Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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his hands when he went down. It had to be enough for the first down, but those things happen," Johnson said in his postgame media session. Five years later, even after Johnson won a Super Bowl coaching the Dallas Cowboys, he addressed the play in his 1993 autobiography. "The ball hit the ground and the ground caused the ball to come loose, which of course meant no fumble." Gary said after the game, "After I caught the ball I thought I broke the plane and scored a touchdown. The official said my knee hit the ground, and therefore I thought the play was dead. I don't understand why it was ruled a fumble." Walsh went to the officials, screaming that Gary's knee had hit the ground. "One official turned to me and said, 'I know. We're just trying to determine whether it was a first down,'" Walsh said. "Another one got in there and said, 'No. Notre Dame ball.'" Holtz did not believe Gary scored. "When you try to score and you put the ball out like that, you better make sure you have control of it," he said. "That's abnormal to see a ball out like that. You know, all this is judgment, and in a critical game like that, there are a lot of close calls." A few days after the game The Mi- ami News printed a story quoting an anonymous official who said, "There was no fumble. The ruling was the ball went over on downs. We were wrong in doing it, but the truth is we just had a very bad day." Holtz responded in the media, saying he had talked to the head of the Collegiate Independent Football Officials Association, it was one of their crews that officiated the game, and confirmed that Gary fumbled and that no referee from the game had talked to the media. Regardless of the argument, Notre Dame took over with the ball at its 1-yard line. The Irish used up a little more than three minutes and made it out to the 15yard line before punting the ball back to Miami with 3:52 on the clock. Starting at midfield, Walsh completed an 11-yard pass to his tight end Rob Chudzinski, who was hit out of bounds by Zorich, resulting in a 15-yard personal foul. Miami had a first down at the Irish 24-yard line. Walsh took a 10-yard drop back. Notre Dame rushed three men, dropping Zorich back into pass coverage. Stams excelled at coming off a block and speeding to the ball. Chudzinski engaged him, and then Stams came looping around the left side.