October 14, 1995
Notre Dame vs Army Final Stats
By John C. Illia, The Scholastic 1995 Football Review
One hundred sixty pounds and one foot. That’s all that kept the Cadets of the United States Military Academy from pulling off one of the greatest upsets in college football history. Who would have thought that with 39 seconds left the game, one of the smallest players on the Notre Dame roster would make a tackle that was described by ABC announcers as “one of the greatest plays in Notre Dame history?”
Almost everyone associated with .the game, whether they wouId admit or not, expected Notre Dame to roll. The Irish entered the game ranked 17tin the country. Although Army had fallen just short of upsetting Washington earlier in the year, it was still a service academy. Every team needs a couple of easy games on its schedule and Army was seen as one for the Irish. With Lou Holtz entering the game 17-0 versus the service academies, the outcome seemed obvious. A walk in the park was expected, and that’s actually what happened, at least for the first three quarters.
It all began as expected for the Irish. After Army went three and out on its first possession of the game, the Irish took control and quickly drove 42 yards for a touchdown and first blood. On the following possession, however, Army showed why it was ranked fifth nationally in total yardage coming into the game. With their versatile wishbone offense, quarterback Ronnie McAda, running back Ron Thomas and fullback John Conroy gave the Irish an option-running seminar. The Cadets needed only three minutes and 32 seconds to drive 80 yards and tie the game.
Notre Dame scored twice more before the half. Autry Denson shined in the first half of his first collegiate start, rushing for two touchdowns, while Derrick Mayes showed off his skills with receptions of 31 and 47 yards. Indeed, as Ron Powlus took a knee to end the first half, the Irish seemed primed to complete a rout in the second half and prepare for the fifth-ranked USC Trojans. A glance at the scoreboard revealed a 21-7 Irish lead which seemed certain to expand in the second half.
The Irish received the ball to start the second half and after three Denson runs, Marc Edwards took a Powlus screen pass 46 yards to put Notre Dame in front 28-7. Little did the Irish know that those were the last points they would score the entire afternoon.
On their first possession of the second half, the Cadets capitalized on a Notre Dame pass interference call to bring the score to 28-14 with a Conroy 5-yard touchdown run. Notre Dame responded with a quick 55-yard drive to the Army six and seemed poised to score again when Edwards made an uncharacteristic mistake. The bruising, ever-dependable fullback showed his human side, losing a fumble.
Having walked away with no points after recovering the fumble, the Cadets had to wait only two plays for another scoring opportunity. On a diving interception by John Tomasits, the Army offense was set up on the Notre Dame 33. On a 3rd and 7 play, McAda found Coby Short for a 24- yard gainer. Two plays later, Conroy sealed the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run.
The Irish received the Army kickoff with a little over four minutes remaining in the ball game. What happened next seemed scripted from a Boston College voodoo book.
The offensive line for Notre Dame lined up on fourth and one. Ron Powlus ducked under center Rick Kaczenski and the ball was snapped. Instead of being a successful quarterback sneak for the first down, the ball jumped wildly out of the hands of the quarterback and was swarmed by a sea of Army defenders.
A reoccurring offensive error this season had come back to haunt the Irish. “I was upstairs. It was fourth down, it looked like a half-yard, there were three minutes in the game, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to give Army the ball back,” said Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz. “But the decision was made at that time to let the clock run down and call timeout, and I was screaming to let the clock run down and call timeout. You don’t want to do something like that when you’re racing against the clock.”
With 2:33 remaining in the ball game, Army had the ball on the Notre Dame 42- yard line. During that walk in the park the Irish had come face to face with a mugger. True to form, the Cadets continued with their three-man game, pitching to Thomas around the end and handing off to Conroy up the middle. Then, suddenly, with 39 seconds left, Army broke the mold they had been using all day. McAda faded back and hit Leon Gantt with a pass on the right side of the field slightly behind the line of scrimmage. Gantt took the pass seven yards and, on a diving leap, put the Cadets within one point of Notre Dame, 28-27.
It took Army head coach Bob Sutton no time to make the decision. Army was going for the win. On the snap of the ball, instead of heading down the line of scrimmage as he had all day, McAda faded back. Ron Leshinski, the Army tight end who had caught a pass from McAda for Army’s first touchdown of the day, was free and clear in the right flat at the 2-yard line. McAda threw and hit Leshinski right in the numbers. He was all alone. For an instant it seemed as though number 84 would walk into the end zone.
But as Leshinski began to tum toward the goal line, a one-hundred and sixty pound cornerback hit the tight end and the comeback was over. “We always talk about how the low man wins,” Covington remarked after the game. “I had some momentum going forward, and he was going sideways. When he caught the ball, he was on about the two-yard line. I knew I had to hold him up.”
Covington did just that and, in the process, earned the Sports Illustrated Defensive Player of the Week award. Simply put, Ivory made the most important play of his career. He helped keep dreams of a tier one bowl and an eight-million dollar pay-off alive.