester of ’06.
The fall semester of ’06 saw the Irish football team post a 3.041 cumulative GPA and 61 of the 104 players achieved at least a 3.0 during that semester. In the spring of `07, Irish players improved on that and recorded a 3.043 combined GPA.
The football team was also named co-recipient of the 2007 Academic Achievement Award from the American Football Coaches Association. The Irish shared the honor with Northwestern University after both schools graduated 95 percent of the freshman class that entered in 2001-02. Weis will accept the award in Anaheim, Calif. on Jan. 7, at the annual AFCA Convention.