September 2, 1995
Notre Dame Northwestern Final Stats
By Jeremy Dixon, The Scholastic 1995 Football Review
It was one of the biggest upsets ever in Irish football history. Northwestern, a team which had not had a winning record since 1971, a team that last went to the Rose Bowl in 1949, crashed Notre Dame’s comeback season party with a 17-15 shocker. Dreams of the Fiesta Bowl and a National Championship, were dashed by a team intent on ending the running joke their program had become.
“It’s not about talent, it’s about 11 guys pulling together. We all believed in each other a lot,” said Wildcat Head Coach Gary Barnett In a game that Northwestern fans will forever relish, the Wildcats held off the Irish at every crucial point of the game.
Nothing went well for Notre Dame. On the opening drive, the Irish offense moved the ball out to mid-field when tailback Randy Kinder fumbled a handoff from Ron Powlus. “I should have had it,” said Kinder. “The defense wasn’t involved.”
Northwestern, behind the running of sophomore Darnell Autry, marched through a lackluster defense. After rushing to the 8-yard line, quarterback Steve Schnur found Dave Beazley in the end zone for six points. Sam Valenzisi added the extra point to give Northwestern a lead they would not relinquish. “I think that [the fumble] really hurt us mentally,” said Powlus. “I don’t think we ever really recovered from that.”
The Irish offense seemed out of sync the entire afternoon. Passes were off-target, blocking assignments were missed, and the running game was never established. “We just could not seem to develop a rhythm,” said Irish fullback Marc Edwards. ”That’s all offense is, and we couldn’t seem to find it today.”
The Irish finally put together a drive at the end of the first quarter. Behind Edwards and Robert Farmer, along with a 26-yard pass to Emmett Mosely, the Irish marched to the Northwestern 15. The drive stalled there, however, and Notre Dame had to settle for a 35-yard field goal from freshman Kevin Kopka.
Schnur and the Wildcats came right back. The Northwestern signal-caller threw to fullback Matt Hartl for a 17-yard gain followed by a 10-yard run by Autry. On a third down from the Irish 40, Schnur connected with junior wide receiver Brian Musso for a 19-yard gain. Thankfully for the Irish, Schnur overthrew D’Wayne Bates, who was wide open in the end zone, forcing the Wildcats and Valenzisi to kick a 37 -yard field goal.
After the Northwestern field goal, the Irish offense seemed to wake up. Farmer and Edwards powered forward, setting up a 17-yard completion to Derrick Mayes which gave the Irish a first down at the Wildcat 10. Two plays later, Farmer danced into the end zone bringing the Irish within one. Then came one of the most crucial plays of the game. Kopka, the supposed savior of Notre Dame’s maligned kicking game, missed the attempt wide right. Shades of Scott Cengia clanging a PAT off an upright in the Florida Citrus Bowl last year flashed through the heads of the Irish faithful.
“I thought that the PAT that we missed really hurt,” said Holtz later. ”The snap was a little bit low, he rushed it a little bit too much, and the timing was off.”
Indeed, special teams hurt the Irish all afternoon. Northwestern’ kickoffs consistently sailed out of the end zone, while they would begin their drives outside of the 30-yard line. Scott Sollman, due to poor decisions on fielding punts and break downs in blocking, ,ended up with negative three yards in returns. Meanwhile, Northwestern’s Musso averaged 11 yards per punt return. “Special teams was a key factor, and it was critical to us going in,” said Barnett. The only bright spot for the Irish special teams unit was the punting of freshman Hunter Smith, who averaged 49.3 yards on his eight punts.
Holtz’s woes continued in the second half. After the offense went three and out to open the half, the defense seemed to stay on the sidelines. The Wildcats went 55 yards in three plays, topped off by Bates’ 26-yard touchdown reception, which gave Northwestern a 17-9 lead.
The Irish offense continued to struggle. Another fumble, this one by Farmer, stopped the Irish on the second play of their drive. On the ensuing possession, the Irish started to move the ball behind Edwards. But an incomplete pass and a fumbled snap stymied the offense again.
“The turnovers hurt us. The team that makes the fewest mistakes and the fewest turnovers usually wins,” Holtz said later.
In the fourth quarter, the Notre Dame defense came to life. After another Irish punt, the Wildcats started at their own 26. A holding penalty drove them back further before Autry was stopped for no gain.
On third down the defense came up with their biggest play of the afternoon: Paul Grasmanis brought down Schnur for the only Irish sack of the day, igniting Notre Dame Stadium and filling heads with thoughts of another miracle comeback. Backed up to their own six-yard line, the Wildcats were forced to punt out of their end zone.
Powlus and the offense played off the crowd’s energy on the ensuing drive. The junior quarterback dumped off a pass to Edwards, who ran up the right side for 14 yards, then optioned to Farmer on the next play for 15 more. Three plays later, Kinder rolled over the goal line for a two-yard score.
Due to Kopka’s earlier miss, the Irish were still down 17-15. A two-point conversion to tie the game seemed to be Holtz’s only option. The Notre Dame faithful held their breath as Powlus went under center. After a quick sigh of relief over a successful center-quarterback exchange, the crowd gasped in horror. Tripping over his center’s feet, Powlus fell to the ground and lofted the ball incomplete. The play, which was going to Mayes, never had a chance.
The Irish were not finished yet, however. With over five minutes left in the game, the defense came up big for the team, forcing Northwestern to punt after only three plays, and giving the offense the ball at their own 36. But the offense seemed to have nothing left. After three plays, the Irish faced fourth and two. Holtz rolled the – dice and kept his offense on the field. But a sweep to Edwards was stuffed by a pack of Wildcats, and the offense left the field quietly.
“A punt would have been logical with two timeouts left, but hindsight’s 20/20,” Holtz remarked.
With nearly four minutes left, the Irish now had to shut down the Wildcat offense again. But Schnur and Autry stepped up to the challenge, refusing to let the game slip away. Twice the defense forced a third down and twice Northwestern came up with another first down. As time wound down and Notre Dame depleted their supply of timeouts, it became apparent that there would be no miracle to rescue the Irish this time.
“You don’t ever think about losing here,” said Holtz later. “We all hurt at the present time, it’s very disappointing”.
But if the bottoming out of Notre Dame’s program looked to be the big story in the wake of the upset, it changed during the course of the year. To the Wildcats, what transpired was not a miracle, it was only the beginning of a year in which they would consistently astonish the nation. Northwestern would end their regular season 10-1 with a Rose Bowl bid.
But it all started with the Irish, who caught off guard by the ‘Cats. “I told the players when we boarded the bus that I didn’t want to be carried off the field when we won,” remarked a jubilant Barnett “I wanted them to act like we had done this before.”