Notre Dame @ USC 11/25/2006

This is a really important game

Leading up to last year’s epic match-up in South Bend as well as this year’s game at The Coliseum, with all the BCS implications, there’s plenty of rehashing of the legendary games between the two storied programs (ESPN and SI have a few in their archives). For me, the one ND-USC game that will always be prominent in my memory is the 38-37 win by the Irish in 1986, a game the Irish won on a last-second field goal.

I did not grow up as a kid with a Joe Montana jersey, nor did I even follow college football until, well, I was actually in college. The lone time I recall watching ND play on TV was the 1983 Liberty Bowl, and even then I was only watching because we lived firmly in Boston College country (I secretly was rooting against BC that day).

My freshman year began with a new coach and a team that was 4-6 entering Thanksgiving weekend, with 5 of those 6 losses by a combined 14 points. It seemed that while another loss was possible, even probable, it would not swing much emotion on campus either way. Many students had retreated to the safety of their hometowns for the holiday weekend, and a group of guys from the dorm collected after dinner to watch the second half of the game on a small black and white TV. Our 3-day buzz was enough to keep us from readily grasping the significance of the 19-point comeback the Irish staged that day, and CBS was kind enough to not even broadcast the final winning 19-yard FG by John Carney:

Although the No. 1 vs. No. 2 match-up two years later would be more significant, this game, in Lou Holtz's inaugural year with the Irish, re-established ND's gridiron credibility. Irish rebound from a 37-20 fourth quarter deficit and are saved by a 56-yard punt return by Tim Brown to the Trojan 16 in the final minute. CBS misses John Carney's game-winning field goal as time expired because the network was showing a commercial.

Go Irish. Beat SC.