:: Notre Dame Football ::
Irish go down fighting at Stanford, come up short 45-38 in another high-flying, hard-running dramatic ending
Leprechaun Express: Notre Dame Football Intel Update, Nov. 28, 2009
Notre Dame went down fighting as Jimmy Clausen's final pass into a packed end zone was batted back with no time left on the clock, and the Stanford Cardinal prevailed 45-38 in Palo Alto. A nail-biter going down to the wire, with the ball in Clausen's hands, the game was emblematic of a hard-fought season fought toe-to-toe and wire-to-wire seemingly every week. According to media hype, it might be the closing chapter in another era of Notre Dame football. In any event, the two teams put on a spirited, hard-running, high-flying performance for the ages with nearly 1000 yards of combined offense.
In a losing effort packed with sensational highlights and spectacular Heisman-caliber performances by at least two Notre Dame players, Clausen threw 5 touchdowns, totaling 340 yards on 23 of 30 passing (77%) with no interceptions.
Golden Tate had 10 catches for 201 yards and three touchdowns of 5, 78, and 28 yards. Tate had 219 all-purpose yards, and both Clausen and Tate essentially have out-performed any other Heisman contenders with respect to individual performance.
On the 78-yard score in the first half, Tate shed three defenders who all fell down trying to deal with him. On the 28-yard score late in the game, Tate caught the ball to the left side of the field, then ran at least 40 yards weaving and cutting laterally to the right side of the field, past at least eight defenders, before turning towards the end zone leaving nearly the entire Stanford defense baffled in his wake.
Michael Floyd, the other half of the best wide receiver tandem in college football, had 6 catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns of 18 and 46 yards. The 18-yarder was a stunning catch in which Floyd stretched skyward out of the side of the end zone, and snagged a high catch in the split second one toe was firmly planted just inbounds.
The 36-yard catch by Floyd was off a nifty play out of the Wildcat in which heavy-halfback Robert Hughes took the snap and pitched to Tate in motion, who in turn pitched to Clausen, who had lined up as a wide-out. Clausen then hit the wide-open Floyd.
[AP is reporting that this version of the Wildcat is now known as the Leprecat.]
Notre Dame and Stanford, now annual rivals and a natural match-up as the two most prestigious academic institutions also playing big-time college football, first met in the 1925 Rose Bowl. That game, featuring Knute Rockne, the Four Horseman, and the Seven Mules defeating Pop Warner and Ernie Nevers, resulted in Notre Dame's first consensus national championship. The 2009 game, the tenth game of the season for Notre Dame decided by a touchdown or less, potentially could represent the closing of one era and the advent of another.
Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis returns for a meeting with the Notre Dame Athletic Director, who already had announced weeks ago that Weis's future would be decided just after the close of the regular season.
Amidst the on-field melee immediately after the final whistle, it was a respectful, solemn-faced Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh who accepted congratulations from a stoic-looking Weis. The Notre Dame coach looked every bit the NFL veteran, Super Bowl Champion, who fought hard and is ready for whatever comes next.
Notre Dame owes a huge debt to Weis. As the senior offensive coach of a New England Patriots team headed by a defensive coach, Weis had won three Super Bowls in four years. After Notre Dame fired Tyrone Willingham after three seasons, apparently without having a replacement lined up, Weis rescued the institution by taking on the task of rebuilding a program's foundations at their lowest ebb in a century.
After winning fairly well his first two seasons, Weis hit the balloon payment for the Bob Davie-Willingham downturn his third season, a losing campaign that anti-Weis media elements tend to average in with the two years since rather than the first two years. Since then, Notre Dame has looked strong but has had a couple of November skids. This year, Notre Dame has gone 6-6, with 9 games decided by a touchdown or less. Against a tough schedule, the losses have all been by a touchdown or less, with an average loss of around 4 points.
Meanwhile, Clausen and fellow junior phenom Golden Tate are rumored to be relatively high draft picks if they leave early for the NFL.
Clausen's performance, this day and all year, even playing much of the season injured, would have earned him this year's Heisman trophy if the award still were given on individual merit rather than team performance. There is little doubt that Clausen not only has had the best performance among quarterbacks, but among all players, especially among upper-tier teams.
Notre Dame led much of the way in a game featuring nearly 1000 yards of combined offense, with the Irish emphasizing the pass more while the Cardinal was heavier on the run. Notre Dame threw for 340 and rushed for 107, totaling 447 yards and more than 8 yards per play.
Against a Notre Dame defense that made great stops and some big plays, Stanford nevertheless rolled up 280 yards rushing, to go with 216 yards passing, for 496 total yards, roughly 7 yards per play. Stanford's hero, as expected, was Heisman contender running back Toby Gerhart, who had 206 yards on 29 carries, at 7.1 yards per carry, for 3 touchdowns. Gerhart threw for a fourth touchdown on a halfback pass.
Early in the first quarter, both teams fumbled deep in their own territory, and each team scored a touchdown to take advantage of their respective opportunities. First it was Stanford going up 7-0 on a 4-yard Toby Gerhart run, then Notre Dame tying with a Clausen 5-yard pass to Tate.
Stanford made it 10-7 when former-Notre Dame transfer Nate Whitaker made good on 40-yard field goal.
Notre Dame kept the offensive storm going with a 15-yard pass from Clausen to Michael Floyd to give Notre Dame a 14-10 lead still in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Whitaker added a 47-yard field goal to make it 14-13, while Notre Dame kicker David Ruffer widened the Irish lead to 17-13 with a 40-yard boot.
Ironically, Whitaker apparently left Notre Dame to try to get more playing time. Ruffer, Notre Dame's current starter in the absence of the injured Nick Tausch, walked on after playing at William and Mary, transferring to Notre Dame, and first playing interhall football for a Notre Dame dormitory in full-pads intramural football.
Notre Dame would open an 11-point lead with an eye-popping 78-yard pass and run from Clausen to Tate that put the Irish up 24-13, still in the second quarter.
Stanford made it 24-20 after a 1-yard touchdown run by Owen Marecic, the score at the half.
In the third quarter, Notre Dame lit it up again with the 46-yard scoring toss from Clausen to Floyd, regaining an 11-point lead, at 31-20. Clausen lined up at wide-out in the Wildcat, Hughes took the snap, pitched to Tate in motion, who in turn pitched to Clausen, who found Floyd wide open downfield.
Stanford responded with another grinding drive capped by a Gerhart 10-yard touchdown run to pull back to 31-27, which would be the score at the end of the third quarter.
Then another Whitaker field goal, from 29 yards out, made it a 1-point game, 31-30, early in the fourth quarter before Notre Dame responded again.
Notre Dame drove 80 yards in four plays to go up 38-30 with 12:56 to go, when Clausen hooked up with Tate for a stunning 28-yard touchdown pass and run. Tate caught the ball on the left side of the field, and ran, danced, and cut nearly 50 yards laterally, beating as many as eight Stanford tacklers, before cutting back towards the end zone for the score with almost an entire defense left baffled in his wake.
Stanford put together their own 69-yard drive and scored another Gerhart touchdown, this time a short pass, with 8:59 to go, followed by a two-point conversion pass from Andrew Luck to Jim Dray. These scores tied the game 38-38 with about 9 minutes to go.
Notre Dame was not able to mount a scoring drive, picking up only 19 yards and one first down, but burning about three minutes off the clock.
Stanford got the ball back with 5:48 on their own 28, and mounted a drive consisting of 9 rushes, 7 of them by Gerhart, with one pass thrown in. They got down into field goal range, inside the Notre Dame 30, with roughly two minutes to go, with Notre Dame forced to start using timeouts to have time left.
But Stanford kept burning time, while working the ball inside the 10. Faced with the prospect of Stanford either attempting a short field goal, or punching it in, with no time left, Notre Dame did something rarely seen, but definitely part of the legitimate strategy of football, and allowed Stanford to score in order to at least have a chance to have some time left to come back and tie it.
With Stanford up 45-38 with about a minute to go, Notre Dame actually began mounting an impressive drive to took them down to the Stanford 31. But two sacks along the way burned valuable time, and spiking the balls with 7 seconds left, Notre Dame had only one play left from the 31. Clausen threw into an end zone packed with at least one-third of the players from the combined teams. Stanford's defenders, who had been burned all day, managed to bat the ball back out for an incompletion.
Notre Dame is still bowl eligible at 6-6, but needs to wait for teams with at least 7 wins to fill out bowl spots in the Big East bowl rotation or, if those spots are taken, elsewhere.
Prior to the Stanford game, after the double-overtime loss to Connecticut, Lou Holtz said he hopes Charlie Weis is back next year. Golden Tate, after Stanford, reiterated his hope that Weis will be back. Clausen has voiced his appreciation for Weis as well, and seems to continue supporting Weis coming back, as does, apparently, the team as a whole. Tight end Kyle Rudolph was supposed to be on the injured list, but insisted on playing, apparently telling ABC that Charlie Weis was the reason he was at Notre Dame, and that he likes Charlie Weis. Clausen, similarly, has credited Weis with Clausen coming to the Irish.
Keywords: Notre Dame Football, Stanford, Charlie Weis, Jimmy Clausen, Golden Tate, Michael Floyd
Leprechaun Express Site Map Main Divisions
Home | Newswire | Game Day | Depth Chart | Schedule | Irish Lore | Recruiting |
© 2007-2011 All Rights Reserved
While founded and directed by a Notre Dame alumnus, this site itself has no official affiliation with, or licensure from, the University of Notre Dame du Lac. It does recommend you also visit the official Notre Dame Athletics site at www.und.com. Go Irish!
Steven C. Welsh, Editor and Contributor
Steven C. Welsh, Web Design and Graphic Design
