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Sunday, August 5, 2007
Tech needn’t worry about old ghosts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The myth of Touchdown Jesus and its resurrection power over Notre Dame football continues. This is splendid news for Georgia Tech, because the Yellow Jackets are 26 days from opening their season at the site of the most overrated home-field advantage in sports.
That’s right. The Gipper, Leahy and the rest left the Notre Dame campus for parts unknown soon after they helped the Fighting Irish slay Charlie Ward’s explosive Florida State bunch 14 years ago.
“It should be a great advantage for Notre Dame, because you’ve got the pep rally before every home game,” said Lou Holtz, the old coach, speaking over his cellphone with his famous lisp. Added Holtz, who ranks in Irish lore between the Four Horsemen and Ara Parseghian, “You have the walk from the church with thousands of people lining the way. You have the band playing the Victory March. You have enthusiasm everywhere. But you’re right: It’s not a great advantage.”
No, it’s not. Take it from me, a South Bend, Ind., native who saw more than a few Notre Dame ghosts push the Irish to improbable victories in the shadow of the Golden Dome. Those ghosts were exorcised in the 1990s around the time lowly Stanford surged to victory at Notre Dame Stadium after a ridiculous deficit. The late Bill Walsh, in his second stint as Cardinal head coach, displayed his noted sarcasm during his postgame remarks by saying, “Gosh, just to think I may have used the same toilet as Knute Rockne.”
There also was that implosion at home against Tennessee when Notre Dame blew another mighty lead. While trying to spoil Tennessee’s upset in the final seconds, Notre Dame’s walk-on kicker became the anti-Rudy. He drilled his short field-goal try into the butt of a Tennessee player.
Then there was No. 1-ranked Notre Dame sprinting toward a second national championship in three years, but visiting Penn State shocked Notre Dame in the final seconds. That was three seasons before the Irish’s infamous home loss in 1993 to Boston College. The week before, Notre Dame was heading for another national championship after surviving Ward’s No.1-ranked Seminoles. Then Boston College kicked the game-winner at the end in the direction of Touchdown Jesus.
We’re still in the 1990s. You had the Northwestern stunner, and the BYU stunner, and the Air Force stunner.
Then came the 21st century with Michigan State (as opposed to, say, Michigan) whipping Notre Dame in South Bend five straight times. There also was Southern Cal’s fourth-and-forever miracle and Reggie Bush’s dubious shove of Matt Leinart into the end zone to keep Notre Dame mostly a wannabe in monster games at home.
I mean, what in the name of Gerry Faust is going on here?
“The other team is very excited to play against Notre Dame, and they are going to play their very best at Notre Dame,” said Holtz, who countered by telling his Irish players: “There are very few things that would motivate me more than to play against Notre Dame, except one thing. To be able to play for Notre Dame.”
Still, Notre Dame Stadium remains a friendlier place than you think for visiting teams. It’s the noise. There is little of it when the game isn’t bigger than big. The Notre Dame students are always loud and loyal. It’s just that there only are about 6,000 of them at home games. That leaves more than 74,000 of everybody else.
“You have so many people who come to Notre Dame games for the first time,” Holtz said. “And they’re going, ‘Wow. There’s Touchdown Jesus. Look. That’s where Rockne walked. Wow. That’s the end zone that Pat Terrell knocked the pass down against Miami.’ They’re just in awe. They’re observing, but they aren’t fans, which comes from the word ‘fanatic.’ It’s not like traveling to LSU, for instance.”
Or Bobby Dodd Stadium, which was rocking on its foundation for last year’s Notre Dame game.
So all of this is a huge advantage for an already solid Tech team. That is, if the Jackets remember like everybody else visiting Notre Dame these days that the Gipper really is dead.
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