November 16, 1996
Notre Dame Pittsburgh Final Stats
By Jeremy Dixon, The Scholastic 1996 Football Review
On an unseasonably warm November day in South Bend, impending storm clouds were swirling. These clouds were not in the atmosphere, however. They were surrounding Lou Holtz. Two days before the game, ESPN reported that Holtz would announce his resignation the following week. The national media took its cue and set up camp at Notre Dame. Soon all the major networks confirmed the story, prompting NBC’s John Dockery to make the pregame announcement that “Lou Holtz will not be coaching the Irish next year.”
But Holtz and the administration side- stepped questions both before and after the game. When asked if he would be at Notre Dame next season, Holtz said, “I don’t know. I’m not a fortune teller.” Athletic Director Mike Wadsworth and Executive Vice-President William Beauchamp also refused to speculate, saying the decision was Holtz’s to make.
How the team would react to the rumors and allegations surrounding its leader became of prime importance once the game began. And from the first quarter alone, Irish fans suspected that the hearts of the players were not in the game. Pitt came out and moved the ball to the Irish 36 before consecutive sacks by Kory Minor and Lyron Cobbins forced a Panther punt. It was not until the second Irish offensive drive that they moved the ball, which they did in the same manner as they had the previous week against Boston College – they ran the ball down the defense’s throat. But as the first quarter ended, the game remained score less.
With the start of the second quarter, though, the floodgates opened. The Irish racked up 40 points before the half on their way to a 60-6 cakewalk over the Panthers. After Pitt stopped the Irish on a fake field goal attempt, it was unable to move the ball. Enter Allen Rossum. Fielding a punt at his own 45, he burst through the middle and beat Curtis McGhee down the sideline for a touchdown. Suddenly the Irish were winning and the crowd was jubilant. But that was just the beginning.
Ii took a mere four plays on their next possession for the Irish to find the end zone again, sparked by a career-long 32 yard reception by tight end Pete Chryplewicz. Sophomore Jamie Spencer took advantage of his first career start to outrun the Pitt defense, rambling 40 yards for the score.
Trying to outdo itself, the offense produced more of the same after another Pitt punt.
This time, however, it took five plays to score. The key play on the drive was a 37- yard pass from Ron Powlus to Shannon Stephens, which moved the Irish to the Pitt 15. Two plays later, Robert Farmer found the promised land. After a failed two-point conversion, Notre Dame was up 19-0.
From the first Rossum return, Pitt should have learned not to kick it in his direction again. But Nate Cochran lofted it to the speedy junior following another ineffective drive. Rossum took it at the Irish 17 and blasted up the middle before cutting to the Notre Dame sideline, leaving the Panthers’s punt-return team in his dust.
Rossum also left shattered Irish records in his dust. His four kick returns (he also scored against Purdue and Air Force) set a single-season record, breaking the record shared by “Rocket” Ismail (1989), Tim Brown (1987) and Nick Rassas (1965). He also tied the school record for most returns in a game, which he now shares with Brown and Vince McNally, who did it in 1926.
“Their punt returns were superb and our coverage was subpar,” Pitt Head Coach Johnny Majors said. “Their speed really killed us today.”
But Notre Dame was not done scoring. On its next possession, Pitt was forced to punt again. This time Autry Denson was deep for the Irish. Fielding the ball at his own 26, he broke through a mass of would be tacklers and cut left, racing down the sidelines for another punt return. By now, the crowd probably expected touchdowns off of punt returns.
“Rossum had just come off of defense, so he gave me the chance to run one back,” Denson said. “I was confident from the first run that if I got another chance I could break one.”
“When the score is 0-0, a lot of teams have confidence,” Pitt quarterback Matt Lytle said. “But when you ‘re down by two, three, four touchdowns, that confidence fades away.”
Unfortunately for Pitt, the Irish still had gas in their engine. On the first play from scrimmage, Lytle threw into double coverage and was intercepted by Irish safety Benny Guilbeaux. Five plays later, Powlus found Bobby Brown wide open down the right sideline. Brown stepped out at the 2, setting up Randy Kinder for the final score of the half.
The offensive display sent Notre Dame statisticians scrambling for their record books. The 40 points marked the most ever in any quarter behind only the 42 points scored against St. Viator in 1912. The 231 punt-return yards broke the game record set against Beloit in 1926. The Irish also broke the single-season record for punt returns for touchdowns, as Denson’s was the fourth of the season.
Fortunately for the Panthers, the Irish decided to play their reserves in the second half. Jarious Jackson entered and completed four of seven passes with one touchdown. Freshman Joey Goodspeed and senior Kevin Carretta also found pay dirt for their first career touchdowns.
The Irish pounded Pitt on a day when off the-field distractions could have doomed them. The 60 points were the most posted by the Irish since 1986, Lou Holtz’s first year. At the end of the game, no one in the stands was sure what the coach would do next year, but three days later everyone would know that this would be his last season on the Irish sidelines.