Blue and Gold Illustrated

next series will play out. One of the classic examples came in the 2002 Michigan game. Notre Dame trailed 17-16 in the fourth quarter before scoring a touchdown to move ahead 22-17. The smart decision was to go for two to make it 24-17. An extra point would still leave it only at 23-17, mean- ing a TD and an extra point would win it for Michigan. Notre Dame failed on the two-pointer to leave the score 22-17, and a couple of plays later Michigan fumbled to set up a Notre Dame field goal that made it 25-17. At that point, one might think, "Why didn't the Irish just kick the extra point?" Then it would have been 23-17, and with the field goal extending it to 26-17, Michigan now needed two scores to win. But that's the benefit of hindsight. If someone would have told the Notre Dame coaches after the TD that made it 22-17, "Hey, Michigan is going to lose a fumble the next series to set up a short field, so let's just kick the extra point now and then be up nine after the field goal," the decision would have been simple. There are no crystal balls on football sidelines, though. In the infamous 1993 Boston College game that lost the Irish the national title, Notre Dame trailed 38-17 in the fourth quarter. The Irish sliced the deficit to 38-23 with a TD, and then Lou Holtz called for a two that resulted in a success- ful halfback pass to quarterback Kevin McDougal to make the score 38-25. Holtz reasoned that even if the play had failed, another TD and a two-point conversion would put the Irish "back on schedule" at 38-31. The successful two put it "ahead of schedule." (Notre Dame would take a 39-38 lead before it lost on the final play, 41-39.) In the 2012 SEC Championship Game, Alabama trailed Georgia 21-10 before cutting it to 21-16 after a third-quarter touchdown. Nick Saban went for two, and succeeded, making the score 21-18. It was "too early" at the time to go for two, but Saban did anyway and Ala- bama won 32-28 when a Georgia turn- over at the Alabama 5-yard line in the closing seconds clinched the win. Had the two-pointer failed, maybe Al- abama would have led 30-28 instead — and Georgia could have kicked a short field goal to win and play Notre Dame for the national title. Who knows what direction the game would have taken had the two-pointer failed? It succeeded, so Saban is venerated as a master coach. ✦ In the 1973 Sugar Bowl versus Alabama and Bear Bryant (left), Ara Parseghian's decision to go for two in the second quarter paid off in the 24-23 win. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS

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