Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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54 OCT. 26, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED T he 2012 Notre Dame football season, at least until Jan. 7, 2013, made perhaps even the most skeptical believe that the Fighting Irish can reach champi- onship-level status again. However, the standard of making oneself delusional that anything can happen is Notre Dame's most recent national champion, which held its Silver Anniversary reunion the week- end of this year's USC game. It might eternally be remem- bered as the most unlikely Notre Dame team to win a national title. In 1988, there was way too much reconstruction that had to take place — even though the program hadn't been good enough the previous seven years (43-36-1, with at least four losses each sea- son) to have to rebuild. • Gone was 1987 Heisman Trophy winner Tim Brown. His poten- tial replacement, junior Pat Terrell, had such unreliable hands, head coach Lou Holtz decided to move him to defense. • Gone was the starting offensive line from the previous year, including four fifth-year seniors and a transfer. Tight end Andy Heck would have to move to left offensive tackle as a senior. • Gone was the entire starting defen- sive line from 1987, plus the lone mar- quee figure for the future, 1986 USA Today Defensive Player of the Year John Foley. The defensive end suffered an in- jury that ended his football career in the 35-10 loss to Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1988. The replacements were junior Jeff Alm, whose 31 minutes and 23 seconds of playing time the year prior dwarfed the other two starters, sophomores George Williams (8:16) and converted linebacker Chris Zorich (0). • Gone was star outside linebacker Cedric Figaro, drafted by the NFL. His replacement would be journeyman fifth-year senior Frank Stams, who had never started on defense and had 14 ca- reer tackles. • Gone were the kicker and punter. One replacement candidate was, egads, 5-5, 135-pound walk-on and senior pre- med major Reggie Ho. • Gone were three defensive assistants after a late-season meltdown. Oddly, outside linebackers coach Barry Alvarez was promoted to coordinate a college de- fense for the first time in his career. • Gone was the honeymoon period for third-year head coach Lou Holtz. His record dropped to 13-10 (almost the same as predecessor Gerry Faust's 11- 10-1 mark after his first two seasons) after finishing 1987 with three straight losses while getting outscored 80-30 and yielding an average of 257 yards rushing. • Unfortunately to many Irish faith- ful, not gone was junior quarterback Tony Rice. As a sophomore a year ear- lier, he completed only 35 of 85 pass at- tempts (41.2 percent) with 1 touchdown — and that was with Brown as a target. In the spring of 1988, Rice was at it again. He completed only 28 of 77 throws (36.3 percent). In the Blue-Gold Game, Rice's Blue team lost when he was 6-of- 19 passing with 2 interceptions. He be- gan the season by completing 5 of 23 passes in the first three games. When, oh when, will Holtz learn that he can't win anymore with the option? Maybe the Irish could be 8-4 again … but it won't get to the next level this way, especially with a schedule that includes defending champ and No. 1-ranked Miami, Sport- ing News preseason No. 1 Michi- gan and Penn State (6-1 versus the Irish since 1981) at home, plus defending Rose Bowl champ Michigan State, Pitt (2-0 versus Holtz) and USC on the road. When the Irish rolled into 10-0 and No. 2 USC, Holtz sus- pended leading rusher Tony Brooks and leading receiver R i c k y Wa t te rs fo r re p ea te d tardiness. No problems. The galvanized Notre Dame team responded with a 27-10 vic- tory despite getting "out-first- downed," 21-8. The 1988 Irish became the first team in college football to defeat four teams that finished in the As- sociated Press top 10 — Miami (2), Michigan (4), West Virginia (5) and USC (7) — since the 1945 Army juggernaut. Every excuse imaginable was there for Notre Dame to struggle: too much youth (usually eight sophomore starters, plus freshman wideout Raghib "Rocket" Is- mail, tight end Derek Brown and out- side linebacker Arnold Ale), treacherous schedule, a supposedly one-dimensional offense, new lines on both sides of the ball, new defensive staff, three-game losing streak entering the season … They represent a reason for still wanting to believe 25 years later that Notre Dame some day can return to the summit again. "There will be better talented teams and better coached teams that will come along at Notre Dame," Holtz said at the end of the 1988 campaign. "But no team better typifies the Notre Dame Spirit than this one." Blame it on them then for still keeping hope alive now. ✦ BEST OF THE FIFTH QUARTER ✦ LOU SOMOGYI ✦ OCT. 28, 2013 1988: The Standard To Keep Believing EDITOR'S NOTE: The late, great Lou Somogyi possessed an unmatched knowledge of Notre Dame football, and it was his mission in life to share it with others. Those of us at Blue & Gold Illustrated would like to continue to provide his wis- dom and unique perspective from his more than 37 years covering the Fighting Irish for this publication. Third-year head coach Lou Holtz had a record of 13-10 after his first two campaigns at Notre Dame, but he led the Irish to the national champion- ship in 1988. FILE PHOTO