South Bend House of Horrors
Anthony Ughetti
November 1, 1999

How fitting it is that on the eve of Halloween, we fans should again see the Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde character of our 1999 Notre Dame football team. What I observed on the field yesterday could easily be subtitled "Nightmare on Juniper Street."

Now, before you label me a garden variety basher, know that I bleed gold and blue. I want nothing more for our football team to succeed at every level. I would love to see us come out and dominate weaker teams, and put the game away by halftime like so many predicted. But from the first quarter, it was obvious that this would not happen. The frustrating thing for me as a fan is I do not see a whole lot of learning taking place as the seasons progresses.

The end of the first quarter was a prime example. The coaching staff has exhibited a lack of clock awareness all year, and although this play was a small thing, it was a harbinger of bigger things to come. A play like this one showed me that Bob and company really didn’t have their heads in this game from the outset. ND was to punt, with a 20-mile an hour gusting wind at Joey Hillbold’s back. As the Irish slowly got organized, the game clock showed 24 seconds remaining in the first quarter. I was screaming, "Hurry up and get the play off to kick the ball with the wind." The team dawdled around, and finally the clock ran out, forcing Hillbold to kick into the wind to start the second quarter. A small play, indeed, but someday in the future, execution of small stuff like this may be the difference between winning and losing.

More thrills and chills were to come from the punting game. Later in the second, Hillbold lined up in his own end zone to punt. Navy stacked the left side of the line with three players to rush, with only Joey Goodspeed out on an island opposing them. Could the coaching staff not see this from their vantage point? Why didn’t Goodspeed maybe take a time out, or holler for help from his teammates? No adjustments were made, the kick was blocked, recovered in the endzone for a Navy TD, and EEEEEEK!! we are tied at 14 at halftime.

OK. Tied at 14 at halftime, when this game was "supposed to be over by halftime." Hmmmm. Certainly Bob would make adjustments during halftime, and we would see mild mannered Dr. Jeckyll turn into smashmouth Mr. Hyde. Right?

Two personal foul calls on one drive (didn’t we learn anything from the Michigan game?) A gift interception thrown out in the flat by Jarious, who was staring at Joey Getherall all the way and never looked off once.(Deja vu of last year at Michigan State.) A sack on the slow-developing third down play near the end of the game, the third game in a row where we have run the roll-out, throw back to the tight end. (Hint to Kevin Rogers: please don’t run this play against Tennessee...if they have studied any film at all, this play could easily be intercepted and run back....we can make adjustments, right?)

Yes, we won the game. Yes, we should all feel happy that this trick eventually turned into a treat. But all fans should feel a tinge of terror at the continued ineptitude of the coaching staff to correct fundamental breakdowns and lack of execution. Again I witnessed way too many low snaps during the kicking game....this has been an issue since the Kansas game, why is it not being corrected? People can bad-mouth Jim Sanson all they want, but tell me how many kicks have been blocked or deflected this year? When the ball is snapped low, it throws the timing off and allows rushing defenders to get penetration. If the Tennessee game comes down to a field goal, will I be the only fan who can’t watch? Regardless of who does the kicking, be it Sanson, Miller, or Reggie Ho.

And a word needs to be said about the offensive line. The word is: holding. I had a hard time seeing the interior linemen from where I was sitting...but was there really that much holding going on? It was a beautiful day for football, except it kept raining flags. Hopefully this will clear up by November 6.

So now we put our costumes away and look forward to Tennessee. Let us hope that once the candy has been eaten, the coaches can correct the mistakes of yesterday and show the Vols something really, really scary: an inspired and confident ND team that plays up to the level of its collective talent.