Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? "The problem was by 5 o'clock I was in the hospital with a torn MCL." During that afternoon's practice, an offensive lineman accidently fell on Niehaus' knee. Eventually, Dave and Dan Buckey, who played for head coach Lou Holtz at North Carolina State, replaced Niehaus on the cover story. A year later during Notre Dame's march to the national title, the sopho- more Niehaus tore his MCL again in the fourth game and was sidelined for the balance of the year. "Believe me, I was a little nervous about that fourth game the next sea- son," Niehaus said. He was shifted to end, partly be- cause of the 1974 preseason yearlong suspension of Ross Browner and Wil- lie Fry, and earned a spot on Football News' first-team All-America squad while helping Notre Dame lead the nation in total defense in Parseghian's final year, highlighted by a 13-11 win over No. 1 Alabama in the Orange Bowl. Although Niehaus was nicknamed "Mammoth" for his 6-4, 275-pound frame, his calling card was his ex- plosion and quickness of the ball. It prompted USC head coach John McKay to state, "He looks like a whale and moves like a porpoise." "I was blessed with a lot of quick- ness and that's what I based my game on," Niehaus said. "To me, the offen- sive lineman in front of me wasn't car- rying the ball, so why mess with him? I don't think I really took on an of- fensive lineman head on in four years. I shot for the gap — they call it the swim move now. I did that for four years and nobody figured it out, so I kept doing it." As a senior, with Browner and Fry back, Niehaus returned to tackle and earned consensus All-America hon- ors with 113 tackles — a single-season school record for linemen that still stands. His 290 career tackles, despite missing more than half of his fresh- man and sophomore seasons, are second only to Browner's 340 among Irish linemen. PRO DAYS Niehaus is amazed at the attention the NFL Draft gets today. When he was the No. 2 overall pick in 1976, he received the call in his dorm room. "Atlanta came to Notre Dame right before the draft to work me out," Niehaus said. "We were standing in the middle of the practice field and the scout told me to run to both side- lines and then back to him. That was my 'combine.' He said he had seen enough and we walked off the field." Prior to his rookie year, a severe sub- lex shoulder injury hampered Niehaus, but he recorded 90 tackles and 9.5 sacks (a franchise rookie record that stands to this day) and was named the NFC Defensive Rookie of the Year. "They put a medieval harness on me to help put the shoulder in place, but it didn't work all the time," Niehaus said. "Whenever the shoulder would sublex it would knock me out of the game." Finally it had to be operated on, and a three-inch screw was inserted to hold it in place.