September 24, 1994
By Jake Schaller, The Scholastic 1994 Football Review
For the third straight year, Notre Dame and Purdue did battle on a soaked playing field, and for the third straight year, the rain clouds rested mainly over the Boilermakers. Coming off a shockingly close victory over Michigan State, the Fighting Irish more than made amends with a 39-21 triumph over a tougher-than-usual Purdue squad. Purdue had won its first two games of the season and came to Notre Dame with thoughts of halting an eight game losing streak to the Irish.
Notre Dame rode a ferocious rushing attack all game long, piling up 428 yards on the ground, with Randy Kinder, Ray Zellars and Emmett Mosley all posting career-high rushing totals. Kinder, filling in for the injured Lee Becton, earned his second straight 100-plus-yards rushing game, with 146 yards on 16 carries.
More importantly, Ron Powlus did not throw any interceptions after having thrown four to the Spartans a week earlier.
However, it was fullback Ray Zellars who stole the show. Perhaps incited by how much of the pre-game hype concentrated on Purdue’s stand-out fullback Mike Alstott, Zellars exploded with a 156-yard game. His performance included a 62-yard romp that reserved a spot on all national year-in-review highlight reels. “It was like a SEGA game or something,” remarked Bobby Taylor.
Zellars has been nicknamed “Roboback” and “The Man,” and he showed it on his run. After taking a pitch on a sweep left, Zellars cut upfield.
The fullback steamrolled a Purdue defensive back, and then hurdled another. With his body parallel to the ground, Zellars managed to land, keep balance and then accelerate through the rest of the secondary for a score. According to Lou Holtz, “It was one of the best efforts I’ve seen.”
As well as the Irish played, it took them over 13 minutes to get on the scoreboard and over a quarter to tally their first touchdown. After receiving the opening kickoff, Kinder sped down the sideline for a 37-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage. The Irish built on Kinder’s run and marched to the Purdue 4-yard line. However, as they would all game, theIrish goal-line offense had trouble pushing the ball into the end zone. Deciding to try for a field goal, an Irish drive that started out brilliantly went for naught as Stefan Schroffner’s 21-yard field goal bounced off the right upright. It was a mere foreshadowing twist provided by Schroffner, who would have his share of sequels to follow.
Notre Dame started off the second quarter with a 7-play, 54 yard drive that ended with yet an other amazing catch by a Notre Dame wide receiver. With good pass protection, Powlus fired a 15-yard pass into the end zone towards Charles Stafford. The senior split end went into the air with Purdue defensive backs Brian Lohman and Derrick Brown, wrenched the ball away from the pair, and landed in the end zone with six points for the Irish.
With 5:14 left in the first half, the Boilermakers had cut the13-point deficit to six. Purdue had finally responded. They put together an impressive 64-yard drive, ending with Joe Hagin’s touchdown. Notre Dame got the ball back on their own 25 and put together perhaps the most important scoring drive of the game, ending with a Kinder sweep right for six. The impressive drive seemed to take the wind out of Purdue’s sails and halt any momentum they had gained with their first touchdown. ‘The one before half time was a killer,”said Purdue Head Coach Jim Colletto. “We had a chance to go into the locker room being down 13-7, but instead we were down 19-7.” The key play on the drive was a third down and six conversion. Powlus escaped two tacklers and hit Mayes, who slid and made a great catch for a 10-yard gain.
Three Purdue miscues in the third quarter, however, led to 13 Irish points, and a lock on the game. The first turnover was a Jeremy Sample interception. An assist must be given to Bobby Taylor, who hammered Burt Thorton, causing the ball to pop up into the air. The two Purdue turnovers led to two more Schroffner field goals.
Purdue then turned the ball over for the third straight time after another vicious Taylor jarred the ball loose from Thorton. Alton Maiden pounced on the ball, setting up Zellars’ run. The Irish put up one more score with Randy Kinder’s one-yard second-effort run that capped an eleven-play, 76-yard drive. With a 39-7 lead, Notre Dame’s defense relaxed in the final portion of the game. The Irish defense let up 14 points, to the dismay of the Notre Dame faithful, and especially Holtz. ‘The last eight minutes left a bad taste in my mouth,” he said. That bad taste – the vulnerability of the defense, the missed kick, the weakness of the offensive line- would eventually come to haunt Holtz and the Irish. But not this time. This was time to savor a solid victory and to prepare for an enjoyable helping of revenge still to come.