Road Warriors

Notre Dame escapes the unfriendly confines of Knoxville, Tennessee with a thrilling 34-29 victory over the 9th-ranked Volunteers

By Andy Hilger
1990 Scholastic Football Review

Knoxville, Tennessee, is nothing if not an exceedingly hostile environment to take a football team into. Football is a religion and the Tennessee Volunteers are gods. Opposing teams have been known to be shaken to their very souls. Notre Dame held strong though, and escaped with a win, their number one ranking and a ticket to Miami.

Rod Smith’s fingertip interception silenced the crowd and stunned an explosive Tennessee football team, preserving the victory for the top-ranked Irish. The Volunteers had roared back from a seemingly insurmountable deficit only to watch Smith, starting for the first time since the Michigan game, drift back and snag Andy Kelly’s pass five yards away from an uncovered Carl Pickens.

Smith, who had been burned by Alvin Harper on a similar play moments earlier, correctly read the route and adjusted his coverage. “I wasn’t really supposed to be in that position,” said Smith, “but I knew he was trying to go deep towards the corner of the end zone.” The two teams treated a crowd of 97,123 to “a tremendous college football game,” in the words of Lou Holtz. “We deserved to win the game. Tennessee could say the same thing.”

The victory locked up a second straight trip to the Orange Bowl for Notre Dame who, although top-ranked, were slight underdogs against the Vols. Ricky Watters’ discovery of a tough running style helped propel the Irish to victory. In addition to his own touchdown carries of 10 and 66 yards, the senior captain from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, threw a key block to spring Raghib Ismail for a 44-yard run which made the score 34-23 late in the fourth quarter.

Watters, after fumbling twice in the loss to Stanford, had seen reduced playing time in the four games since. Meanwhile, after a shaky outing against Michigan, Holtz revamped the secondary, landing Smith a spot on the sidelines.

“We were both on the outs,” said Watters, although both their silenced critics with with fine performances that day. But there was more than critics to be silenced. The second largest crowd in Neyland Stadium history erupted during every Tennessee uprising. The tremendous throng in attendance, accompanied by blaring loudspeakers, continuously rained down the chorus of “Rocky Top” upon the visitors. The Irish were prepared for just such a reception.

”The crowd was loud and all over us, but we practiced all week in this environment,” said Holtz, referring to a recorded simulation of Knoxville crowd noises which shook the Loftus indoor facility during practices. By week’s end, muffling the Tennessee faithful served as added incentive for the Irish.

The play which would have Rick Mirer drop to one knee to end the game was renamed “Rocky Top” during practice. The Volunteers, however, were determined to make such a scenario impossible. After a conservatively played first half ended with the Irish in front 10-6, Tennessee exploded on their first possession of the second half. Pickens, who ran through the Notre Dame secondary all afternoon, caught three passes and drew a pass interference penalty to bring the ball to the visitor’s ten yard line. Following an incomplete pass, quarterback Andy Kelly read blitz and called a draw play to Tony Thompson, who skirted into the end zone, giving Tennessee a 13-10 lead.

It was gut-check time for the Irish. Three weeks earlier, Tennessee broke open a 3-3 halftime tie with Florida with a kickoff return for a touchdown. They went on to tally 42 unanswered points.

On the next possession, though, Ricky Watters made it abundantly clear that Notre Dame would not suffer a similar fate. Twenty-four seconds after Thompson scored, Watters raced 66 yards into the opposite endzone to reclaim the lead for Notre Dame. Often criticized for his soft running style, the tri-captain ran over three would-be tacklers on the way to his longest run since his freshman year.

The see-saw battle continued on the next series. Kelly, who had a record setting day, guided the offense on a nine play, 80-yard drive which culminated with a 32-yard scoring strike from Kelly to Alvin Harper, who was closely defended by Todd Lyght.

The action did not stop there. “Effective but sloppy” became watchwords for the Irish. With a chance to put the game out of reach, Notre Dame moved inside the Tennessee five yard line on two occasions but generated only three points.

A 16-play drive stalled at the three when Rodney Culver fumbled. But an Ismail punt return brought Notre Dame back to the site of Culver’s fumble. Three runs failed to land them in the end zone, however and they settled for a 20-yard Hentrich field goal.

Ismail’s 38-yard return was the first flash of brilliance from the Heisman hoeful, but there was more to come. “Ismail is a huge factor,” said Tennessee coach Johnny Majors. “We tried all different kind of plays to keep the ball away from him, but he has such quick movement. He has the speed of Willie Gault, but with better open field ability. He’s like a blur and was a big difference in this game.”

A Donn Grimm interception set the stage for the Rocket. Ismail used his sprinter’s speed to get outside and outrun everyone for a 44-yard touchdown which seemed to put the game out of reach at 34-23.

“We just wanted to get a first down and keep possession of the ball. I tried to run up the middle, but bounced to the outside,” said Ismail. “I was expecting somebody to be there but no one was.” And with no one containing him it was off to the races. No one would catch him.

With 3:33 remaining, some of the Tennessee faithful headed for the parking lot. Kelly, who passed for 399 yards, quickly summoned them back. A 10-play drive which consumed only 1:44 culminated when Harper burned Smith deep in the corner of the end zone.

After a two-point conversion failed, lightning struck a second time seconds later after the Tennessee touchdown. Pickens, who seemed to be everywhere, recovered a perfectly executed onside kick. Nobody was leaving now. “It was the first time in 17 years I remember us not getting an on sides kick,” recalled Holtz.

Fortunately for the Irish, Smith was able to pick off Tennessee’s hopes of knocking off the number one ranked Irish.

“There was great effort by both teams,” said Majors afterward. “After they scored two touchdowns, we could have been out of it, but we came fighting back and had a chance to win it.”

“Notre Dame deserves all the recognition they receive,” continued Majors. “They won despite what I consider a very good perfonnance by us.” Holtz echoed Majors’ sentiment.

”This was a classic game. It was the longest day I’ve ever put in on the sidelines,” said the fifth-year coach. This “long day” included six lead changes, four of which came in the second half, and 924 combined total yards. “We’re not pretty,” Holtz added, “but we did come into a very diffIcult environment and win.”

After Smith returned the ball to the 17-yard line, Mirer got his chance. He walked into the huddle and simply said, ‘Rocky Top on one.” The clock ran out. Notre Dame hung on.

Perhaps no one was more pleased than the Orange Bowl committee. This victory locked up Notre Dame’s second consecutive appearance. When asked about a potential national title game with Colorado, Holtz responded, in typical fashion, “Penn State is a very good football team…”