December 28, 1997
By Brian Lucas, The Scholastic 1997 Football Review
When Notre Dame accepted an invitation to the 1997 Independence Bowl, the faced a difficult task. Not only had they defeated their bowl opponent, LSU, six weeks beforehand, but they had embarrassed the Tigers in front of a national television audience in their home stadium. The 24-6 victory on November 15 was the best performance of the year for the Irish, as they recorded no penalties or turnovers for the first time in school history and held LSU to 121 yards rushing, 155 below their average. The Tigers wanted revenge – and they got it in a big way.
Trailing 6-3 at halftime, LSU was doing little to erase the memory previous meeting between the two teams. With the performance of backup running back Rondell Mealey, however, the Tigers dominated the second half, outscoring the Irish 24-3 on their way to a 27- 9 victory.
“It’s hard to win when you don’t play well in the second half,” Notre Dame Head Coach Bob Davie said. “I felt really good at halftime…. The problem was that in the third quarter we couldn’t stop the run.”
During that decisive third quarter, Notre Dame tried helplessly to contain Mealey, who rushed for 186 of his game-high 222 yards in the second half and helped LSU turn their deficit into a 13-6 lead heading into the fourth quarter. For the ninth time in 13 games, the Irish failed to score in the third quarter. This time, the Tigers gained 102 yards on 23 while Notre Dame managed only nine plays and 14 yards.
After getting the ball on their own 29 to open the second half, the Tigers established their running game. Mealey, subbing for the injured Kevin Faulk, gained 39 yards on the first six plays of the drive. LSU quarterback Herb Tyler then hit freshman Abram Booty for 14 yards on a third-and-six from the Notre Dame 33, setting up Wade Richey’s 42-yard field goal that knotted the score at six.
The Irish, who began their initial possession of the second half at their own 6-yard line after Allen Rossum slipped on the kick off return, were unable to dig themselves out of the hole. They gained just six yards, forcing Hunter Smith to punt out of his own end zone. The result was great field position for LSU, starting at the Notre Dame 49. Mealey picked up where he left off, gaining 26 yards on five carries before Tyler and Booty hooked up again, this time for a 12-yard scoring pass that gave LSU their first lead of the season against Notre Dame. The touchdown also ignited the Independence Bowl record crowd of 50,459 most of whom had traveled to Shreveport to see the Tigers avenge their loss to the Fighting Irish.
“The other thing that happened in the second half was that we let the crowd become a factor,” Davie said. “In the third quarter they gained momentum, and once they got that going, they fed on that.”
Notre Dame tried to steal some of that momentum for the fourth quarter when Scott Cengia’s 33-yard field goal cut the LSU lead to four. A 15-yard roughing the passer penalty on the Tigers helped the Irish drive. Quarterback Ron PowIus followed immediately with his longest run of the season, a 26-yard scramble down to the LSU 17. For the third time in the game, however, a Notre Dame drive stalled in the red zone when Powlus’ pass to Malcolm Johnson on third and-six fell incomplete. The Irish had to settle for Cengia’s third field goal of the game.
The Irish comeback attempt didn’t last long, though. After Jim Sanson booted the ensuing kickoff into the end zone, the Tigers started from their own 20-yard line. On first down, Mealey took a handoff and headed off left tackle. He did not stop until Allen Rossum dragged him down 78 yards later. Mealey scored on the next play, giving LSU a 20-9 lead and essentially crushing Notre Dame’s hopes of victory. “Football is a game of momentum and once they got the momentum, they sustained it,” Powlus said. “We just weren’t able to flip it and get ourselves going.”
Mealey’s run, the longest in Independence Bowl history, wasn’t due solely to excellent execution by the Tigers’ offense. The Irish made a key mental mistake. “What happened was we had one of our outside linebackers on the wrong side,” defensive end Brad Willliams said. “We didn’t have an outside linebacker on the side Mealey went.”
The junior running back wasn’t finished tormenting the Irish. After Powlus was sacked for an 11-yard loss on fourth-and-five, LSU took over at the Notre Dame 35. The Tigers gained one first down and, after Mealey lost three yards on two carries, faced a third-and-13 from the 28. LSU caught the Irish by surprise, sending Mealey up the middle on a well-executed draw which he took all the way down to the one-yard line. From there, Mealey scored his second touchdown in a little over 10 minutes and sent the Irish home with their third consecutive bowl loss.
After the game, Davie didn’t make any excuses. “It really had nothing to do with playing them a second time, and it really had nothing to do with playing them in Shreveport;” he said. “It had to do with what always happens in football. If you don’t execute, you don’t win, and I give LSU credit because they played well.”
But in the first half, it was the Irish who played well. They dominated the Tigers at times, but didn’t get the results on the scoreboard. After rushing for 260 yards in the first meeting, there was little doubt as to Notre Dame’s game plan for the rematch. And to the surprise of many people, the Irish continued to run all over LSU in the first quarter, amassing 81 yards on 12 rushes. The main culprit was Autry Denson, who gained 51 yards in the quarter on his way to a 101-yard game, the eighth time this season he had gone over the century mark.
Though the Irish outgained the Tigers 98- 57 in the first quarter, Notre Dame managed only three points as their nine-play, 70-yard drive stalled at the LSU 16, forcing Cengia to kick his first field goal. The drive started deep in Irish territory but consecutive 12- yards runs by Denson and fullback Ken Barry brought the Irish out to their own 38. Two plays later, Denson took a handoff around right end and raced 35 yards before he was pushed out of bounds. Three straight rushes by the junior yielded -3 yards, setting the stage for Cengia’s kick.
The Tigers blew an opportunity to tie the game on their next possession when Wade Richey missed a 42-yard field goal. LSU evened the score early in the second quarter, though, following a failed option attempt by Jarious Jackson. Jackson, in his first play from scrimmage, went down the line to his left and was wrapped up for no gain. Instead of eating the ball and settling for second and-10, the back-up quarterback attempted to pitch the ball to Denson. The ball never reached its destination as it fell to the ground and was recovered by Mark Roman at the Notre Dame 24. The Irish defense held its ground, aided by an illegal procedure penalty on LSU, and forced the Tigers to settle for a 37-yard field goal by Richey.
Allen Rossum gave the Irish a spark on the ensuing kickoff, returning the kick 30 yards and setting Notre Dame up with a first-and-10 from their own 36. The Irish mixed the pass and run effectively, moving down to the LSU 4-yard line for first-and goal. Notre Dame’s goal-line offense, minus Powlus and Denson, then took the field. After Barry and freshman Tony Driver each gained a yard, Clement Stokes ran off right tackle on third down and was met by line backer Charles Smith for a 2-yard loss. The 60-yard drive took 6:52 but resulted only in a field goal. The failure to convert the drive into seven points set the stage for the disastrous second half.
Though the personnel from the first game was mostly the same for both teams at the rematch, there was one glaring change.
LSU’s defensive coordinator Carl Reese left after the regular season finale to take the same position on Mack Brown’s staff at Texas. Former Illinois head coach Lou Tepper was hired in his place and changed the Tigers’ defensive scheme.Using a nickel as their base defense, LSU couldn’t stop Notre Dame’s running game in the first meeting. This time around, the Tigers came out in a 5-2 defense designed to stop the run. “We played four secondary guys on first down,” LSU coach Gerry DiNardo said. “That was the biggest change. We wanted to defend the run on first down.”
By stopping the run, especially in the second half, LSU forced the Irish to throw the ball. When they did, the Tigers were ready, sending numerous blitzes at the Notre Dame front five that resulted in an Independence Bowl record of eight sacks. “We put ourselves in some passing situations, and they put their ears back and rushed the passer,” Davie said. “Their staff did a great job…. They got after us.”
Even with the changes in strategy, players and coaches both knew that the key to the game was the players’ performance. “LSU came out and made the plays,” Denson said. “I’m not going to make any excuses. LSU is a good team and we didn’t execute.” Davie agreed. “It really comes down to execution, and we did not execute. We had a good feel for what they were doing. They just executed better.”
The two teams are set for another rematch next November at Notre Dame Stadium. Irish fans hope the third time will be the charm.