Ode to the Irish
UHND.com - Ken L. Britton
November 26, 2000
I honestly cannot remember the last time the Irish have played like this. And I barely remember '95 when the Irish were last mentioned until January 1st. Now, five years later (that long?), we will hear about the practices, the players, the interviews until a major bowl game. All this out of a team and a coach that I thought could not win six games.
It's not just that the Irish are 9-2, and have looked impressive since Air Force. It's how they've won. By running the football down the opponents throats. They did it to BC and Rutgers, and everybody screamed how they were weak defenses. Then, this week, they do it to a team that was giving up only 3.0 yds/carry.
With the score 31-21, and just under nine minutes left, the Irish offense gets the ball on their own twenty after a USC punt. We are so used to run/run/pass/punt in this situation. Instead? 80 yard drive without having to pass once. Julius Jones got all but three carries. But that did not matter. Any one of Davie's trio could have lined up and got those yards up the middle. That's Fisher, Howard, or Jones. They just had to follow behind a line that was going downhill. The USC defense was simply tired. They could not stop the Irish. When Jones finally crossed the goaline, there was barely three minutes left on the clock.
ND won the time of possession battle by nearly twelve minutes. Mr McCullough had 14 yards on 10 carries.
Oh, by the way, the defense held USC to 78 rushing yards, on 30 carries. And a field goal was kicked without holding a vigil of prayer beforehand.
It was simply, a beautiful sight to see. It had been so long, too long.
And, as of November 25, 2000. Irish fans have at least one early Christmas present.
To coach Davie, to coach Rogers, to coach Mattison, to coach West, to coach Borbley (anyone think we'd be saying that in week four?), to coach Meyer, to the rest of the coaching staff, to Mr. White, and most importantly, to all the players who have persevered and played their hearts out when they could have fallen back and given up, I congratulate you all on a job well done.
Around the Country:
-By the way Mr. Davie, as reward for leading such an excellent turn around, you get to win nine games next year or you're back on the hot seat. Yes, this is Notre Dame football, the New York Yankees of the NCAA.
-Davie is going to have a heck of a problem with the tailback spot next year. Julius Jones is certainly not a better back than either Fisher or Howard when not 100%, and Fisher has played so consistently when given the chance that he will be hard to keep out of the starting lineup in Lincoln next September.
-Look for Oklahoma to beat KSU this Sunday. Miami could very well jump over FSU in the BCS standings with their convincing victory against BC, putting FSU in the Fiesta Bowl against ND. If not, ND would play either OSU or V Tech in the Fiesta. On the other hand, if Auburn somehow beats Florida next week, FSU would probably end up in the Sugar Bowl against the Tigers. Nebraska looks out of the running at this point with their narrow escape to Colorado.
-If Kevin Rogers does leave for a head coaching job (which I doubt), Paul Hackett could be the dark horse candidate for the position. He did wonders in his stint under Marty Shottenheimer.
Questions? Comments? All email is appreciated: Manstein01@usa.net