When this series began, a top-25 Notre Dame under Charlie Weis walloped Nevada to begin a hopeful 2009 season. Three months later, the Irish staggered into Palo Alto after three straight losses hoping to send their doomed coach out with a victory against a growing nemesis in the West.
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Something, Anything to Cheer For
While Jim Harbaugh had been the head coach at Stanford since 2007, this was really the first year that proved the Cardinal could be something great. Stanford was bowl-eligible for the first time since 2001 and had beaten both of the contemporary Pac-10 powers of Oregon and USC. They so thoroughly destroyed the latter at the LA Coliseum that USC hasn’t been the same since.
The Cardinal offense was led by Heisman finalist Toby Gerhart who would rush for nearly 1,900 yards on the season. Freshman Andrew Luck would go on to be the future #1 overall pick and NFL star, but Gerhart was the engine of this team. In many ways, Stanford was similar to ND in this season with a great offense (#4 in SP+) and a terrible defense (#84). But the sea change was finally beginning to take hold under Harbaugh and they were prepared for a decade of dominance on the national stage.
Meanwhile, this would be the last hurrah for Charlie Weis. It had been an embarrassing week under the dome, with Jimmy Clausen’s black eye after the loss to UConn and Weis’ future dominating the headlines. However, Notre Dame had dominated the Cardinal in the 2000s, winning seven in a row going into the 2009 match-up. Even with Stanford installed as a 10-point home favorite, the Irish could prove they had one last trick up their sleeves…
Game Highlights
Click here for the full game. If you want DownInTheBend’s condensed games from the 2009 season, you can find those here.
Some Thoughts
- Sure enough, the intro for the ESPN/ABC broadcast spent five minutes talking about Clausen wearing sunglasses to cover his black eye and Weis crying before the UConn loss. This is your reminder that things could always be worse than 31-6 over a three-year period.
- In typical Weis-ian/BK against Michigan fashion, the Irish forced a three-and-out on Stanford’s first offensive series before Theo Riddick fumbled on ND’s first offensive play. Gerhart scored three plays later. Then the Irish capped a strange start by forcing a Stanford fumble to set up their first score.
- A wildly entertaining first half saw big plays from all of ND’s stars. Michael Floyd got one foot down for a tremendous touchdown catch, while Golden Tate was himself yet again. In one of his most famous plays at ND, Tate ran under the highest pass ever to beat Richard Sherman for a 78-yard touchdown.
- In his final game, Weis emptied the playbook. Everyone remembers the double reverse flea flicker to Floyd for a touchdown, but have you ever seen this play? I’d be interested in bringing that weird play design back.
- #RobertHughesDeservedMoreCarries
- The Irish defense was… well you already know. In a season full of bad performances, this might have been the worst albeit against a great offense. The featured image for this article is a good indication of what transpired on the field.
- In one of his other most famous plays at ND, Tate weaved his way through nine defenders for a touchdown. He finished with 10 catches for 201 yards and three touchdowns, his second 200 yard game and sixth multi-TD game of the year.
- On the other side, Toby Gerhart racked up 256 yards from scrimmage including a back-breaking touchdown pass on 4th and 2 to tie the game. He then ground the Irish defense down on the last possession to the point where Weis and Tenuta let him score rather than avoid losing on a game-ending field goal.
- After letting Stanford score on purpose, Clausen led the Irish to the cusp of the Cardinal redzone only to fall short. The final play of the 2009 season would be a batted Hail Mary.
The End
In re-watching this game, I saw how happy the Irish sideline was once Notre Dame went up 38-30. You could almost sense the relief they had in thinking, “We might actually send Coach Weis out with a win.” For as bad as the 2009 season had been, they probably thought they could salvage something out of the embers of the Weis Era.
College football is great, but it’s also cruel which is why the Irish let another winnable game slip away. In many ways, this game was a microcosm of the 2009 season. The Irish offense showcased its immense star power only to fall short because of an anemic defense. Clausen, Tate and Floyd were good enough to keep the team in every single game, but couldn’t overcome a disaster movie on the other side of the ball.
It was announced soon after this game that Weis would not stay out on the West Coast to recruit but instead would meet with Jack Swarbrick back in South Bend. Nobody had any doubt as to what would transpire. Sure enough, Charlie Weis was fired as Notre Dame’s head coach on November 30th with a record of 35-27.
The 2009 season was over and an era of Irish football ended alongside it. Now, Swarbrick had to make the biggest hire of his career in only his second year as AD. As we’ll see next week, there was only one possible option as the next savior of Notre Dame football…
Other Things that Happened that Week
- #5 Cincinnati beat Illinois 49-36 to improve to 11-0. All that remained for Brian Kelly was a de facto Big East Championship Game against Pitt in what would be the most-watched non-ND game by Irish fans.
- We didn’t know it yet, but Pete Carroll had coached his last game at USC. The Trojans beat UCLA and then Carroll was off to the NFL, this time for good. In other coaching news, Bobby Bowden announced he would step down after Florida State’s bowl game.
- In a different era of the sport, South Carolina began a five-game winning streak over Clemson by beating the #15 Tigers 34-17.
- #2 Alabama survived a huge upset against 7-5 Auburn where Mark Ingram had 51 yards from scrimmage at 2.7 yards per play. Yeah, Toby Gerhart was robbed that year.
- A fun weekend of football was capped by BYU beating Utah in overtime in a ranked match-up. That game should always be played at the end of the season.
Strip out all context, and this game was one of the most purely fun games I ever remember watching. (This was also the first game I ever saw in high-def, for whatever that’s worth.) As you point out, Weis completely emptied his playbook. Every silly trick play, unusual formation or goofy concept was unleashed. You got the impression he was enjoying it as much as anyone at times.
Also, Golden Tate was the best player in college football in 2009. They don’t give the Heisman to 6-6 teams, but he was.
In terms of the 2009 fun index, I think the Stanford game is second only to Washington.
Ndomakong Suh* was robbed that year.
That too!
Two big differences between this year and that. First, we won. Second, there appear to have been things called fans in the stands. I heard crowd noise in the background. What a difference a decade makes.