Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com NOV. 12, 2018 61 Florida State would take the ball on its first series — and drive to a 7-0 lead. The message: Don't panic! Don't flinch! Sure enough, on FSU's opening pos- session it marched 89 yards for a 7-0 lead, with Ward completing all four of his passes for 43 yards and adding 34 rushing yards. Thereafter, Notre Dame took a 21-7 advantage into halftime: • First it drove 80 yards in seven plays, with flanker Adrian Jarrell tak- ing a 32-yard reverse for a score. • Then they navigated 60 yards in six plays, with Becton romping for a 26- yard tally and the Irish lead for good. • Finally, they went 38 yards in four plays after an interception by safety John Covington. Fellow defensive back Jeff Burris, who moonlighted as a short- yardage back, finished the drive with a six-yard touchdown run. The physical mentality instilled by Holtz and offensive line coach Joe Moore took hold, and the Irish players saw FSU players sniping at each other. "Everybody asked us what we were going to do against their great speed," Irish offensive tackle Taylor recalled. "They were very fast. … But when you get hit in the mouth every play, it's hard to deal with." "They play a different style of foot- ball than we're used to," Bowden said before the game. "There is power in everything they do. We have to have a different mentality to play this team." In the second half, the Irish extended their lead to 24-7 on a 47-yard field goal by Kevin Pendergast before Ward and Co. cut their deficit to 24-17 with 10:40 remaining in the contest. Notre Dame responded with an 80- yard drive, with Burris again finishing with an 11-yard scoring jaunt at the 6:53 mark to make it 31-17. ND-FSU II? With only 2:26 left, Florida State faced fourth-and-goal from the Irish 20. Under duress, Ward launched a pass toward the end zone that Notre Dame safety Brian Magee had in his hands — only to slip out and into the arms of McCorvey for the touchdown that cut the deficit to 31-24. The Seminoles regained possession at their 37 with 51 seconds left. Three straight Ward completions put the ball at the Irish 14, but on the game's fi- nal play nickel back Shawn Wooden knocked away Ward's desperation pass, his 50th of the day. Immediately, Florida State players were demanding a rematch, mainly because the game had come down to the final play. EPILOGUE No rematch was in the offing after No. 1 Notre Dame concluded the regu- lar season the following week with a gut-wrenching 41-39 ultimate letdown loss to Boston College when David Gordon's game-winning field goal cleared the uprights as time expired. Florida State returned to No. 1 with victories against North Carolina State (62-3) and at No. 7 Florida (33-21), and was paired with No. 2 and 11-0 Ne- braska in the Orange Bowl. No. 4 Notre Dame played No. 7 Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl. On New Year's Day, the Irish ral- lied to defeat the Aggies 24-21, while a missed Nebraska field goal on the game's final play allowed Florida State to escape with an 18-16 win. The choice for No. 1 was either 12-1 Florida State or 11-1 Notre Dame. The Irish won the head-to-head meeting in November, so the Irish coaches and players went to bed that night believ- ing that, at worst, they would split the national title, just like Georgia Tech and Colorado did in 1990 and Miami and Washington did in 1991. Furthermore, 12-1 Notre Dame lost the 1989 national title to 11-1 Miami at the end of the year because even though the Irish defeated No. 1 Colo- rado in the Orange Bowl (21-6), the Hurricanes vanquished the Irish head to head in November. Alas, it wasn't even close. In the Associated Press poll, Florida State out-pointed Notre Dame 1,532 to 1,478, receiving 46 first-place votes to just 12 by the Irish. There was even more disparity in the USA Today/CNN poll with FSU getting 1,523 points and No. 2 Notre Dame 1,441. Bowden fi- nally was awarded his elusive national title. One couldn't help but wonder if the score had remained 31-17 without the fortunate bounce, would the vote have been different? "I hurt as bad as I ever hurt for our players," a crestfallen Holtz summa- rized. It still resonates a quarter-century later. ✦ The Last Hurrah … For Now During a 23-year period from 1971-93, Notre Dame toppled eight teams that were ranked No. 1 in either of the major polls. It began Jan. 1, 1971, when head coach Ara Parseghian's Irish ended Texas' 30-game winning streak with a 24-11 Cotton Bowl triumph. It concluded in 1993 with the defeat of the top-ranked Florida State Seminoles. In many ways, that Nov. 13, 1993 conquest of FSU remains like a last hurrah. In the 25 years hence, from 1994 to the present, Notre Dame has played the No. 1-ranked team only three times, all defeats. Two of them were heartbreaking 11th-hour setbacks at home: 27-24 in over- time to Nebraska on Sept. 9, 2000, and 34-31 to USC on Oct. 15, 2005, when the Trojans scored the winning touchdown with three seconds remaining. The other was a 41-10 loss at USC on Nov. 27, 2004, which would be head coach Tyrone Willingham's final game as Notre Dame's head coach. — Lou Somogyi All-American defensive tackle Bryant Young and the Fighting Irish defense held quarterback Charlie Ward, the eventual Heisman Trophy winner, and the Seminoles 20 points below their scoring average en route to a 31-24 win. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS