Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1185700
54 NOV. 23, 2019 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T he 150th season of col- lege football this year has produced a bevy of all-time lists. As a history aficionado, I enjoy perusing them. Some have left me in- credulous. For example, the Sporting News' list of the 10 greatest all-time coaches did not include Knute Rockne, but did have Woody Hayes. That's not necessarily about my own bias. One that particularly stood out was the recent release by ESPN of the 150 greatest games played in the annals of college football. There are going to be natu- ral disagreements by any fan base with such ratings, but overall I thought the panel did an exceptional job of including the past with the present. It's a lot like rank- ing recruits one through 150. On what basis do you truly know or separated a No. 101-rated offensive tackle from a No. 46-ranked linebacker? What stuck out to me is that 23 of the 150 games listed represented Notre Dame, with the Fighting Irish producing a 12-9-2 record in them. The ties were with Michigan State in 1966 (No. 20) and Army in 1946 (No. 26) — both of which still helped pro- duce Notre Dame national titles. Even more notable is 13 of those 23 were among the top 40 (7-4-2 re- cord). The second-most representa- tion among the top 40 was Alabama with eight, while USC and Miami had six apiece. At No. 6 in the all-time countdown (and first for Notre Dame) was the seminal 31-30 victory versus No. 1 Miami in 1988, which propelled the program's most recent national title. The next Notre Dame contest listed was No. 10 — also a one-point vic- tory, 24-23 versus No. 1 Alabama to clinch the national championship in the Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31, 1973. In my own 49 years of watching Notre Dame, that Sugar Bowl still edges the '88 Miami game for the best for at least a couple of reasons. One, there was a finality to it. The rapture of winning a national title in a pulsating back-and-forth contest that went down to the final minute is be- yond words. There was similar elation at van- quishing Miami in 1988, but it was only the sixth game. Notre Dame still had a lot of hurdles in front of it, and the specter loomed that it might face Miami in a bowl game again for the national title. The other is that the 1973 Sugar Bowl had seven lead changes, un- precedented to this day in any col- lege or pro football championship matchup. That made every play even more riveting. Against Miami in 1988, Notre Dame never trailed, and even had 21-7 and 31-21 advantages. That shouldn't mitigate its own greatness, but the back-and-forth nature of the Sugar Bowl made it all the more en- thralling. Unfortunately, there also was a wistfulness I felt going through the list. Of those 23 Notre Dame games listed, only four have occurred since 1990 — and all of them were defeats: 35-34 to Tennessee in 1991 (No. 53), 10-9 to Colorado in the 1991 Orange Bowl (No. 64), 41-39 to Boston College in 1993 (No. 76) and 34-31 to USC in 2005 (No. 34). As I stated before this year's game at No. 3 Geor- gia, I craved that victory over the Bulldogs mainly for the Fighting Irish gen- eration that has been born since the late 1980s. Memories of the program from the 1970s and 1988-93 can carry me through the rest of my life, and I was ex- tremely blessed to have wit- nessed three national titles and numerous other victo- ries that will remain through the ages in Fighting Irish lore, beginning with ending No. 1 Texas' 30-game win- ning streak in the 1971 Cot- ton Bowl. What I want to see is this generation of Fighting Irish faithful to have their own such experiences of exhila- rating victories and mo- ments. For a quarter-century it's mainly been "they came close," or "they seem to be going in the right di- rection," or "I hear this year's recruit- ing class can take us to the next level." It's been about far more rhetoric than actual results. When one thinks about it, since 1994 the top "what though the odds" mo- ment probably was the 30-13 victory at No. 8 Oklahoma in 2012. Although Notre Dame was ranked No. 5, it was still about a 10-point underdog, and the general feeling was it would get exposed (as it eventually did in the BCS National Championship game versus Alabama). Yet even against the Sooners … well, they had already lost at home that year to Kansas State, and would get crushed in the Cotton Bowl by Texas A&M. I'll be long gone when the 200th year of college football is commemo- rated (maybe there might be a 175th, too.) Hopefully by then Notre Dame can add a few epic moments that have been so elusive the past 25 years. ✦ The Greatest Moments: Then Versus Now THE FIFTH QUARTER LOU SOMOGYI Senior Editor Lou Somogyi has been at Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 1985. He can be reached at lsomogyi@blueandgold.com The 1988 Notre Dame-Miami showdown had the highest ranking (No. 6) among Fighting Irish contests in ESPN's countdown of the greatest games in college football's first 150 years. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS