November 4, 1995
By Fred LeBrerque, The Scholastic 1995 Football Review
Even before the game started, it would be remembered as a game of endings. The final home game for the Irish matched them up with the Midshipmen of Navy in what would be the last game a talented group of seniors would ever play in Notre Dame Stadium.
Even more than that, though, it was the last game any Notre Dame football player would play in the stadium as it had stood for so many years. Construction, scheduled to begin the next day, would add an extra 20,000 seats to the ‘House That Rockne Built.’ All of this was expected. But it was the unexpected ending in the second half that became the most memorable for Irish players and fans alike.
Less than five minutes into the second half, Powlus rolled left from his own 17-yard line. Navy linebacker Fernando Hanis blitzed through the line untouched and slammed the junior quarterback for nine-yard loss. Powlus came down heavily on his left arm, and he did not get up. Not a pretty sight for lrish fans.
The humerus in his left arm had snapped all the way through about four inches above his elbow. Dr. Willard Yergler, who examined Powlus, said after the game that the recovery time for this injury would be four-to-six months. Ron Powlus’ season was over.
This was not how this season was supposed to end for Powlus. Enter Tom Krug.
And what a difficult entry it must have been. Krug took his heavily meaningful snap of his college career with the much favored Irish down 17-14. After being outplayed by an inspired Navy team, most felt that the Irish were lucky to be down by only three points. Krug also entered the game with less than seven minutes playing time in only three games on the season. Factor in that he had yet to attempt a pass this season, and you had a potential recipe for disaster.
But the other members of the Irish offense were not about to allow Krug to lose confidence in himself. They knew he needed to execute in order for Notre Dame to come back and win this game.
“I encouraged [Krug] every play. I let him know that in distress, I’m always there if he needs me,”said Derrick Mayes. Simple translation: ”Throw me the ball.” Krug did not take this advice lightly, unloading a bomb down the sideline in the direction of Mayes on his third passing attempt of the year. Mayes came back to the slightly under thrown ball, eluded the defender and coasted the rest of the 42 yards to the end zone. This play gave Notre Dame its first lead of the game.
On the very next drive, Krug hit Mayes in the corner of the end zone to put the Irish up by 11.
The Irish went on to win the game 35-17. That score implies that the Irish had easily handled an under-matched Navy team.just as they were expected to. After all, most people had expected the game to be over by halftime. But they all forgot to tell the Middies.
Navy entered Notre Dame Stadium as the least penalized team in the nation. As it turned out, however, the little yellow flags were one of the Midshipmen’s biggest enemies against the Irish.
Navy had two touchdowns called back because of penalties in the first half, and they ended up with seven costly infractions for a total of 61 yards.
“I felt we should have had 35 or 38 points in the first half, but we beat ourselves,” first year Navy Head Coach Charlie Weatherbie said, “I think in the first half we had more penalties than we had all year.”
Penalties aside, Navy thoroughly dominated the first half of play. While the Notre Dame offense sputtered, the Midshipmen sailed down the field with little resistance from the Irish defense. Indeed, Notre Dame seemed confused by the well-engineered option attack of Navy.
Irish defensemen were tackling three Navy players on every play because they did not know where the ball was. When the first half mercifully came to a close, the Irish had been out gained 301 yards to 132. Navy quarterback Ben Fay, who was start ing his first game of the year for the Midshipmen, accounted for 180 of Navy’s yards, 113 through the air and 67 on the ground. Obviously, adjustments had to be made.
The Notre Dame defense came to play in the second half, shutting Navy out for the final 30 minutes of play. Moreover, the same defense that had allowed Navy to rack up 188 yards on the ground in the first half held them to a meager 14 in the second stanza. The Irish offense had just needed a jump start to really get things rolling. Unfortunately, it was the injury of one of its most vital members that ended up being this spark.
Everyone knew that the final home game for the seniors and the final game in Notre Dame Stadium before its renovation was going to be an emotional one. Holtz had told his players before the game not to let their tears get in the way of their blocking, tackling and catching. Fortunately they were able to heed his advice, and put their emotions aside long enough to take care of business.