Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/95140
WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? first carry as a reserve fullback did net 49 yards. Because of his dedicated weight- a regular in the rotation. As a 24-year-old senior in 1982, lifting background and age, Moriarty was less tolerant of college-age foolish- ness. He was not a partier and made it known to a couple of underclassmen in his Flanner Hall suite after a night of drinking and regurgitating their con- sumption in their public bathroom that such shenanigans would be unaccept- able on his floor. It did not occur again. He would be in bed by 9:30 p.m. and sleep on his good ear so that his deaf left side would be up and not hear any outside noise. He would be up in the wee hours to work out and be the first in the dining hall by 7 a.m. — because real eggs, not powdered ones, were served only until 7:30 a.m., and he val- ued its protein. "I went there to compete in every- thing, and the great thing about Notre Dame was it's not an institution of par- ticipation; it's an institution of compe- tition," Moriarty said. As a junior college transfer, part Moriarty scored the first touchdown again, this time on a 24-yard run in a 23-17 upset of Michigan in Notre Dame's first home night game. He fin- ished with 116 yards on 16 carries, and a week later he totaled 106 yards on 19 carries and two scores in a 28-14 win over Purdue. In a 16-14 win over Miami to im- prove to 4-0, he rushed for 66 yards on just nine carries and also caught a team-high six passes. "I enjoyed playing Miami because I loved the fact they tried to intimidate us — and I just was not the type to be intimidated," Moriarty said. An injury prevented Moriarty from of his duties included meeting every Monday morning with Krause to get an update on his academics and other aspects of his life. Academic advisor Mike DeCicco and football assistant Brian Boulac, among others, kept regu- lar tabs on him en route to graduating. "I had a supporting group around me where it would have been impos- sible for me to fail," Moriarty said. Under new head coach Gerry Faust in 1981, Moriarty scored the first touch- down of the season and his career on a seven-yard pass from quarterback Blair Kiel, his roommate, and became playing the following week against Arizona, a 16-13 Irish loss, but he ex- celled again a few weeks later in the 31-16 upset of Pitt, carrying nine times for 55 yards and one touchdown, and setting up another score with a 30-yard reception. He carried the ball only 32 times in his last six games, leaving him ex- tremely frustrated because he thought he was underutilized. However, he maintains his most memorable mo- ments weren't necessarily about games or victories. "It was just getting off the plane a couple of times when coming back to Santa Barbara and saying, 'I'm enrolled at the University of Notre Dame,'" Mo- riarty said. A fifth-round NFL selection in 1983, Moriarty played seven years with the THE NFL AND BEYOND