With the win, Nebraska
raised its record in overtimes to
3-0. Nebraska defeated
Missouri in 1997 and beat
Colorado last season, but Notre
Dame was the only ranked
opponent (No. 25) of the three.
ND fell to 0-3 in overtime
games, losing previously to Air
Force and USC in 1996.
NU quarterback Eric
Crouch rushed for three touch
downs for the third-straight
game. His 62-yard TD run in the
first quarter tied his longest
rush of his career and was the
longest TD rush of his career.
“Right when they called it I
said it was going to the end
zone. I didn’t question Coach
Solich's call one bit. They (ND)
were going to try to plug the
middle up and we ran right out
side of them,” said Dominic
Raiola of Crouch’s game-win
ning score.
Joey Getherall’s 83-yard
punt return touchdown was the
f
first against the Huskers since
1988, when UCLA’s Darryl
Hennley took one back 75
yards.
The Irish had won their pre
vious two contests versus No. 1
teams. It beat Miami 31-30 in
1988 and Florida State 31-24 in
1993.
$ y
ND Coach Bob Davie on the
amount of Husker fans in Notre
Dame Stadium: “I think that
red must be a pretty bright
color because the 4,000 that
were there really stood out.”
When asked to name one
crucial play that kept the Irish
in the game, Arnaz Battle
pointed to Getherall’s punt
return and Julius Jones’s 100
yard kickoff return TD. “The
offense was struggling, and the
defense was playing hard and
special teams came through.
They gave us the opportunity to
win.”
■T. V
1
Compiled by Josh Camenzind
—
Mike Warren/DN
Nebraska l-back Dan Alexander rushes through the Notre Dame defense for 28 yards for a touch down with 8:47 left in the third quarter, putting NU up
by 21-7.
BY JOHN GASKINS
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — History, tra
dition, mystique ... those things don’t
really mean a thing when it comes to
the outcome of most football games.
But most games aren’t No. 1
Nebraska versus Notre Dame, at Notre
Dame Stadium,
■ For complete
photo coverage of
Saturday's game
see the Daily
Nebraskan online at
dailyneb.com
with the whole
world watching
and waiting for
something mem
orable to happen.
And when
you’re the No. 1
team in the coun
try and playing against a proud but
fallen program starving to resurrect
itself, with a mammoth image of Jesus
spreading his arms in the form of a
touchdown signal lording over you, it’s
hard not to feel mystified.
“The atmosphere out there was
just second to none,’’ NU quarterback
Eric Crouch said. “It was what college
football was all about.1 It’s the kind of
things you dream up.” ,
A dream game for the players,
coaches and fans. A dream game for
any Hollywood scriptwriter.
The Big Red faithful - including
around 15,000 of the 80,232 fans -
stomped on the grounds of college
football’s sacred shrine Saturday after
noon as if they owned the place.
But by the fourth quarter of the
Huskers’ one-for-the-ages 27-24 over
time victory, the dream swiftly turned
into a nightmare. The luck of the Irish -
and history - seemed to have turned
against Nebraska.
A kickoff and a punt return for
touchdowns that tied the contest at 21
in the fourth quarter had not only
awakened a crowd and nation full of
Irish pride, it squandered what had
been domination on both sides of the
ball and the early path to a national
title for NU. ; |
In the end, Touchdown Jesus, the
ghosts of Knute Rockne and the Gipper
and the legends of the Four Horsemen
and Rudy couldn’t stop Crouch, and
neither could the Notre Dame defense.
Down by three points in overtime,
the junior Heisman Trophy hopeful
rescued Nebraska from the grasp of
history and wrote his own, completing
a gutsy third-and-nine pass to Tracy
Wistrom for a first down, and then
scampering into the end zone two
plays later to clinch the win, all with
Touchdown Jesus hovering right above
him.
“Those are the kind of games you
dream of,” Crouch said, “the kind of
games you want all the time. You don't
want them until you’re done with
them. It was just amazing the way it
ended up. It was amazing the feeling I
had. It was a feeling of greatness, a feel
ing that you accomplished something
that maybe not a lot of people think
you would have and in front of a
national broadcast with all our fans
‘Those are the kind of
games you dream of, the
kind of games you want
all the time. You don’t
want them until you’re
done with them
Eric Crouch
NU quarterback
there. It means so much more than I
ever thought it would have.”
The dream turned into a nightmare
right after Crouch and Co. had seem
ingly started to put the game in check
midway through the third quarter. The
Huskers had just completed a crisp,
four-play, 59-yard drive in less than
two minutes with a 28-yard Dan
Alexander touchdown.
Then Dan Hadenfeldt kicked off to
Irish tailback Jarious Jones, who
promptly went goal line to goal line
almost unscathed, taking a tidal wave
of Irish magic with him.
Two minutes into the fourth quar
ter, it struck again. Hadenfelt punted
this time, and Joey Getherall returned
the boot up the middle - 83 yards for
the score.
Two kicks, two returns, two scores,
tie game.a
And one very bewildered coach.
Please see GAME on 12
BY JOSH CAMENZIND
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre
Dame went toe-to-toe with the
No. 1 team in the nation for 58
minutes and 53 seconds. And
then came the decision by Irish
Coach Bob Davie to sit on the ball
in the last 1:07.
Tied at 21 with Nebraska,
Davie opted to take his chances
in overtime. And he paid for it.
“It was the right decision,"
said Davie, who said he would go
for it again 10 out of 10 times. “We
had a quarterback that had com
pleted three passes up to this
point. I don’t think any magic was
going to come down from the sky
and all of the sudden we are going
to throw the football up in the air.
“I would do that again and I
didn’t ask anyone’s opinion on
that one. That was my call.’’
But nobody second-guessed
the coach after the game - not
even his own quarterback.
“I don’t think they wanted to
squander an opportunity to go
ahead and take them into over
time and beat them,” Arnaz
Battle said. “We didn’t want any
turnovers on our side of the field
to give them good field position
and kick a field goal.”
Cornerback Brock Williams
backed his coach, even though it
meant facing the Husker offense
’ at least one more time.
“I guess I agree with that deci
sion because he is my coach, and
that is who I stick behind,” he
said. “If we would have stepped it
up in overtime, we would have
won the game.”
Battle, Williams and ND had
fought back from a 14-point
deficit to knot the game at 21
after a Joey Getherall punt return
with 12:48 left in the fourth quar
ter.
The punt return touchdown
was the second special teams
miscue for the Huskers after giv
ing up a 100-yard kickoff return
for a touchdown and taking a 21
7 lead at the 8:47 mark of the third
quarter.
Davie said the two returns
were huge for his team and the
momentum of the game.
“From that point on, I don’t
think there was anybody on our
sidelines that didn’t think we
would win that game,” said
Davie, whose team racked up 317
total yards on kick returns. “I
never felt the whole time from
that point on that we would not
win that football game."
Instead of making the upset a
reality for himself, the university
and the fans, Davie’s team failed
to capitalize in the extra period.
After the Cornhuskers won
the coin toss and elected to play
defense, the Irish took the ball
facing the north end zone and its
own student body. ND was able
to gain a first-and-goal on the NU
#
Scott McClurg/DN
Notre Dame tailback Julius Jones returns a Nebraska kickoff past kicker Dan
Hadenfeldt for 100 yards in the third quarter, making the score 21-13.
sight-yard-line after a 15-yard
run by Battle. Julius Jones rushed
twice, gaining three and one
yards, respectively, and Davie
was faced with a third and goal
Efom NU’s four-yard-line.
“It was a boot action,” Battle
said. "They had two defenders
that were free, and I didn’t have
time to set up. It was just one of
those plays where they had a
great call.”
Battle was sacked for a seven
yard-loss on the play, and ND was
forced to take a three-point lead
with a Nick Setta 29-yard field
goal.
ND then gave the ball to
Nebraska for an ending that will
go down in history.
Huskers quarterback Eric
Crouch converted a crucial third
and-nine when he passed over
the middle to tight end Tracey
Wistrom for exactly nine yards.
NU’s Dan Alexander would
take his team down to the seven
with an eight-yard run. Crouch
then sealed the win and broke
Irish hearts with a touchdown
scamper of seven yards around
the left side.
Please see NOTRE DAME on “.S
