Today we travel back to the late autumn of 1992, the scene, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Our protagonists the Fighting Irish come in 8-1-1 with a frustrating tie to Michigan and a home loss to the best Stanford team in half a century. The antagonists Southern Cal come in 6-2-1 with losses to UCLA and Washington, plus a tie against San Diego State.
I should note, this particular Notre Dame team was gooooooooooooooooooooood. Real good. They were +1.8 yards per play which up to this point was the best during the entire Holtz era and the best for an Irish team since 1977.
Of course, that ’77 team won the National Championship and this ’92 squad did not. However, this Irish squad was riding high with an all-time 54-7 embarrassment of Boston College (you shut your mouth about the following meeting) and the famous Snow Bowl come-from-behind victory over Penn State in the immediate preceding weeks.
As they flew to Los Angeles a major bowl game was still on the line.
If you’re reading this you’re probably intimately familiar with Notre Dame but a quick note on this ’92 USC team. This was Larry Smith’s 6th and final season as head coach of the Trojans–a man I’ve always thought was the USC version of Gerry Faust. Then-sophomore Rob Johnson was quarterback, and just to give you a sense of how much times have changed, he finished the season with a paltry 2,118 passing yards with 12 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
0:10- Check out the manager behind Lou Holtz with the less popular but still fly full-zip Starter jacket. Ten year old me is really nostalgic for that era of gear.
You may also notice USC wearing their 100th football season anniversary Tommy Trojan helmets which I actually think look better than their traditional helmet. But as so often happens most USC fans hate them, particularly since they weren’t very good in 1992.
0:20- Whoa, did USC get Charles Haley to be their mascot in 1992?
I have often wondered what this Irish offense could have done had Rick Mirer been more mobile. That’s not a major criticism but I’m not sure we lose to anyone with a QB who had serious wheels.
0:50- That’s a fullback with a cut-block, by the way. Not exactly the super macho way to get it done that we always seem to remember.
1:05- LOOK AT HOW MUCH ROOM THERE IS FROM THE FIELD TO THE STANDS.
This is a good shot at just how monstrously large the Coliseum is and how it had been re-purposed through the years and not always to football spectators benefit.
Have you seen current running back Tarean Folston lately? He’s really stout and well put together. Now imagine him an inch shorter but with some of the best speed of anyone in the country. That was Reggie Brooks at Notre Dame.
To this day, Brooks remains one of the most underrated athletes to ever wear a gold helmet. He was buried on an admittedly deep and talented depth chart as an underclassman, briefly moving to corner of all places. Then, he got some spot duty in 1991 and did this in 1992: 167 carries, 1,343 yards, 13 touchdowns. That was good enough for a 5th place finish in the Heisman and his 8.0 rushing average is probably the most impressive Notre Dame stat since the days of George Gipp.
2:00- Oh, dear Rob Johnson is about to die!
2:26- That’s a vintage Jerome Bettis touchdown run if I’ve ever seen one.
2:52- That’s Tom Carter with the interception whose son Alex was a 2012 recruit and chose Stanford. Such is the world that we live in these days.
3:18- Lou Holtz would go on to have spine surgery in 1995. I think we have video evidence of how he ended up injuring himself. Be careful with Lou, he’s little and fragile!
The postscript for each team couldn’t have been more different. The Trojans suffered their 10th straight loss to Notre Dame on this night and would go on to put together a classic got-nothing-to-play-for USC effort in their bowl game–losing 27-4 to Fresno State in the Freedom Bowl. The opposing quarterback that day was future Elite 11 head coach Trent Dilfer.
The Irish would swiftly defeat No. 3 and undefeated Southwest Conference champion Texas A&M 28-3 in the Cotton Bowl to finish the season with victories over 4 straight ranked opponents. This was the middle of an eventual 17-game winning streak for Notre Dame. Hey, the early-90’s were a blast!
Ah, those were the days.mwe had so much talent it was oozing out the sides of the team bus. Thanks for the good memories Eric.
That was the first squad I was really conscious for, beyond a vague ether of touchdown cheers. Growing up in Alabama, I only ever got to see the Irish play on TV. I was so excited to meet Reggie at the Senior Bowl. He took the ND hat off my head and signed it. I’ve still got that hat around here somewhere.
Eric,
A really lovely feature. I flew in from DC for the Michigan, Penn State, and Stanford games. By the way, ’92 Stanford was one of the games that got me and Lou Holtz discussing the eroding nature of our home field crowd for non-marquee games (and back then, Stanford was non-marquee, hard to believe how that’s changed).
Anyway, nicely done. Goodness that was one hell of a running game.