Porter, Ind. — You knew the old adage -- "Don't believe the hype". But in Disney World, the hype's the thing ...
And so, if you had put the pre-teens to bed, told the wife not to wait up, you popped open a cold one, caved onto the sofa and awaited the loudly-trumpeted Notre Dame-Air Force game Saturday night.
"This," ESPN übertalker Lee Corso, truly one of the most entertaining voices on sports T.V., said, "will be the real test of how good the Irish are."
Uh, pretty good, it turns out. No. 6 Notre Dame (7-0) may fall short of the findings of the jaundiced Bowl Championship Series computers, which apparently will put it light years behind the esteemed Miami/Oklahoma/Virginia Tech troika in the "must hope one of them loses category"...but the Irish faced a record crowd of 56,000-plus and a fired-up Falcons team that was rated No. 18 and used a battering-ram ball control offense and sheer dominance at the line of scrimmage to win 21-14.
Good football, better theatre, a viewer's (and reporter's) nightmare because of the obscenely late starting time. Was the World Series game THAT much competition?
The compelling matchup was Air Force's wickedly-effective system of lower-body blocking vs. Fighting Irish size. But the size of this Irish dog won the fight in this game, which surprised some.
The week before, Brigham Young brought similar size (if not talent) and the Falcons sent the Stormin' Mormons home like scalded dogs, 52-9, finally raising the pollster's eyebrows (and blood pressure).
Air Force's natural home field (besides the thunderous home crowd) is the 6,621-foot altitude that usually wears down unsuspecting opponents by the third quarter.
But in rolling up 335 rushing yards, 194 by sophomore tailback Ryan Grant, the Irish overcame two fumbles that directly led to Falcons touchdowns that produced a 14-14 tie early in the third quarter.
It was the first legitimate offensive Irish offensive output this season, featuring Grant's runs between the tackles and punctuated by quarterback Carlyle Holiday, whose spectacular first quarter display of athleticism produced a 53-yard touchdown run.
That countered an earlier Holiday fumble that defensive end Jon Hicks forced after Holiday had gained six yards on a keeper. Marchello Graddy scooped up the loose ball and ran it 21 yards for the game's first score. Air Force's offense had barely been on the field.
But over and over, the Irish defense simply stifled the Falcons' 339-yards-per-game rushing attack.
"Our defense did an excellent job in one of the most difficult assignments," Irish coach Tyrone Willingham told Chicago Sun-Times Irish beat reporter John Jackson, "going from a passing team (Pitt) to an option team without the benefit of a week off in-between."
Never mind that as brilliant a college football mind as Air Force's Fisher DeBerry is, his teams are just 3-10 against Notre Dame. It was simply a matter of people like guards Sean Mahan and Sean Milligan and center Jeff Faine clearing the way and Grant and Holiday, primarily, rumbling through the game, but outnumbered Falcons defense.
"The line did a great job, and I just tried to find the creases and get to the open spaces," Grant told Jackson.
Would that it were that simple, of course. The three Irish turnovers -- a second key one coming when usually reliable and spectacular special teamer Vontez Duff fumbled the second half opening kickoff when hit by Kenny Smith and beleaguered Air Force quarterback Chance Harridge, who had scored 8 touchdowns in the previous two weeks, plunged over from the 1 to create a 14-14 tie.
But in compiling this enviable record, the Irish have shown an uncommon resiliency. The bouncebacks at Michigan State, against Michigan and Purdue after blowing leads in both games, had become something of a registered trademark.
And while the defense limited Air Force's offense to 161 total yards, 104 rushing -- less than one-third its six-game average -- the Irish offense was resourceful and, finally, error-free enough to produce a 58-yard drive that was climaxed by Holiday's one-yard plunge that combined with the third of Nicholas Setta's three conversions to give the Irish a 21-14 lead.
With over six minutes left in the third quarter, who'd have thought that would be the game's final points? But then, who'd have thought Lionel Tyrone Willingham would be only the fourth first-year coach in Notre Dame's 115-year football history to start out 7-0?
But there he is, alongside early 1900s legends Frank C. Longman and Jesse Harper, and, later on, Ara Parseghian, bypassing Leahy, Rockne and game-by-game carving out a legacy that threatens to seriously rewrite any update of "Wake Up the Echoes." |
