The most important play of last Monday’s Fiesta Bowl, in which Notre Dame and West Virginia battled for the national college football championship, took place in the third quarter. The Fighting Irish led 26-13, but the Mountaineers had just completed their first touchdown drive of the day and then intercepted Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice deep in Irish territory. Notre Dame had dominated the football game in all facets all afternoon, but this appeared to be West Virginia’s chance to get back in it and steal the title. On the first play, West Virginia quarterback Major Harris–expecting the Irish defense to be suddenly roused and overemotional in combating the threat–faked left with a step and then dashed right in an option-play variation of what’s commonly referred to as the naked bootleg. The play is designed to exploit overintense reactions, to get the entire defense moving in one direction by moving the entire offense in one direction–at which point the quarterback goes the other way. When the play works, the quarterback is the only man on his side of the field, and he runs until he gets tired. On this play, however–as in every play of that day–the Notre Dame defense stayed home. Harris immediately encountered a rushing lineman. He spun wide and outran him to the sideline, but two more Irish defenders swarmed in. They snuffed Harris for a small loss. Facing second down and long yardage, Harris first threw a prayer into the end zone, which narrowly missed its well-covered target, and then he was sacked on third down, not only ending the Mountaineers’ drive but pushing them out of field-goal range. Notre Dame drove for a touchdown on the next series of downs to put the game out of reach.
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And so it is, after all, three cheers for the Irish. Miami crybabies to the contrary, Notre Dame was clearly the best team of this college-football season. The Irish were solid, they played a tough schedule, they lost to no one–not even Miami. The Hurricanes are quite right to claim that they might well have defeated the Irish if they had played them at their home, rather than at South Bend–where Notre Dame got all the breaks, was allowed to attempt to physically intimidate the Hurricanes (if such a thing can be done), and, finally and most important, got the benefit of the calls–but such claims, while justifiable, are no more justifiable than claims that Florida State would have been national champ had it beaten Miami in the first game of the year, or, on a more abstract level, that if life were fair we’d all be millionaires. The team with the best record wins, and Notre Dame was impressive in its victory–not only in Monday’s Fiesta Bowl but for the season. Notre Dame was and remains a strong team of marvelous athletes; but more important–especially on Bowl Day–it was well prepared by an excellent coach.
Holtz brought back tradition to the Irish, but he did so not with a lot of (Gerry) Faustian or Tommy Lasordian bluster–one simply can’t imagine Holtz saying his players bleed Notre Dame gold–but with an emphasis on good, basic football. That Notre Dame had better athletes than West Virginia is one thing, but that they played a better game, that they were better prepared, and that they played up to the game’s importance without going over the top is something else again. That’s good coaching. While I was rooting for the ‘Eers all day, in the end the Irish won me over. They are a great team.
