September 28, 1996
Notre Dame Ohio State Final Stats
By Fred LaBreque, The Scholastic 1996 Football Review
The frenzied anticipation leading up to the most publicized game of Notre Dame’s season was astounding. The Irish were ranked fifth and coming off a victory over a powerful Texas team. The Buckeyes were ranked fourth and had scored 142 points in their first two games. The faithful of both teams made the pilgrimage to South Bend and were begging for tickets at 10 or 20 times their face value. ESPN GameDay was broadcasting from a temporary studio on campus. Scott O’Grady and Jenny McCarthy both made appearances at the pep rally. This had all the marks of a big game.
There had to be two separate pregame pep rallies to channel all the excitement of the Irish fans. Head Coach Lou Holtz was so flooded with interview requests from local radio stations that he had to refuse some of them. And on game day, campus was an absolute zoo. One local television station estimated that there were more than 200,000 people on campus before the start of the game. Unfortunately for most of them, the stadium still only had about 60,000 seats, and they were all spoken for. Clearly this was going to be a big one.
And the leader of the Fighting Irish was a little uneasy. Holtz doesn’t like to be around so much hoopla and doesn’t like his players to be around it, either.
“I love playing atop-ranked team, but I don’t like playing them at home,” he said. “I mentioned that to the football team last Thursday [before the Texas game]. I said one good thing about this is that we are going on the road to play this big game. All the reporters are down there in Austin, Texas, so all the fanfare and excitement and the newspaper and the interviews and everything else, was somewhere else.”
Maybe Holtz would have rather played this game in Columbus, Ohio. As he said before the game, “When you start feeling it early here, it is a disadvantage because of all the distractions. People come to the game, your families come to the game, people want tickets.” These were all reasons why Lou Holtz was worried going into the biggest game of the year. And they were the least of his problems.
The Buckeyes came into the game averaging 71 points and 617 yards in their two wins while surrendering a mere 3.5 points and 169 yards per game. They had had 10 scoring drives of less than two minutes, including one that took just 13 seconds. Finally, OhioState’s David Boston returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown against Pitt when the Buckeyes had only eight men on the field. No wonder Holtz was concerned.
As it turned out, his worries were well founded. When the game finally did roll around, Ohio State proved that its two early season victories over weak competition had not been flukes. The Buckeyes jumped to an early lead and held on for a 29-16 victory. They might not have scored 70 points or held Notre Dame to single digits, but they did enough to win.
In the end, it was not the distractions that hurt the Irish, but two young men named Pepe and Orlando. Junior tailback Pepe Pearson piled up 173 yards on 29 carries and broke the goal line twice. Though he had put up similar numbers in his first two games, it was this performance against Notre Dame’s touted defense that proved to doubters that the Buckeyes would not miss Eddie George.
Of course; Pearson did all of this just as his predecessor had – by following giant number 75. Orlando Pace, the All-Every thing offensive tackle whom Ohio State Head Coach John Cooper describes as ”a 6’6″, 330 pound cat,” showed the nation why he had been chosen as the team’s candidate for the Heisman Trophy. With an unmatched combination of size, speed, strength and agility, Pace dominated the left side of the line just as he has ever since he started the first game of his freshman year. It was Pace’s pancakes that allowed Pearson to have such a productive day.
But the afternoon was not without its bright spots for Notre Dame. After Ohio State took an early 6-0 lead on a short run by Pearson, there was no more scoring until late in the first quarter. With the Buck eyes deep in their own territory, Lamont Bryant tipped a Stanley Jackson pass and Kinnon Tatum came up with the interception. The turn over set up a short touchdown pass from Ron Powlus to Marc Edwards and, with Jim Sanson’s extra point, the Irish were temporarily ahead. But this lead was short-lived as Ohio State took the ensuing kickoff and marched 80 yards in seven plays for the score. Notre Dame never recovered from this deficit as the Buckeyes built a 22-7 halftime lead.
After a strong drive to start the second half, Notre Dame had to settle for a field goal. The Irish defense then gave up Jackson’s second touchdown pass, and the extra point put the Buckeyes comfortably ahead by 19 points. But the Irish came roaring back. With about seven minutes remaining in the game, Edwards scored his second touchdown of the game, this time on the ground, to shave the Buckeyes’s lead to 13 points. After this score, the Irish defense held and forced Ohio State to punt. Notre Dame seemed poised for a dramatic come back as everyone in the stadium, especially Autry Denson standing on his own 10-yard line, awaited the kick.
Brent Bartholomew’s punt went right to Denson, who fielded the ball cleanly and streaked down the middle of the field for a dramatic touchdown. The Irish fans were in a state of delirium until they saw the little yellow flag back on the 20-yard line. Jaws dropped and hearts sank in disbelief. Never had the Irish fans experienced such a high and then such a low in such a short period of time. Well, maybe once … or twice. Re member Rocket’s punt return against Colorado in 1991? The curse of Irish miscues on punts returned for touchdowns continued as Notre Dame was called for holding and the ball was placed on the Irish 10. The game was essentially over.
“When Autry Denson started to run it back, the first thing I did was look downfield for a flag and I didn’t see one,” Holtz said. “After it was called back, I knew we had no chance to win.”
“That one play, the punt return, could have turned the whole thing around,” Edwards added. It was a devastating blow to the Irish and one from which they would not recover.
Ohio State proved that it was among the best teams in the nation, and Notre Dame put up a respectable showing against this powerhouse. The Irish offense had trouble moving the ball all day, as exemplified by Ron Powlus’s final passing statistics: 13 for 30 with two interceptions and just 154 yards. The Irish gained only 280 yards of total offense.
“In the second half, I thought we played as well as we could have played, but we couldn’t stop their third-down plays,” Holtz said. “We couldn’t control the line of scrimmage.” Ohio State was just too big and strong up front and too quick at the skill positions for the Irish to have any success. Cooper was ecstatic about the victory. “I told our squad that this is a great victory for Ohio State, the players and the fans,” he said after the game. “It doesn’t get much better. Not many teams can come in here and win against this great Notre Dame football team.”
He also praised Powlus despite the quarterback’s lackluster day.”We controlled the tempo and put a lot of pressure on Ron Powlus with our defense,” he said. “That is a credit to him. We had to keep him off-balance. He is an excellent quarterback.”
The better team won this game, but one of the deciding factors may have been all the distractions and jitters accompanying such sheer madness. Even though he has a reputation for not being able to win the big games, Cooper appeared cool and calm throughout. When asked what his feelings had been before the game, he responded, “I wasn’t nervous going into the game. Once we started playing, I felt we were as good as them, maybe even a little bit better.”
What an understatement. For the rest of the season, Ohio State continued to prove that it was among the nation’s elite football teams, while the Irish struggled all year against inferior opponents. The Buckeyes were clearly the best opponent the Irish faced and Notre Dame battled hard. But it was not enough. As Holtz said, “The better team won today, make no mistake about that.”