Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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turn around, which may have led to some of the optics that people were talking about on TV, that he was block‑ ing. But he was simply trying to get his space in the end zone." Unlike Prosise, Fuller was not ob‑ structed at the line and ran straight past the goal line, where about two yards in he and cornerback Ronald Darby engaged in contact. Robinson slipped behind both Pro‑ sise and Fuller to get wide open near the pylon while cornerback P.J. Wil‑ liams was stuck because Darby went with Fuller — which is the blown cov‑ erage that Kelly referenced. At the end of the play, Florida State's defensive backs could be seen jawing at each other for the missed coverage, not about interference. "We'll continue to run our offense and those are parts of it that we think are still effective plays," Kelly said of keeping the rub plays in the attack. Kelly did note that he told his team afterwards that when you're the chal‑ lenger, you must knock out the reign‑ ing champion, because nothing will be given to you. "We needed to do better in the sec‑ ond half to put this thing away," he said. "You've got to take the belt from the champion. You can't leave it up to a decision that is made at the end … "When you get a team like this and outplay them, you've got to put them away. You can't leave it up to a deci‑ sion at the end of the game. … You never want to let the game be decided by a referee. "What happened at the end was out of our control. … We've got to be able to control finishes. That means make a couple more plays. If you've got the champ, you can't win by split decision, you've got to knock him out. That's what we want to take away from this." ✦ Infamous Calls Here are the other most infamous fourth-quarter calls against Notre Dame in the past 50 years: Nov. 28, 1964 Notre Dame fullback Joe Kantor scored early in the fourth quarter to provide a 23-7 lead at USC, with a pending extra point providing a three-score cushion. Game. Set. Match. Consensus national title. However, left tackle Bob Meeker was called for "holding" by the Pac-8 officiating crew — when Meeker actually whiffed and fell to the ground because his man had shifted in the defensive align- ment. The ball was moved back 15 yards, Notre Dame failed to score, and two other controversial penalties ensued. USC made the plays needed to win, 20-17. A phantom holding call on left tackle Bob Meeker prevented head coach Ara Parseghian (above) and the Irish from putting USC away and clinch- ing the national title in 1964. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS