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| September 21\, 2002 |
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| Luck of the Irish, or Business as Usual? |
| Notre Dame Survives, Thrives on a Michigan State Miracle |
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By PAUL SMITH
paulnova70@yahoo.com |
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PORTER, Ind. - This is how nutty this Notre Dame thing is getting. In Sunday's edition of the Chicago Sun-Times, resident wizeguy Jay Mariotti maybe spoke for a football nation when as he sat in the Spartan Stadium press box in East Lansing, he led his column on Notre Dame's beyond-outrageous 21-17 victory over Michigan State thusly...
"Who's choreographing this stuff? The pope?"
Something there is about this massively-chronicled university and its football program that continues to push all living imaginations to Alice-in-Wonderland/Wizard-of-Oz/Going-My-Way fantasyland and beyond.
The starting Fighting Irish quarterback - Carlyle Holiday - goes down. And thisquickly, the long dormant host team wakes up a raucous crowd of 75,182 with two spectacular Jeff Smoker strikes to one of the best receivers in the past several years, Charles Rogers - touchdowns of 38 and 21 yards to wipe out a 14-3 deficit. The second of these was a highlight reel grab in the back of the end zone on a fourth-and-six desperation Smoker heave under heavy Irish pressure.
With one minute, 45 seconds left. The ghost of former Spartan Herb Haygood turning a short slant pass into a 68-yard last two-minute game-winner last fall had to be looming large on the Irish sidelines, no?
Nah. If ever there were any remaining doubts that this was Tyrone Willingham's team, the events of the next half-minute erased them forever.
"We'll use whatever comes our way to our advantage," Willingham told Chicago Tribune Irish beat reporter Avani Patel. "We'll take it and make lemonade out of it."
So the Irish's fate was left in the hands of a little used second stringer named.... Pat, of course. Patrick Dillingham. If the name doesn't sound familiar, join a massive sea of Domers who said "Pat Who?"
So, natch, with nearly 95% of the crowd screaming discouragements from every nook and cranny of one of college football's toughest arenas, the kid comes in, and after one futile series which was followed by the Spartans' go-ahead drive, the 6-1 Willingham executed one of the West Coast offense's prime plays - a sideline hook and go - to Arnaz Battle.
It was a classic four-yarder designed to gain maybe a few extra as the right cornerback, Broderick Nelson, would come up to combine with a helping linebacker and keep the damage to a relatively-minimal 7-8 yards. With the Irish out of timeouts, the sense of security filled the Michigan State defense.
But when Nelson collided with opposite side linebacker Monquez Wedlow, suddenly Battle was alone with his thoughts. For all Battle cared, Rogers was Fred Rogers. This was his neighborhood now. Who was choreographing this, indeed? Knute? Gipper? Leahy? Definitely not Joe Kuharic, a good and decent man who unfortunately was the only multi-year losing coach in Irish history.
"I wasn't thinking about (Rogers' seeming back-breaker)," Battle told Jackson. "but then towards the end of the game, guys mentioned that they had beat us with a slant the last couple of years."
Irish cornerback Shane Walton, who had primary Rogers duty and performed brilliantly against the Spartans' All-American for three quarters before he finally broke lose, told Patel, "He's my roommate and I told him it's time to step up. And that's what he did."
So here we had a seldom-used backup QB hooking up with a former QB and beating their tormentors with their own favorite play.
And to think there are still some folks walking around who think Notre Dame players actually put their uniforms, padding, helmets and cleats on the same way as everybody else!
Nine years and two purveyors of the Irish heritage ago - Louis Leo Holtz was asked if the Good Lord would have anything to say about the outcome of his then No. 2 and unbeaten Fighting Irish's upcoming game against No. 1 unbeaten Florida State in South Band.
"God may not care," he told the weekly press gathering at the Monogram Club, "but His Mother does."
A rudimentary knowledge of French takes over from there, for of course, the university name means "Our Lady". And of course, the Irish knocked off the heathen hessians from the south 31-24 before the Big Guy tossed Holtz and friends the big curveball and the only other Catholic school playing I-A football came in the following Saturday and scrawled graffiti over the pages of this "Wake Up the Echoes" chapter. Boston College 41, Notre Dame 39.
And Irish eyes had smiled seldom since.
Until late Saturday afternoon. The echoes of Michigan coach Lloyd Carr's obligatory whine about the officials' non-call on Carlyle Holiday's touchdown run in a 25-23 Irish victory where he fumbled at the goal line had not fully died down.
So, despite the fact Notre Dame was 3-0 for the first time since Holtz coached under the Dome in 1996, the Irish faced their most formidable assignment among three straight Big Ten opponents. And plenty of questions as to the authenticity of their No. 12 ranking in the AP and USA Today polls.
But when Notre Dame's 21-17 road upset - and yes, gang, it was an upset because Michigan State was favored by 2 1/2 by the seculars in Las Vegas - was done, one Irish player could only surmise at least most of the bad karma of the troubled last years of the Bob Davie era was behind his team.
"To see things go our way instead of theirs is just a sign of the way things are going this season."
The speaker was starting quarterback Carlyle Holiday. And he had suffered a possible left shoulder separation in the third quarter!
Talking to Sun-Times Notre Dame beat reporter John Jackson, Holiday smiled through the pain. The Irish could afford to. At 4-0, they've climbed to No. 10 in the coaches' poll, the first time they've achieved such lofty status since Nov. 21, 1998.
Willingham - and yes, he becomes part of this week's Notre Dame storyline, too, because Michigan State is his alma mater and he was a Spartans assistant in 1978 as a grad and in 1980-82 as secondary coach - may have been the levelest head on the field.
"If we win every game like this, it's going to cause a lot of heartbreak," Willingham told Chicago Tribune college guru Andrew Bagnato, smiling. "The fact of the matter is I'll take 13 like this."
You learn in Catholic school that the Good Lord often spoke in parables. Draw your own conclusions here - within reason.
The fact the Irish entered Saturday's game with a five-game losing streak to M.S.U., in three cases converting victories into late fourth quarter losses in the process simply got washed into the Red Cedar River by sundown.
Still, unless you were on board the trawler looking for clues in the disappearance of Bison Dele, you joined the uninitiated, knowing this for all the world looked like yet another sordid chapter of Notre Dame's recent lucklessness against the Spartans.
The 14-3 lead resulted from just enough offense on a first-quarter Ryan Grant 6-yard touchdown run and freshman bluechip Maurice Stovall's 38-yard scoring reception from Holiday wrapped around a Dave Rayner field goal.
Yet another powerful performance by an Irish defense, led by Walton and fellow corner Vontez Duff, linebacker Courtney Watson and down linemen Darrell Campbell, Justin Tuck and Ryan Roberts frustrated Michigan State's fringe Heisman hopeful Smoker, the Manheim, Pa., kid who somehow slipped out of Penn State Blue and wound up wearing Spartan Green.
But any Notre Dame 2002 tale wouldn't be fit for telling if it didn't have its outrageous twists and turns. Beating Purdue essentially without any offensive input. Beating Michigan after falling behind with a spectacular long fourth-quarter drive.
And now this. With two weeks to prepare for up-and-down Stanford, followed by unpredictable Pitt - both at home - the Irish could be 6-0 going into their visit to Air Force.
And you thought the odds were pretty steep for a 3-0 start?
But then, this is Notre Dame. Which was the point of this whole crazy recap to begin with! |
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Paul Smith is the midwest correspondent for collegeBLITZ.com
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