November 19, 1994
Notre Dame Air Force Final Stats
By Shannan Ball, The Scholastic 1994 Football Review
Although the Air Force’s trained falcon performed aerial acrobatics before kickoff, after play began it was the Irish who took to the air while the Airmen stuck to the ground. The emotions at the game were as high as Powlus’ passes and Mayes’ leaps. At the pep rally the night before, senior captain Justin Goheen told the students, “When we raise our helmets tomorrow, cheer a little longer and a little louder to make it a little more special.” But it was the players who made it a special game, a high point in a recently dismal season.
Before the game, all of the seniors on the team were introduced individually, running out onto the wet, soft bluegrass for the last time. On the other side, the Falcons took the field with the confidence of a seven-game winning streak and looked to add another to the list. Their first attack came with a field goal in the first five minutes of the game.
The Irish fought back and with fourth down on the Air Force 48-yard line, Lou Holtz made the gutsy call to go for the first down. The call paid off when Ron Powlus connected with Derrick Mayes for 48 yards – an airstrike made successful by perhaps the greatest catch in 1994 college football. The ball was overthrown and as fans were turning away in dismay, Mayes laid out and clasped the ball in his hands just before it reached the ground. Ray Zellars finished the job to put Notre Dame ahead 7- 3 at the end of the first quarter. Irish fortunes were on their way up.
Gaining the ball deep in Air Force territory due to a personal foul call against the Falcons, Powlus once again connected with Mayes on a 25-yard touchdown strike. With the aerial grab, Mayes broke the single season team touchdown reception record of Jack Snow. The crowd exploded with celebration for the touchdown and jubilation for Mayes, who had been the most outstanding player for the Fighting Irish all season. NBC’s John Dockery was right there to take the ball from Mayes and carry it to his parents in the stands.
Two plays later, the Irish recovered a fumbled pitch. On third and-one, Powlus launched another air raid. Under extreme pressure, he threw the ball to a wide-open Mayes in the end zone. With that, Powlus tied Notre Dame’s single season passing touchdown record. Emotion could not have run any higher for a team which had been badly abused all season.
Contrary to Notre Dame’s record-setting performance, AirForce’s option specialist Beau Morgan had been struggling with his passing game the entire half, throwing only three passes, two of which were complete for 24 yards. Notre Dame was capitalizing on the Falcons’ lackluster execution.
Like the 32-point lead Notre Dame boasted over Purdue that they whittled to 18 points, and the 34-3 deficit they hung over Stanford for part of the game, Notre Dame’s 35-3 halftime lead was no more than dust in the wind. Air Force capitalized on the first Notre Dame turnover in the second half. On a play action fake, Morgan fired a 51-yard missile, the longest pass against Notre Dame this season. He connected with Hancock, who beat the Irish defense to the end zone, bringing the score up to 35-10. It would be the beginning of a scare for the Irish, but that was nothing new. The entire season had been one big scare.
The Falcons continued to battle back, blocking a Ford punt and later recovering an onside kick to make it interesting. With three minutes remaining and a 35-24 lead, a Powlus launch to Stafford for 31 yards set up a Lee Becton touchdown and salvaged the little momentum the Irish had left.
Down by 18, the Falcons roared back and in just over a minute scored another touchdown. The Irish fans squirmed nervously on the benches as Air Force converted its on-side kick and advanced to the Irish 15-yard-line. While the scoreboards counted away the last seconds of the home season, a pressured Morgan heaved a desperate attempt which sailed safely out of the end zone. With the final home game a victory, the students who had craved a rallying point all season rushed onto the field.
In the press tent, old, scrappy Air Force Head Coach Fisher DeBerry was all complaints, citing the personal foul early in the game as being crucial. “The biggest play was when we had ’em stumped and they called the personal foul on us for holding a man out of bounds on the punt You just don’t see those calls in college football.”
“The water bill at Notre Dame is going to be awful high this week,” he quipped, implying Holtz had ordered to flood the field in a strategic move.
”That’s absolutely ridiculous,” Holtz replied to the laughter of the press, “I mean, gimme a break.”
But the spotlight belonged to junior Derrick Mayes. “Dock said to me before the game, ‘I’m going to find you when you get the touchdown.’ I wasn’t looking for him when I scored, but he was right there as if he expected it.”
“I just feel honored to be up there with Jack Snow, Tim Brown, Ismail, and Lake Dawson,” Mayes continued. “Hopefully someone will feel the same way about me when it’s time for my record to come down.” It was an appropriate way to end the final game in the true stadium. College football’s top receiver demolishes a team record, a first-year quarterback ties a record, the Irish win, students rush the field under the dark, early evening sky that blends into NBC’s portable lights and the raised gold helmets- not a bad way to end the long legacy on the venerable field.