page_title: Michigan–Notre Dame football rivalry
section_title: 1902: Notre Dame slows Yost's "Point-a-Minute" team
hierarchical_section_title: Michigan–Notre Dame football rivalry / Origins and early years / 1902: Notre Dame slows Yost's "Point-a-Minute" team
caption_attribution_description: Coach, Fielding H. Yost, University of Michigan football sitting in profile, light colored backdrop
context_page_description: The Michigan–Notre Dame football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Michigan Wolverines and Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
  Michigan football and Notre Dame football are considered to be among the most elite college programs. Michigan ranks #1 in all-time win percentage and all-time wins, while Notre Dame ranks #4 in all-time win percentage and #6 in all-time wins. The rivalry is heightened by the two schools' competition for all-time win percentage, which each has held during their history, as well as national championships, with each school claiming 11 titles while the NCAA recognizes 13 Notre Dame titles and 9 Michigan titles. Moreover, both schools are renowned for their Heisman Trophy winners, consensus All-Americans, College Football Hall of Fame members, and NFL draft picks.
  Michigan is a member of the Big Ten Conference while Notre Dame football is independent. In 2013, Notre Dame joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports except football and hockey, though the football team has played five ACC opponents each season since 2014.
context_section_description: Fielding H. Yost took over as Michigan's coach in 1901. From 1901 to 1905, his "Point-a-Minute" squads (so named because they averaged a point for each minute of play) went 55–1–1, outscoring their opponents by a margin of 2,821 to 42. Michigan played Notre Dame only once during the "Point-a-Minute" year, on October 18, 1902, at a neutral site in Toledo, Ohio. The game was played on a slippery white clay field at Toledo's Armory Park following a night of rain. Michigan had been heavily favored to win, and betting on the game was 2 to 1 that Notre Dame would not score. Though favored to run up a high score, Michigan scored only one touchdown and led 5–0 at the end of the first half. While Michigan won the game 23–0, Notre Dame had slowed the "Point-a-Minute" offense that had scored 315 points (almost 80 points a game) in the first four games of the 1902 season. Michigan tackle Joe Maddock was the leading scorer in the game with 15 points on three touchdowns.
  Although Notre Dame did not score on Michigan, its captain, Louis J. Salmon, demonstrated why he had earned "the reputation of being the hardest line bucker in the west." On one drive, Salmon took the ball to the Michigan 43-yard line in two attempts. After Notre Dame reached Michigan's 20-yard line, "Salmon went at it in the most vicious and determined manner to score. He took the ball eight times in succession but was finally held for downs on the 5-yard line." In the second half, Michigan's running game wore down the Notre Dame defense. Michigan scored three touchdowns in the second half, and Notre Dame did not move into Michigan territory. Michigan end Curtis Redden was ejected after an altercation with Lonnegan of Notre Dame, though Redden claimed Lonnegan had been the instigator. After the game, Yost said, "I am satisfied. The score is just about what I though it would be after I had taken a look at the field."
caption: Fielding H. Yost in 1902
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