January 1, 1990, Miami, Florida
There was no tremor in his voice, nor any hint of anxiety. His steps were slow and cautious as he paced before the assembled troops, outlining a battle plan for how to win the war. This is a man in all his MacArthur glory. This is not the Lou Holtz the public (let alone the state of Colorado) should see.
“Let me tell you, they’ve been living a lie, they’ve been living a lie all season,” Holtz declared of the Buffaloes, unaware that a Denver television crew had filmed his pep talk four days before the Orange Bowl. “Remember, I told you.”
Holtz’s public concerns about his team’s ability to bounce back from last month’s 27-10 loss to Miami have been replaced by (seemingly) private beliefs. “They’re expecting a good football team and they’re going to see a team,” he told his players. “They’re going to see the best of Notre Dame. And we’re going to whip them.”
When Holtz’s comments aired on the six o’clock news, emotional fans now had more motivation to continue their season-long push for a national championship for their spiritual leader, Sal Ones, who died of inoperable stomach cancer last September. Onese’s parting request to his teammates was simple: “Go find them and bring the Orange Bowl home.”
If anything, though, Holtz’s comments could lead to emotional overload in Colorado on New Year’s Eve. For all the lessons they learned, for all the criticism they received en route to an 11-0 record in 1989, they forgot the first rule of approaching the Sleeping Giant.
If you’re going to kill him, make sure you try less than three times. Otherwise, the boss might wake up.
Colorado learned this the hard way. Three times in the first half they were loaded, aimed and ready. They failed three times.
After the game started, Colorado entered its second offense after exchanging possessions and passed the ball to the Notre Dame 35-yard line. On second-and-5, linebacker Eric Bieniemy caught a pass from Darian Hagan and ran it 16 yards through the right side of the defense for an apparent touchdown. But when he tried to change hands, the ball came loose and Irish free safety Pat Terrell recovered. Give it a try
Notre Dame’s running attack kept them within its own 42, and Buffalo had the ball again at its own 18 after a 49-yard punt by Craig Hentrich. Hagan complemented Colorado’s impressive option offense with long pass completions to John Perak and Erich Kissik. Suddenly, the Bulls found themselves knocking on the door of the Irish No. 12 once again.
But three consecutive runs aided by Scott Kowalkowski, Jeff Alm and Ned Borka failed to score the first score, and Colorado had to settle for a 23-yard field goal attempt by Ken Culbertson. Culbertson turned the chip shot into a nightmare, sending his left hook wide. Let’s hit two
The Irish offense followed with a futile three-play, eight-yard drive. Buffalo’s defense, led by big plays from Alfred Williams, Michael Jones and Canavius McGee, once again pressed the Irish offense deep into its territory, capped by a big hit by Huntridge to put Colorado on the scoresheet from its own 41 yards. From there, Hagan, Bieniemy and JJ Flannigan combined to hit the ball down the right side to the Irish 1-yard line. What followed was one of the greatest goal line stands in Notre Dame history.
First and foremost. Bieniemy made a great leaping play down the right side, only to be stopped head-on in even more spectacular fashion by strong safety DeJuan Francisco.
Second, goals. Hagen tried his luck with the keeper in the middle. Chris Zorich & Co. declined.
Third, goals. Hagan rolled to his right, found the Notre Dame defense in front of him, and threw to Bieniemy in desperation. The ball drifted out of bounds, costing two points.
Frustrated and scoreless, the Hornets went on clear field goal attempts in the fourth and third quarters to get anything on the scoreboard. Instead, Colorado head coach Bill McCartney reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out a lemon.
Typically, Chad Brown is a linebacker who plays as a tight end and should release from the line of scrimmage when the ball is snapped, making himself a legitimate play-action receiver. But when ballhandler Jeff Campbell took the snap and looked for the open receiver, Brown didn’t release. With no one throwing, Campbell made a desperation run to his right side, where Troy Ridgeley beat him a yard short of the end zone.
Let’s hit three
“He (Brown) said he was stuck,” McCartney explained with frustration as he tried to justify the fight. “It looked like a lost game, but it wasn’t.”
If anything, it’s the alarm clock the Irish need. Notre Dame continued to move the ball forward in an attempt to break the scoreboard. Long runs from Tony Rice and Ismail helped Rice complete his first two passes of the day – a 12-yarder to Derek Brown and a 29-yarder to midfielder Pat Eilers. Two plays later, Colorado blocked Billy Hackett’s 27-yard field goal attempt to end a scoreless first half, but Notre Dame entered the locker room confident. Colorado was unable to score on its final possession, leading the Irish to believe they had the Buffs right where they wanted them to be.
“If you try to fake it, it means you’ve deviated from your game plan,” Zoric said. “Once they didn’t score, we knew we were in good shape.”
“When the ‘big time’ came in the first half, we (the defense) just dug a little deeper,” Borka said. “We went into the second half 0-0, but we knew once our offense got into a rhythm we would be fine.”
The Irish played in the second half as if their lives depended on it – and according to their bespectacled leader, they did. “How you respond to the challenge of the second half will determine how you play at the end of the game,” Holtz told his team at halftime. “Whether you’re a winner or a loser, it’s going to affect you for the rest of your life.”
The offense got the message and picked up where it left off at the end of the first half and pushed down the field with the help of big plays. Rice found Tony Smith up the middle at the 27 on third-and-11, and then Anthony Johnson hit a 29-yard rush to the Colorado 11. Johnson scored on a two-yard jumper moments later to give the Irish their first offensive touchdown in the Orange Bowl since 1985.
Borka caught a deflected pass from Hagan on Colorado’s opening series of the first half and gave the ball to Notre Dame at the Buffalo 46. Rice once again proved, as he did last year in the Fiesta Bowl, that his pitching ability is more than adequate. His pass to Johnson on third-and-9 made it 13, and his perfect hit to Ehlers made it 18, pulling the Irish from two free throws on 1st-and-32.
With Rice having success against the Buffalo secondary (5 of 9 completions, 99 yards), many expected him to throw another third-and-14 at the Colorado 35. Instead, Holtz crossed everyone by yelling “Reverse 8.” A simple name, a simple purpose: Give it to the Rockets and see if anyone can catch him.
Rice threw a pass to Ismail from his wing position, and with key blocks from Johnson and Tim Grunhard, the Rockets burned a path down the right sideline faster than you can say “touchdown.” At half-time, six elephants danced with a guy named Chubby, and Ireland suddenly put on a show of their own. Call it “14-0.”
Ishmael’s run represents the sadness he has brought to the scalpers throughout the evening. He dislocated his right shoulder against Miami, but it remains sore and his status remains uncertain heading into the game. But when guard Ricky Waters went down with a knee injury on Notre Dame’s third scrimmage, the Irish had to force the Rockets into deep action.
“I was planning to play more games at fullback, but (my) injury hampered the game plan,” Ismail said. “(But) Coach told me after a couple of snaps he wanted me to make some plays out of the backfield.” Since then, he’s caused a lot more pain than he felt like, rushing for 108 yards on 16 carries.
“He’s awesome,” McCartney commented. “He’s very, very dangerous. We saw more of him in the backfield than I would have liked.”
But Hagen responded to Ismail’s score with a stunning effort of his own. On a first-and-10 from the Notre Dame 39, Hagan rolled directly to the short side of the field. With little room to maneuver, he avoided the reach of Terrell and Devin McDonald and cut to his left, crawling out for a 39-yard touchdown, his longest rush of the season against the Irish. Culbertson’s back-to-back basket hit the left upright and bounced off, ending the third quarter 14-6 and extending the Kickers’ disastrous night.
The teams traded possessions at the start of the fourth quarter, and Notre Dame got the ball again at its own 18 with 10:27 left in the game. With an eight-point lead and the running game going, Holtz stopped surprising Colorado. Just back to crushing football.
Ismail is ten on the right. Johnson is ninth from the right. The rice is exactly eight portions. Rodney Culver left with four people. When the dust settled after Johnson’s 7-yard touchdown run, the Irish took nearly nine minutes to gain 82 yards on 17 carries, all on the ground. Huntridge’s extra point gave Notre Dame a 15-point lead with just 1:32 remaining, and Colorado will spend its long offseason reflecting on what could have been.
“After controlling the game for a while and not scoring a point in the first half, that was just too much to overcome,” McCartney mused. “Anytime you play a team like Notre Dame, you have to take advantage of your opportunities. We didn’t.”
“This is something that’s going to haunt us for a long time because we know we have three or four chances to score,” Flannigan said, looking away in disgust. “We gave up the game. When you’re inside the 20-yard line a lot, you’re not going to score.”
For the Irish, victory at Snake Pit in Dade County tasted so sweet. “Everybody keeps saying we have bad luck here,” Rice said in an “I told you so” way. “Well, the curse is definitely over.”
Notre Dame only has the final polls left to consider. If Miami loses in the Sugar Bowl, any doubts will be gone. But as the Alabama Hurricanes fell to New Orleans 33-25, Holtz could only make a case for his 12-1 team.
“I can honestly say we had the best record and played the toughest schedule,” Holtz stressed. “If you’re going to vote for a national champion in October, give it to Florida State.
“But we were No. 1 for 11 weeks, and the week we were out of No. 1, we beat No. 1 by 15 points. I believe if you have the best record against the toughest schedule … I’m going to rest.”
Thus began the debate until Notre Dame and Miami faced off for the final time in South Bend on Oct. 20—presumably to decide once and for all who was truly No. 1.
stay tuned.
