Following a 4-8 season it’s time again to discuss Notre Dame’s wandering in the wilderness. One of my favorite topics on this issue is debating which event or moment affected the Fighting Irish program the most in the past. There are several that are always part of the discussions:
*Admissions putting their foot down on the 1991 recruiting campaign, ending a 4-year run of No. 1 recruiting classes. Ace recruiter Vinny Ceratto subsequently left for the 49ers and the NCAA would later eliminate the recruiting coordinator (without having to coach) position in college football.
*The NCAA reducing scholarships from 95 to its present-day 85 in 1992.
*The utter heart break of the 1993 loss to Boston College.
*The loss of Randy Moss in the 1995 recruiting class.
These are logical and cold hard facts that go a long away to explain how things are different today, or as some are so fond of saying, it’s not 1988 anymore. As a Catholic school it can be easy to wonder whether there’s something deeper that happened, I don’t know like…a curse?
May I submit the decision to accept the Fiesta Bowl bid following the 1994 season as a curse from the college football gods? Or maybe God? Perhaps His Mother?
The 1994 season is fascinating to look back on due to its balancing act of impending doom and hopeful optimism. On the positive side, this was a program that was coming off a 64-9-1 run over the last 6 years and a 21-2-1 run over the prior 2 seasons. The ’93 loss to Boston College was the toughest pill to swallow but the team did rebound to beat Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl to finish No. 2 in the polls. Then you have the debut of super-recruit quarterback Ron Powlus with all of that hype and a start in the polls right where the Irish had left off: No. 2 in the country.
But it wasn’t all rosy. The Irish lost an enormous amount of talent from 1993, including 3 first round NFL Draft selections and 10 picks overall. What’s more, that “worst ever” (in the early days of recruiting coverage, at least) ’91 class were now seniors. Further compounding matters, the ’94 class set an even lower bar than ’91 and 7 of the 19 signees would eventually transfer. If recruiting is the life blood of a program there were definitely a bunch of warning signs for Notre Dame. The publishing of the gossip rag “Under the Tarnished Dome” also didn’t help matters.
’94 Regular Season Recap
The season sure started out like the glory years were going to continue with a 27-point beat down of Northwestern at night in Soldier Field. In his debut, Powlus dazzled with 291 passing yards and 4 touchdowns. The No. 2 Irish hosted No. 5 Michigan the next week and it came down to a wild finish.
A Jeremy Nau sack and forced fumble gave Notre Dame life, only to see Powlus fumble and Michigan tack on a field goal to go up by 6 points. But a 54-yard kickoff return by Mike Miller gave the Irish much hope. A few plays later, Powlus found Derrick Mayes in the back of the end zone for the would-be game-winner. Unfortunately, Michigan got across mid-field with less than a minute left and hit a game-winning field goal that was set up by a ridiculous completion from Todd Collins.
The Irish remained in the top 10 with 3 straight wins over mediocre Michigan State, Purdue, and Stanford teams although they needed a 14-0 second half to come back against the Spartans. These 3 teams combined for 13 wins, anyway. They weren’t very good.
Things blew up in week 6 in a much anticipated revenge game against Boston College. Instead of playing with an intense fire the Irish stumbled to 210 total yards in an embarrassing 30-11 loss. Powlus went a shocking 5 of 21 as the team lost 4 turnovers overall. This loss ranked #26 in my all-time worst Notre Dame losses from a few years ago.
They could’ve gotten back on the horse while hosting BYU but were shut out in the second half (this is why your dad always talks about Holtz’ offenses and why he complained so much) and lost 21-14. Three losses by mid-October was not something Irish fans were familiar with, neither was being unranked–the first time since November 1986 Notre Dame held that honor.
A 38-point outburst in the first half against Navy briefly made Irish eyes smile then in Orlando at the Citrus Bowl a Florida State team looking for its own revenge out-gained Notre Dame by almost 300 yards in a 7-point win that flattered the visitors. That made it 4 losses in the first 9 games.
The season’s final home game* saw another offensive explosion in the first half against an academy team–this time Air Force–in an easy victory. A win in the regular season finale might have saved some face but of course the Irish ended up tying USC inside the L.A. Coliseum.
*The 1997 stadium expansion has long been blamed as a curse and there’s plenty of evidence to point to such a malady. But how do we explain the 1994-96 mediocre seasons? Well, the expansion was announced in May 1994 after all! Perhaps Crossroads will lift the curse?
6-4-1 Invited to the Fiesta Bowl? How?
First, we need to talk about the Bowl Coalition, remember that? It lasted 3 brief years (1992-94) and was a big reason why Notre Dame made it to the Fiesta Bowl. That, and college football and its bowls are so damn dumb. Notre Dame is also the main reason why the Bowl Coalition would morph into the Bowl Alliance in 1995.
Here’s the deal: The SEC, Big 8, Southwest, ACC, and Big East all participated. The Pac-10 and Big Ten still sent their league winners to the Rose Bowl but otherwise played along. The Tier 1 bowls were the Orange, Sugar, Cotton, and Fiesta. To be invited, you had to be a conference winner, an at-large conference runner-up, the 3rd-place SEC team (the loser of the SEC title game was contractually obligated to the Citrus Bowl), or Notre Dame.
In 1994, the Orange welcomed Big 8 #1 Nebraska (they won the national championship) and Big East #1 Miami.
The Sugar welcomed ACC #1 Florida State and SEC #1 Florida.
The Cotton welcomed Pac-10 #2 USC and Southwest #1 Texas Tech. Actually, Texas A&M was by far the SWC league champion (10-0-1 overall) but were serving a post-season ban. There was a 5-way tie for the SWC league title, and the Cotton selected the 6-5 Red Raiders. It was dumb, they got slaughtered.
The Fiesta welcomed Big 8 #2 Colorado which left several teams vying for the final Tier 1 slot: Big East #2 Virginia Tech (8-3), ACC #2 NC State (8-3), and thanks to another bowl ban (Auburn) SEC #3 Tennessee (7-4). Or, the Fighting Irish of course.
With the history and bowl set up it doesn’t seem as ridiculous, but it was still ridiculous. Here’s a snippet from the season review Scholastic Magazine:
If you can’t have a good game on paper, take one filled with tradition and intrigue for television. And add it to your long list of reasons why Notre Dame belonged in the Fiesta Bowl.
You can almost smell the Notre Dame snobbery.
Even after a bad season Notre Dame had so much national cache and the Fiesta Bowl executives chose TV ratings over anything else. The Irish also had a nice rivalry with the Buffaloes having played them twice in major bowl games in recent years, both with Colorado being #1 in the country heading into the post-season.
It was also to be Colorado head coach Bill McCartney’s final game before his retirement. In addition, the Buffaloes were playing with recent Heisman winner Rashaan Salaam, too.
If most of the country didn’t think Notre Dame belonged the choice to wear green jerseys in an attempt to Wake Up the Echoes backfired and looked horrible. For those of you in your 20’s and 30’s this was likely your first memory of the green jerseys equaling something to be avoided at all costs.
In the actual game, the Irish were blown off the field by Kordell Stewart and Salaam opening up a 31-3 lead near the end of the 2nd quarter. By the final whistle it would be a 41-24 as Colorado put things into cruise control in the second half.
Do I believe in an actual curse from the ’95 Fiesta Bowl? Probably not, but it’s a game that cemented so much for the future of Irish football. It was arguably the first time in 8 years that Notre Dame was completely out-classed on the field–who knows how perceptions and morale evolve had the Irish faced Texas in the Sun Bowl and won? It was a huge moment in the “Notre Dame gets unfair special treatment” movement that still exists today. Combined with the abysmal ’94 recruiting class it was an alarm bell of epic proportions that things would never be the way they were from 1988 to 1993.
If we never get back to those days…
Ah. My freshman year. Thanks for dredging up the horrible memories of that Michigan game, still probably the best game I’ve ever attended in person, and my first in ND Stadium. What a way to start.
On another board (I think?) there used to be a poster who called himself “Curse of the Class of ’98.” We started in 1994 a year after the BC debacle, but with the sense that, like our predecessors, we’d see 4 years of great football and a national title run or two, if not actually winning one.
Instead we got a 6-4-1 Fiesta Bowl, Ivory Effing Covington having to save our buts with a tackle against Army, an at-the-time inexplicable loss to Northwestern (who then went on to win the B1G, but at the time, Northwestern?!?!), 2 losses to Ohio State, including one in 1996 that ended with me anger-drinking a bottle of 151 at the postgame tailgate and subsequently getting nauseous at the smell of rum for a good decade, an OT loss to Air Force over Fall Break, the force-out of Lou Holtz and the beginning of the Bob Davie era, and a last-second game-saving tackle against Navy by Allen Rossum….though looking back I suppose at least then we could be upset about ALMOST losing to Navy…
That was also the start of the bowl futility streak–so I guess the college football gods did punish us for going to a bowl we didn’t belong in, and it took until 2009 to exorcise that.
You’re old. 🙂
Damn, I forgot to add that was the beginning of the bowl futility, too. Another great point.
I am, in fact, old.
But not “More Noise” or “Kiwi” old.
Harumph. Hey KG, I was gonna defend you vis a vis Eric and comment that, in fact, I m the Old One, and KG is just a young guy. But here you go calling me out!
Sorry to be so late, so of course no one will read this, but that’s OK. Instead of spending time on 18 Stripes, I was spending the night in La Roche Guyon, Rommel’s HQ prior to D-Day, but all that is in the past, so all I had to go on last night was fabulous food, a superb Sancerre blanc, and I must admit, the lady in question was awfully gorgeous in that French way… oh well, when you’re an old guy you just have those little distractions to count on…
You….you win. Man, so jealous.
About being in Rommel’s HQ and the good food only (just in case the Mrs. happens to read over my shoulder…)
Of course 🙂
Funny you should mention Rommel and D Day MN. I found myself, while waiting out a snow storm, watching the Longest Day on TCM yesterday. Of course it would have been more delightful doing so with a bottle of wine and une jolie fille. I have no one to blame but myself…… or maybe I’m cursed?
A classic – I’ve seen it about one jillion times (I run the battlefield study visit program for the US Armed Forces and when I take a group to Normandy myself, we watch that flick on the bus as we traverse France during the night…
We should organize an 18 Stripes visit to the Roots of Notre Dame and besides Le Mans and Paris and the wine, we’ll go to Normandy and look at the sites where some of our Fighting Irish forebears fought in ’44.
I want to make it to Normandy someday.
Though I will go out on a limb and assume I’m the only board member who has been to Iwo Jima. I did watch “Letters from Iwo Jima” on the plane down.
Now I’m jealous!
Back on topic a bit — I see Stephon Tuitt is back in the lineup. It’s funny, but I’m old enough to remember when college football was bigger than the NFL — and my interest in NFL teams these days still tends to go where ND guys have landed. And from what I’ve seen, many of us are somewhat the same. I just have to think that if we’re cursed because of that ridiculous decision to wear green in a game we had no business being in (that having the actual sin of desperation hubris that may have triggered this curse) that this kind of spirit will NOT stay cursed forever. But there I go being an optimist again…
I consider growing old my greatest accomplishment in life.
I highly recommend it vs the alternative
Indeed!
So, this all started when KG arrived at ND ? Is it possible he’s the curse?
@Perhaps he should do the honorable thing and get the tanto out?@
PLEASE! note the sarcasm.
You may be on to something by saying “get the Tonto out.” I’ve believed for years that the expansion was built on an old Indian burial ground. I think this year proves that Crossroads has managed to envelop even more of the hallowed land. Watch: this Summer a meteor will manage to fall on the practice field of Culver, taking out the entirety of the team not already placed on academic suspension.
A swing and a miss!
Heh. I could go on a long diatribe about how the idea of suicide to atone for losing or to avoid capture, etc. is overblown and appears mostly in stories rather than in actuality, but by the end of my post most of you would either be pulling knives on yourselves, or on me. 🙂
I … enjoyed? this piece. I don’t think “enjoy” is the right word. It’s a very well-written piece on a subject that pains me. So whatever the word is for that. I’m sure the Germans have one.
I agree, enjoyed the read. I’m not sure I believe in a curse, per se, but definitely an unfortunate turning point into modern program history.
/checks when Crossroads was announced
/sees it was in January 2014
/looks at ND’s record the past 3 seasons
Nope.
We won’t know until the Jumbotron begins operations.
Speaking of, here’s a pic I snapped from November on the field, the new jumbotron is going to be siiiiick, I believe it’s supposed to be the size of the entire light beige background. Seeing it in person was really startling and impressive, can’t imagine how great it will be once it’s actually working.
Once it’s fully operational…
Even in November, that grass is looking really good!! I guess the groundskeepers have shaken off the curse!
LMFTFY, hooks:
#RememberTheSix
Foster Sarell committed to Stanford. The curse continues.
Nice story, on a really good hockey player.
Someone gave this a thumbs down?
Pretty sure this Fiesta Bowl destroyed a tradition in my extended family of getting together for games. Read on if you actually want to hear it.
I was born in ’85. My mom is one of 7 and my cousins and I would all go to my grandparents to watch every game. I was old enough to watch the games in the early 90’s of course but I mostly just played with my cousins while the grownups watched. In hindsight, I think I remember everyone’s jubilation after beating Florida State and dejection after losing to BC (who is always incorrectly remembered as the dregs of college football). Aside from that I remember the Fiesta Bowl against Colorado specifically. Kordell Stewart stands out but mostly because I am a Steelers fan (not true of the branch of the family that are Ravens fans).
Anyway, I think I asked why we all stopped getting together after that and was told Notre Dame wasn’t any good anymore (by some fan of the whole brevity thing – may have been my mom). Sad time. At least the grownups remember championships. I have no memory of ’88.
I’m…I’m now sad.
Well, we didn’t make the clean break with fandom that I might have suggested. Gatherings for consequential games still happen although my grandparents have passed away. My cousin started at Notre Dame this past fall and that has been a shot in the arm.
Eric, you make me sad. But that’s what great writers do.
I remember the big tackle against Army. I ran upstairs to tell my dad that Notre Dame had won and he got upset because he’d been taping the game and I’d spoiled it for him. He’s an awesome dad, but I guess I got him on a bad day.
My only earlier memory of Notre Dame is missing the field goal against BC in ’93. Dad and I were watching in the kitchen and he was yelling at the TV.
Of course, there are many recollections of ND related tragedies since, with all manner of loved ones and enemies.
Man, curses get broken – the Sox and the Cubs are proof of that – but not soon enough.
Or maybe it was because the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs sent me to France in ’95…
Aside from curse talk, it is true that some losses can be defining (same for some wins, I guess). I was at the BC thing in ’93, the week after being at the FSU gloriousness. I was close around the corner to Lou Holtz (with my three year old son in my arms and Uncle Hank who grew up playing with the Rockne kids beside me) … when Bercich dropped the interception, I could feel the tsunami of miasmic bad vibes coming, and when the g-d field goal went in I looked at Lou… it looked like he aged ten years in a second. He was ashen.
Lou Somogyi wondered if losing to Stanford in ’15 in the last 30 seconds was maybe kind of like that for our team ever since. If so… time to buckle it up and change it around. Who has the magic mojo dance among us all?
A few days after ’93 FSU, I walked over to Grace Hall to watch the lighting of the #1 sign. Aaron Taylor spoke, and he said something like ‘We just beat Florida State, but we’re gonna have to play our best against Boston College to win’. The crowd laughed. Laughed.
Going back to my sophomore year in ’92, we just lose to Stanford. Some seniors in my dorm were saying every class was entitled to a national championship.
And then Holtz saying his greatest mistake at ND was playing to maintain instead of improve.
I really think by the early-mid 90’s a sense of apathy/entitlement hit. Can’t say it was the one single factor that led to our demise but it was significant.
Was at the FSU game in Orlando, my earliest memory of ND football (parents tied the game in with a Disneyworld trip). Unfortunate timing being alive for the ’88 – ’93 run but not cognizant until ’94 and the subsequent 20+ years of mediocrity.
If we were going to point to a curse, I’d say the Catholics vs. Convicts nonsense. That was the last time Notre Dame went undefeated, and every chance they’ve had to go undefeated since then has been met with a bungling. But more importantly it was the loudest pronouncement of the self-righteous mentality that has plagued ND.
Fans basically said “We’re better than you.” That concept permeated through the school, admin, and alums to the point of the program basically becoming like carpenters who choose to tie their hands behind their back to build birdhouses, then wonder why everyone else’s birdhouse is better. And isn’t that what a curse is? A creation of bad luck typically caused and continued by one’s own arrogance?
Hmmm, interesting.
Jimmy ran his program that led to the 1995 sanctions. Wounds of the score being run up on us was still very open back then. Your “loudest pronouncement” was specifically directed at Miami. We treated everyone else with respect.
The message was “We’re religious and you’re bad.” Is there a worse use of piousness than standing on it to take the opportunity of being judgmental toward someone else?
“We’re college students who made a funny shirt” was more the message I got.
Perhaps. And it was a clever shirt. When I went to the Sun Bowl in 2010, folks were still selling that shirt outside the game. That it was still a thing more than 20 years later suggests to me that it was rather heavily embraced by the fanbase, more than just a funny shirt made by college kids then forgotten about.
Notre Dame’s fanbase is one of the most disliked around the country. Overexposure is one reason, which the base isn’t responsible for, but self-righteousness and unmerited arrogance is another. And I don’t think this perception is really inaccurate for a large portion of the fanbase. I think Catholics vs. Convicts was the first and most visible tangible example of that.
I think the NBC contract is WAY more responsible for that perception, which probably existed in part at least before ALL of this anyway, then the t-shirt. I think if anything the t-shirt was an excuse for people who already hated ND and thought of it as the stodgy establishment to attach those thoughts to something.