Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/187176
murphy's Law dan murphy Irish Punch Back In Dallas B rian Kelly has been on a mis‑ sion since January to expunge Notre Dame's 2012 season from his team's collective memory. But in the week leading up to a 37‑34 win over No. 22 Arizona State in Dallas, he made an exception. Kelly clipped together 10 minutes of close-call footage from the undefeated regular season to show to his play‑ ers. He included a prayer of a pass quarterback Tommy Rees threw in a game-winning drive against Purdue. He added scenes from a fourth-quarter comeback against BYU and, of course, Pittsburgh's infamous overtime field goal miss. "It was more a message of how close we are to winning football games con‑ sistently," he said about his motive for breaking what has bordered on an obsessive impulse to leave the past in the past. The theme that emanates most from those three games is how that 2012 team stood up to adversity. When pushed into a corner last fall, Notre Dame fought its way out. The team that wins consistently is one that throws the best counterpunches. For the first time this season, when hit with a haymaker in Dallas, the Irish responded. Arizona State's 36-yard touchdown with 90 seconds left in the first half, on fourth down no less, looked like it would give the Sun Devils a touch‑ Head coach Brian Kelly liked the fight his team showed against Arizona State, and how it answered every challenge posed by the Sun Devils in a 37-34 victory. photo by Bill panzica down lead heading into the locker room. Instead, after completions of 22 and 35 yards, Rees found fellow senior TJ Jones in the corner of the end zone on the last meaningful play of the half. Notre Dame strutted into its locker room with a 14-13 lead, one it would never fully relinquish, and returned