Notre Dame-USC 1989: 10 Years Later
Scott Vinicombe
October 15, 1999

Notre Dame-USC 1989: 10 Years Later
10 years have passed since one of the most memorable games I have witnessed at Notre Dame Stadium. The date was October 21, 1989, a few short days after the San Francisco Earthquake. It was a blustery week in South Bend, they received an eight inch snowfall on Thursday before the Saturday matchup with the USC Trojans.

Notre Dame came into the game the defending National Champions, riding in with a 18 game win streak and a current streak over USC of six straight games. USC came in ranked in the top #10. Emotions were riding high before the game, similar to the Miami game of 1988, a pre-game fight ensued near the tunnel.

USC kicked off to the Irish to start the game, Raghib Ismail fumbled on the return and USC converted into a 7-0 lead. The Irish answered on a 7 yard run by Tony Rice. The Irish held the Trojans on the next series, but again Ismail fumbled the punt and this also led to a Todd Marinovich to John Jackson 15 yard TD pass and a 14-7 Trojan lead.

The Trojans' Quin Rodriguez booted a 29yd. Field Goal to increase the lead to 17-7 at the half, it could have been worse but the Irish secondary picked off two passes.

This is where the real story begins. After spending the first half inside the ACC watching the game on television, I attempted once again to enter the stadium. An usher recognizing I was looking for a ticket, gave me a stub of someone who had left disgruntled by the the first half proceedings. The seat was approximately 8 rows behind the ND bench, little did I know what was about to happen.

Stopping the Trojans on their initial drive of the second half, the Irish marched down the field for a score. The drive included a 23 yard scamper by Rice on 4th and 3, and was capped off by a 3 yard burst by Ricky Watters.

After exchanging of possessions, Rice fumbled deep in ND territory, but the Irish defense rose to the occasion when Todd Lyght intercepted Marinovich in the end zone.

From my vantage point you could see the emotion on the Irish sideline, Chris Zorich and his defensive teammates were intent on switching the first half deficit into their 19th straight victory.

Early in the 4th Quarter, the Irish had the ball on the USC 35, 3rd and inches, when Anthony Johnson broke free for a score, giving the Irish their first lead 21-17.

USC drove into ND territory only to punt it away, although the Irish turned over to the Trojans at the ND 35. From there it only took USC 4 plays to regain the lead 24-21 on a Marinovich to Gary Wellman TD pass, with a little over 9 minutes left in the game. To add insult to injury Marinovich rubbed it in by bumping Scott Kolakowski on the way to celebrating in the end zone.

But the Irish would have the last laugh, starting from their own twenty yard line the Irish drove down the field, the big play a screen to Ismail for 40 yard and on the next play Rice gutted out 15 yards to paydirt. Irish 28-24

The final few minutes were precarious, Marinovich time and time again tested the Irish until he finally ran out of plays. Another emotional win over the always tough Trojans, this was extra special since it was the seventh consecutive win over the Boys from Troy. IT'S ABOUT TIME START ANOTHER STREAK. GO IRISH!!!