Elmer Layden

Head coach, Notre Dame, 1936 to 1940

Now

Career arc

Stats

Big games

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

2-2 against his rivals. Nobody he faced three or more times has a winning record against him.

Rivalry record

2-2-1

40.0% · 1 rival

One-score games

21-5-2

75.0% · margin ≤8

Against Blue Bloods or better

2-1

66.7%

Rivalry ledger

USC2-2-140%

Closest series

vs. Howard Jones2-2-1

5 meetings, 1936–1940

’36 T’37 W’38 L’39 L’40 W

Performance by opponent class

Blue Blood

2-1 66.7%

Power Program

6-4 60.0%

National Program

22-2 91.7%

Regional Program

3-2 60.0%

Building the roster

Two numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.

1Roster ownership
2The NFL pipeline

Roster ownership

This coach's entire tenure (1936-1940) predates 2021, when transfer-portal tracking begins in this database. Portal usage cannot be measured for this tenure at all -- this is not the same as '0% portal'.

“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.

The NFL pipeline

at least2Drafted

players drafted into the NFL off his teams here (a floor — see the note below). None can be traced to who brought them in — there’s no roster record for these players here.

At least 2 — his 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940 seasons predate the modern 7-round draft, so this table’s pre-1994 pick counts are a floor, not a full count, for those seasons.

0 roster-verified · 2 estimated

Most recent picks first

Year	Pick	Player	Pos	NFL team	Note
1939	R6.42				Estimated
1938	R5.33				Estimated

A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.