Mission Impossible?
Frank Vitovitch
November 2, 1999

Notre Dame, Ind - Your mission Mr. Davie should you choose to accept it: go down to Knoxville, Tennessee, take on the defending national champions and current #4 team in the AP poll Tennessee Volunteers, and come back to South Bend, Indiana with a win.  Any questions?  This message will self destruct in 10 seconds.

With the way Notre Dame played Saturday it will be more than mission impossible to beat Tennessee Saturday night.  Fourteen penalties? 140 yards in penalties? Three turnovers?  Against Navy?  That's right, Notre Dame committed 14 penalties for 140 yards while turning the ball over three times against lowly Navy in South Bend this past weekend.

With a game like that does Notre Dame even have a chance at beating Tennessee this weekend.  The Answer is yes, if history is an example. 

In 1995, Notre Dame traveled to the Meadowlands to play Army a week before the yearly showdown with USC.  The Irish turned the ball over three times against Army that year and needed a dramatic Ivroy Covington tackle on a two point conversion to avoid being upset by Army for the first time in many years.  The very next week, the #5 USC Trojans came into South Bend with title hopes in the their heads, and left embarrassed and miserable.  Notre Dame beat the #5 Trojans 38-10 while collecting 4 takeaways, committing only 14 yards in penalties and controlling the ball for 35 minutes of the game.

During Bob Davie's first season, Navy traveled to South Bend looking to surprise a 3-5 Notre Dame team.  It took Allen Rossum knocking Navy out of bounds at the one yard line as time expired on a last desperation heave to secure the 21-17 victory.  Notre dame again committed three turnovers and had seven minutes less of time of possession than the Middies.  The next week Notre Dame traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a match-up with #11 LSU in "Death Valley."  The Irish turned in a zero turnover and zero penalty day against the Tigers in their 24-6 upset.  They only punted once the entire day and intercepted three passes on the day.

It looks as if history is on Notre Dame's side, but it will take a lot more than that to beat the Vols on Saturday.  In looking at Tennessee's lone loss to Florida and near loss to Memphis its clear as to how to stop Tennessee.   In those two games the Vols gained a combined 130 yards on 84 carries (that's 2.5 per carry) while in their other five games they have 945 yards on 201 carries (that's 4.7 per carry). 

Memphis and Florida shut down the Tennessee running game and made Tee Martin the Vols passing game beat them.  Martin is a great quarterback, no doubt about it, but at this point he can not win games all by himself through the air.   The solution is easy - stop the run and make Tennessee pass.  That however is easier said than done.  Jamal Lewis is one of the nation's better backs and the Tennessee offensive line is solid with a lot of big bodies making holes.

The Notre Dame defensive line will have to play its best game of the year and stuff the run.  Everyone is going to have to contribute to win this one.  Lamont Bryant and Brad Williams need to step up and show why they are the elders on this line both playing in their last season.  Grant Irons and Anthony Weaver have to show why we have all been saying they have All American potential.   Lastly, the backups like Antwon Jones, Lance Legree, Jason Ching, Andy Wisne, and so on need to come in make no mistakes while giving the starters some rest. 

On offense, the only thing the Irish need to do is play to their potential - again something easier said than done.  They have shown signs of brilliance - against ASU, and then again they have shown signs of futility - MSU.   The running game will be the key to success however.  The offensive line, which has been getting better and better each weekend will need to create the types of holes they did against Navy for Julius Jones and Tony Fisher. 

If the Irish can establish a running game early it will allow the Notre Dame offense to do so much more as the game wears on.  The running game sets up the play action game which has proven to be very effective this year.   It also sets up the bootleg which is always a dangerous play since Jarious can always break a big play on the run. 

Another key element to the offense will be the option game.   Yes the same option Notre Dame has had trouble wit all season.  In the last few weeks however, the option has worked well with Fisher and Howard running the ball very well along the perimeter.  Tennessee very well knows the troubles the Irish have had with the option and will most likely not prepare as much as they should for it which could allow for a few big plays off of it. 

Does Notre Dame have the talent to win this game?   Yes.  Do they have the heart to win this game? Yes.  Do they have the coaching to win this game? Yes - but only because Tennessee coach Philip Fulmer is no genius himself.  The bottom line is: Notre Dame will have to drastically reduce the penalties, hold onto the ball, and stop the Tennessee running game.  Relying on the secondary to win a game may be a little risky here but Clifford Jefferson and Deveron Harper have been covering better each week, and the punishing hitting of A'jani Sanders and Deke Cooper has caused dropped passes many times this year with the receivers bracing for the hit. 

Well, I have avoided it so far so here's my prediction.   Notre Dame 31 Tennessee 30.  Yes, I picked Notre Dame because I like the circumstances surrounding the game and the infamous intangibles.  Such as, no senior or 5th year senior on this team has ever won a major bowl game so for them this is their chance to get that big win in the big game.  I also look for Jarious to have a much better game this week.  And lastly, do not be surprised if you see a lot of things you have never seen from the Irish offense against Tennessee, because Kevin Rogers is still installing his offense and this is the perfect time to implement a few new wrinkles.