The Luck and Pluck of the Irish Turn This Close One Their Way

USC Coach Ted Tollner, down and possibly out, stood on the sideline for the longest time, frozen in defeat. He just stared, arms akimbo, as if his longing could recall Notre Dame’s last-second field goal. But nothing happened, except that the Irish continued to form a jubilant, writhing pile on the 10-yard line. Kids. Finally, he shook his head as if to yield the celebration to the surprise victors. Boos, his legacy after four seasons of failure in the big game, rang down behind him.

The Irish, meanwhile, after a minute to compose themselves, accepted victory as if it had been owed. And perhaps, after so many close losses this 5-6 season, its 38-37 win was a debt repaid. Five times the Irish had lost by five or fewer points. Only twice in their losing season had Notre Dame been outgained. It was a different kind of luck of the Irish that their new coach, Lou Holtz, was overseeing. How many times had Holtz stood on the sideline, shocked in defeat?

So it was a calm and reasonable group afterward, the Notre Dame players having put aside their exhilaration to explain that the dramatic, come-from-behind-victory (18 points in the final 5 minutes) was almost inevitable. Their self-confidence, all evidence to the contrary, was astonishing. “We never thought of ourselves as a team of destiny, always losing the close ones,” said quarterback Steve Beuerlein, whose intercepted pass in the first half seemed sure to indicate just such a close loss. “We were always outgaining opponents, even though we came out on the short end. But we knew that someday, somehow, we’d win one of those.”

The players agreed that critical failures--fumbling within an upset of Penn State, for example--did wear on a fellow. “There is a tendency to say maybe you’re not supposed to win,” said Tim Brown, whose 56-yard punt return set up the Irish’s final score. Still, nobody ever succumbed to defeatism.

Said running back Mark Green, whose 119 yards rushing led all ballcarriers: “We never lost it. We always knew how good a football team we were.”

Just never a lucky one. And even throughout this game, there was reason to believe the Irish were a doomed team. A long pass from Beuerlein to Brown, a possible touchdown, was stripped. Roughing the USC punter, by Skip Holtz of all people, sent the Trojans on to another touchdown. The father-son talk at the sideline immediately afterward appeared memorable. A blocked PAT kick. Beuerlein underthrowing to Brown, the Trojans’ Louis Brock returning it for a 58-yard touchdown.

For goodness sakes, who expected USC’s Don Shafer to close out the first half with a Pac-10-record 60-yard field goal?

It was 30-12 early in the third quarter. The only deviation from form for Notre Dame was that, apparently, it wasn’t going to lose a close one. It was going to lose big.

But the Notre Dame resolve was remarkable. Beuerlein, who very nearly did not get back into the game after his interception, quickly hit Braxston Banks for a 22-yard touchdown and then Milt Jackson for the two-point conversion. The Trojans came back, and then Beuerlein, doing his part, fired a 42-yarder to Jackson, who leaped in the end zone to grab it away from Junior Thurman.

The Irish rolled. But this time, the key play was USC’s Rodney Peete getting stuffed on fourth and short at the Notre Dame five-yard line. “It might have looked like another of those losses,” Brown admitted, “but when the defense stopped them on the five-yard line. . . . “ He let the thought expire.

The comeback shifted into a higher gear for the final six minutes. Beuerlein, who passed for 285 yards, advanced his team with a 49-yarder to Brown. A five-yard pass to Banks for a touchdown and another pass to Andy Heck for the two-point conversion made it a two-point game. The Trojans yielded the ball on a punt, time and distance apparently enough to preserve a 37-35 victory. But Brown, immediately sensing his possibilities, ran it back 56 yards to the USC 16.

“I saw it as soon as the ball came off his foot,” said the Trojan killer, who had earlier returned a kickoff 57 yards to set up a touchdown. “There was nobody down there, except this one guy. And when he missed the tackle, I was off to the races. In fact, I should have taken it into the end zone, except I made my cut too soon.”

That would have deprived a stadium of additional, if needless, tension. There seemed little doubt that kicker John Carney could poke the winning three-pointer through from there. But there was doubt he’d ever get in. The Irish, trying for a touchdown, got it up to the one-yard line in six plays, letting the clock wind down to two seconds before calling the final timeout. “It scares me now that I think about it,” Holtz said. “That was awfully, awfully close.”

Of course, by then, Holtz was feeling pretty good about his decision making. Hadn’t he decided to let Beuerlein back into the game after vowing never to do so? After Beuerlein had thrown the interception, Holtz had yanked him in favor of Terry Andrysiak for a series. Presumably, it was forever.

“I had told him earlier in the week,” Holtz said, “that his next turnover would be his last play for Notre Dame.”

For a notable joker, Holtz is kind of strict. Beuerlein was fully prepared for the death sentence. “I had been informed earlier in the week,” he said, “that drastic action would take place.”

But then Holtz turned to him and said: “You ready to play football?” Beuerlein, whose career was ending on this day, said: “Yes, sir. You won’t regret it.”

Holtz didn’t. In fact, Beuerlein helped him realize a fervent hope. “Not that we win big,” Holtz said, “but that we’d come back and win it close.” It was a weird kind of justice for Notre Dame; at least that’s how the Irish accepted victory. The team that “could be 10-1 right now very easily,” according to Holtz, was a season-saving 5-6. And happy about it. This was their bowl game, emotionally, and they had won it.

Too many times, they had stood on the sideline, their arms akimbo, watching somebody else enjoy themselves. For once, after a close game, they got to form a pile on the field. “Maybe this will carry over to next year,” suggested Green, a sophomore from Riverside. That would be the old luck of the Irish.