Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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where have you gone? had to run the flag pattern.��� The lone pass Weber had caught all year was a nine-yarder late in the 44-0 blowout of Northwestern in the opener. ���I had a cage helmet on, a lineman���s helmet,��� Weber added. ���I was wearing lineman���s pants and was basically an offensive tackle. I was probably the tallest and biggest guy out there. ���For a second, I almost stood up and called time out ��� I really did,��� Weber said. ���I thought, ���Here we go again.��� They did this down the goal line on third-and-goal and put me out at split end. This is not the proper personnel package, I���ve never run this play and I���ve never even caught a pass from Tom in practice, I never even warmed up with him. He doesn���t now how fast I am... The Bridge Robin Weber was the bridge between two of the greatest tight ends in college football annals, Hall of Famers Dave Casper (1973) and Ken MacAfee (1974-77). He started most of 1974, catching 13 passes for 206 yards and a score, but missed the 1975 season while recovering from neck surgery. ���I would get these shocks that would go down from my neck to my feet,��� Weber said. ���I would get up out of a pile and I could walk but I couldn���t feel myself walk. It was kind of a real spooky thing.��� However, he was cleared to play as a fifth-year senior and helped serve as a blocker to help Al Hunter become the first 1,000-yard rusher in one season at Notre Dame. ���I do feel very lucky that it didn���t turn out worse,��� Weber said of his neck injury. ��� Lou Somogyi ���Bottom line is I told myself, ���If we���re going to call a timeout, let the coaches do it. It���s not my place to do that right now.��� It was like sandlot football now with me running a flag pattern.��� On play action, the Alabama defense converged on the run and on Casper. ���The second I fired off, I knew I was going to be open,��� Weber said. ���I blew past the corner who was on me man to man. His eyes were as big as silver dollars because he thought I was going to block down, and I saw something every receiver likes to see ��� a safety backpedaling 20 yards away from me. I knew if I broke properly, there was no way the guy was going to catch me. ���I was looking over my left shoulder, and all of a sudden I see the ball and can���t believe how fast it���s whizzing down from 40 yards away. I didn���t see Tom throw it because the defensive tackle was in the way.��� After a slight bobble, Weber cradled the ball for the first down before falling out of bounds on the Alabama sideline a few yards away from Bryant. Just 1:56 later, Notre Dame ran out the clock to win one of the epic national title showdowns in history. Beyond Football Since 1986, Weber has enjoyed a career in his native Dallas as the owner of Weber Commercial Real Estate services. An avid outdoorsman, Weber had slimmed down to 195 pounds and run marathons before his knee injury from 1976 finally caught up to him. ���My running days are over with this knee,��� Weber said. ���I���m doing more