Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM PRESEASON 2024 17 35 Years Ago: Aug. 31, 1989 Defending national champion Notre Dame roared to a 33-0 halftime lead and then put it into cruise control during a 36-13 victory versus Virginia in the Kickoff Classic held in East Rutherford, N.J. The Fighting Irish scored touchdowns on their first five possessions with fullback Anthony Johnson scoring twice, and quarterback Tony Rice and tailbacks Ricky Watters and Rodney Culver once apiece. Watters paced the 300-yard rushing attack with 80 yards on 12 carries while Rice added 70 yards on 8 attempts. Rice also completed 7 of 11 passes for 147 yards, with sopho- more flanker Raghib "Rocket" Ismail reeling in 5 for 121 yards. Defensively, junior cornerback Todd Lyght intercepted 2 passes after re- cording none during the 1988 national title season. A school-record 14 freshmen came off the bench in the second half for the Irish, including quarterback Rick Mirer. 30 Years Ago: Sept. 3, 1994 Heralded as possibly the most anticipated athlete to make a college debut since UCLA basketball player Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in 1966, Notre Dame sophomore quarterback Ron Powlus didn't disappoint during No. 3 Notre Dame's 42-15 rout of Northwestern at Soldier Field in Chicago. Medically redshirted as a 1993 freshman, Powlus completed 18 of 24 passes for 291 yards, highlighted by 9- and 36-yard scoring passes to Derrick Mayes, a 46-yarder to Michael Miller and a 2-yarder to fullback Ray Zellars. ESPN's mesmerized "Pope of College Football," Beano Cook, immediately predicted Powlus would win not one but two Heisman Trophy awards. Mean- while, Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz was distressed about having to rely on the pass too much while rushing for only 161 yards. "My worst fears were realized because we can't run the ball … at all," Holtz said. "If we can't do that, we're not going to be successful." 15 Years Ago: Sept. 5, 2009 No. 23 Notre Dame opened head coach Charlie Weis' fifth season with a sterling 35-0 victory over Nevada, an "upset special" team headlined by junior quarterback Colin Kaepernick and its vaunted Pistol offense. Irish junior signal-caller Jimmy Clausen completed 15 of 18 passes for 315 yards with touchdown passes of 24, 70 and 88 yards to sophomore Michael Floyd, and 19 yards to sophomore tight end Kyle Rudolph. Clausen's 17.5 yards per attempt broke his single-game school record of 15.42 set nine months earlier during a 49-21 rout of Hawai'i in the Hawai'i Bowl. Floyd's 47.25 yards per his 4 catches also set a single-game Notre Dame record (minimum of 4 receptions). It also was the fifth consecutive Notre Dame home game in which the Irish did not commit a turnover. 10 Years Ago: Sept. 6, 2014 Everett Golson completed 23 of 34 passes for 226 yards with 3 touchdown passes to lead No. 16 Notre Dame to a 31-0 victory over Michigan, snapping the Wolverines' NCAA-record streak of games without being shut out at 365 before the rivalry headed into hiatus. The previous most lopsided victory for Notre Dame against Michigan was 35-12 in 1943. The last time the Wolverines were shut out was 26-0 by Iowa on Oct. 20, 1984. Irish head coach Brian Kelly tried to downplay the win a little. "It only counts for one," he said, before adding: "I'd be lying if I told you that it didn't feel great to shut out Michigan, 31 to nothing." Game No. 42 in a rivalry that was off-and-on for more than 100 years was the last scheduled between the two rivals at the time of the contest. Notre Dame broke off the series a couple years prior to make room on its schedule to accommodate its new arrangement with the Atlantic Coast Conference. 5 Years Ago: Sept. 2, 2019 Playing in front of a Louisville-record crowd of 58,187, No. 9 Notre Dame rallied from an early seven-point deficit to rout the Cardinals 35-17. Quarterback Ian Book ran for a touchdown and threw for another, while running back Tony Jones Jr. carried the ball 15 times for 112 yards and 1 touchdown. Meanwhile, the Irish defense forced 5 fumbles and recovered 3 of them, the first time they did the latter since 2012 against Navy in Ireland. UNDER THE DOME Anniversaries In Notre Dame Football History: Aug. 31-Sept. 6 Quarterback Tony Rice contributed 8 carries for 70 yards and 1 touchdown to a Notre Dame rushing attack that racked up 300 yards in a 36-13 defeat of Virginia in the 1989 Kickoff Classic. 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