Notre Dame Football Review
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Future Notre Dame Schedules 1987 1988 September 12-at Michigan September 10-MICHIGAN September 19-MICH. STATE September 17-at Mich. State September 26-at Purdue September 24-PURDUE October 1O-at Pittsburgh October 1-STANFORD October 17-at Air Force October 8-at Pittsburgh I October 24-USC October 15-MIAMI October 31-NAVY October 22-·AIR FORCE November 7-BOSTON October 29-at Navy COLLEGE November 5-RICE November 14-ALABAMA November 19-PENN STATE November 21-at Penn State November 26-at USC November 28-at Miami 1990 1989 September 15-MICHIGAN September 16-at Michigan September 22-at Mich. State September 23-MICH. STATE September 29-PURDUE September 30-at Purdue October 6-STANFORD October 7-at Stanford October 13-AIR FORCE October 14-at Air Force October 20-MIAMI October 21-USC October 27-at Pittsburgh October 28-PITTSBURGH November 3-at Navy November 4-NAVY November 1O-at Tennessee November 11-TBA November 17-PENN STATE November 18-at Penn State December 1-at USC November 25-at Miami 1992 1991 September 5-at Northwestern September 7-INDIANA September 12-MICHIGAN September 14-at Michigan September 19-at Mich. State -September 21-MICH. STATE September 26-PURDUE September 28-at Purdue October 3-STANFORD October 5-at Stanford October 1O-at Pittsburgh October 12-PITTSBURGH October 17-ARMY October 19-at Air Force October- 31-at Navy October 26-USC November 7-BOSTON November 2-NAVY COLLEGE November 9-TENNESSEE November 14-PENN STATE November 16-at Penn State November 28-at USC November 30-at Hawaii Home games in ALL CAPS Vol. 7, No. 1, Ap~il 25, 1987 ' '·, ~: _:' ~: ' ··: . , ' ' ' >:·i:· '86 Oyer\fi~w::creatlrigTh~se Elusive Timesto .Rein~mber; . -~By John.HeisleT. ·- '6', ~i_chigan: Thescfipt·Read., ·:rusing:Froni the:.Ashes' .<.;.~;·;·~~By John Heisler- 12 -Michigan State: Back·Fromthe Brink Empty--Handed·~.·~-.';~ .-:By Scott Dzipree . .·16~~: Purdue: Boilers Perinit Irish-to ·salve :Their FrUstrations ... ~ . ~ .By_'Kareiz Croake : 20 Alabama: Settling ·ail' Old Score for ihcd3ear . ·: ; ; ... :. ·. -~ . ; .·; ; ... ·~By- JiiJz Daves·· : '> -24· ·Pitt5t;urgh: The Refrain :Remained Ever So Fahlliiiir'~. ~-.. ·~·· :·.By.Kliren Croake '-28. Air Force:~ Motivation Makes It ~I· Come; Together< .' .· ;.. : ·. ·.- .Bj karen. Croake.' · . .. ;:32 :-.Na-Yy: A Grand.Show .;...:..;·At Least' for a Hruf':·~·:>.·~ ~\;~.; .. <.By Scot~Dupf:ee~ ·' ·' · 3.6 BMU: :Offensive FireworkS Help Corral Mustangs_·;.· ; : .. ~ -~: _;·;··:<;By. Jim Daves'·: :-~ '-40 : Penn State: A #1 Effort Against a #1 Team ~ . ·.. >>;· ~ ._. :.. _.,. ·... .By Jolm. Heisler , · '44 · Lsu:· Saine _Old Sad Song for !~ish .... .- .. <~~.~<::.·~-.· .. ~-.; .By'Karen Cr_oake: :. 48 .:usc:· Thiids What' It's All About, Lou Holtz;;.·;·.·~ ... ·. .-~~ ..By John Heisler 54'·' Irish·items:-'-Footbalf~86:<·. ~ :·.· . ... ·.:~- . .- . .-. ;.:·-. ·.. :.:·.< ~-. ·:.·· ... ;·:B)'John Heisler:. 5.1 ·:.'87 Preview:T.ike·a Less·on. from: '86 Campaign to Gauge ··8·7· Irish·.:.- .By John · · .~·:··6o· 1986Final>;Jotre.Dame·Footbal~ Statistics · ·.·.· ·· . .:-·-'Heisler''· ,·.:.:: ... :· .. , .... ' " • ~ ~~ ..·:.:'.', . -,:. 1 .. · •t·... ·>.·.: . t'·-~-- ...• . ·•• ' . .. --:-·· < ,.. ,·: .. ·. ;.. ::.:: .. : . -• Irish 1Jye' is a. ,c9pyrigl:tted prod~ction of Sports Publications,· BoX; _1, .~ot~e· Dame, i -·~ _I~46556.. ; , _,:·_:· ... ~· .. ·. :.:::.~: .> .. , . _·: :::· ._ .. ~ :; ... -.•· __ :.. ,:·,. -.:·_.· . ,:-. · ·, · · . · Edit()r: John I:Ieisler; Eg~torial Staff: Ka~en Cr()ake_, Jim I?ave~, Scott Dupree. · Ph()tographyStaf~: Assqciate.~ Press, Bruce C~all?bers (Long Bea~h Press-T~l~gra~), < Chattailoog~: N~ws:-Pres~ • .Yicki Cq~rad, Brian pa~is,: Jo~n. Dlugolecki, Cheryl.Er~ . :: tdt, Hannes, Hacker, <;Jreg. K~hs;;· Rev. E ·Thomas.: Lallak~ 'L~U SportS, Informat~on;_.>: S~even Navratil; Bili J>an.zica, Yince·.we.hby. · . : · ~· . • ... ·· . •-. , ....: ·. =·: . Cover Art~ork:- Todd .Doney;: Co'{er Design:. SCl:-· C9m~unication; Printing: :Ave :. : ~~riaP~ess.· :·:::. ; .· :;·,·, ·.·- ·.. ·· , -~ · >:<·:.:,:< .::;·: :;,:· ':- .., • ..•. ' -. .• . -. © Sports Publications,.University.of NotreDame, 1987. All rights reserved. -:- ... Joh!z. Heisler, -~~itor: .~ :· .. ·, · · ··. ·. · . ' · ' ·· :::·~--:<_. .. · . -; ;. · - · . .'86 SEASQN· .... _ OVERVIEW .: . ·. .··.. Creating Those Elusive Times To Remember by John Heisler 17zis is the time to remember flabbergasted this time. His· most memora Sometimes its so easy Cause it will not last forever ble postgame critique? "You've gotta be To let a day slip on by These are the days to hold on to kidding me." But this is the time you 'II tum back to and Cause we won't And just· a week later, aro·und the corner so will I Although we'll want to from the bedlam in the Notre Dame locker And those will be the days you can never -Billy Joel room of the Los Angeles Coliseum, Holtz recall coolly and .calmly _accepted the miraculous Every Notre Dame football coach that Some day somewhere down the line, 38-37 Irish win over USC. The victory comes along has to find out for himself. Lou Holtz will remember back to his first didn't even make a winning season out of Ara Parseghian tells the story often - how season as the football coach at Notre the '86 campaign, but maybe it did even you can't describe. what the job is like until Dame. more than that in reaffirming that all those you've sat inthe chair and experienced it. It won't be remembered as the best of hours spent drilling on the practice field Part ofit involves living up to the times, but it won't be recalled as the worst . hadn't been for naught. expectations of a storied tradition~ Part of it ·of times, either. For, more than anything, Holtz couldn't help but think that the involves pressure - self-imposed or Holtz is a realist. USC_ triumph might make believers of a otherwise, because of what the Rocknes, After all, who could have better dealt . youthful team that had been told time and Leahys and Parseghians did in the past. with the sweeping gamut of emotions time again to keep its collective head up, Part of it involves the simple will to win produced by the 1986 season than Holtz? that someday the breaks would fall for the that any coach brings to his job. When Jim McKay first uttered the now Irish. Yet, even in that giddy setting, Holtz So, who better to assess Lou Holtz's famous line on ABC's Wide World of Spons kept it all in perspective. While his charges · adjustment in that role than someone who about the thrill of victory and the agony of celebrated their fourth consecutive victory knows him as well as anyone, his son defeat, he must have had Notre Dame's '86 .over the Trojans, he also understood - Kevin, a junior at Notre Dame?· · season in mind. Only the Fighting Irish even though the official announcement "I've never seen him work so hard as kept seeing replays of the skier crashing on didn't come for several days - that his he did this year," says the younger of Lou's ·the downhill run. Holtz's team skidded team's success might have ended the tenure two sons. down the home slope more than once last of his counterpart, Ted Tollner, at USC. "Maybe he felt he had to do it that way fall. Yet he kept his cool Saturday after. With that in mind, Holtz related a story because of the close games, thinking that Saturday, when he and those around him long after the final whistle had blown: · spending an extra hour here or there might had every reason to lose theirs. "I told the squad the other day about make the difference. Part of the bargain in hiring someone the peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown "It was such a strange season, because with 16 previous seasons of head coaching comes out and says, 'Man, I saw the usually you have one game a year that's a experience is that HoltZ figured to have greatest game. This team was getting ·beat tough loss and really frustrates you. This seen just about everything on a football all day. With eight seconds left, they had year there were five. field. But the '86 season managed to throw the ball on their own six-yard line and they "I think it was awfully hard after a few new twists his way. went 94 yards for a touchdown. Everybody coming so close against Penn State and Just as college football appeared on the was jumping and screaming and hugging then having to go to LSU ·and ·lose another verge of knighting Michigan's 11 defensive each other.' · close one. He even questioned his own starters, Notre Dame promptly went out in · "And Lucy looked at him and said, coaching ability a little bit. He'd say, 'Is it its season opener and didn't punt once 'How did the other team feel?' · something I'm doing wrong?' against that blue-chip unit. "We know what it's like because we've . "In the beginning, he had the attitude, Just when Holtz thought he'd seen all been on the other side a few times this 'Let's try to do the best this year with what the 11th-hour losses assigned to him for the year. Believe me, we've been there." we'.ve got.' By midseason, it was more like, : year, a two-point nail-biter at LSU Realism. Perspective. Call it whatever 'I'm going back to iny old ways of . produced yet one more. Seldom at a loss you like. Lou Holtz helped make some coaching and we'll. get it done and the for words, Notre Dame's head coach was days worth remembering. talent will come.' Later in the year, I think . --- " 4 -· -- ' ···• -·~---.--• .,~-.~ -----• -·~--~·,.----~.......--~-:·":""•·~ ,,.,,,.,_. __,..,.- ...... __.,.._., ..... :• • ..,._,."'"7,-·~ __ ,. ,....,..,..., ... ~- ·-...··-·---::--...·--.-~-.....,--···---.-...11'"" .. "'...-- • •· --·.--- ..,.,.....- .. ~- ............. - ----. • -·~· ..-~·-- ·• ~ • ···- · • ' .... , • •~-·- ·-..., .- r- · ___ .,.. • ¥ ~-·-·-····c•..... :-···· ...•. .' ··-"· ·-~---···-· .• --·-·-- _...:_ __ .:,. _____ '---·.. '...: ...•.•.• : ..• · .•. _; __ • __ ,...;.,~~-.: . .;_.:.:.... .C:.·.• :~.:.:.-.: ..... -~----~ .... ---- :_ _____ •. :....... ,;_ ---~- ····--··· :· .. - .... ~ _: ·-------------c--~ ·----···-·-·"--·-·-"---·--'''"··-'·--:..:...• 2 he saw more bright spots. Even if the team lost, he seemed to be able to see the positives - like the defense against Pitt.