Games like this built the legend. Thunder shaking and echo-waking, it could only be built upon a tradition of winning big match-ups like this, what though the odds. No. 5 Notre Dame added another brick to the house that Rockne built with its incredible 30-13 victory over No. 8 Oklahoma. And after 20 years of hype before substance, corporate ambiance over traditionally dominance, the Irish turned back the clock with a huge win, forcing themselves into a still-crowded national title conversation with an improbable upset over an Oklahoma team that was almost two-touchdown favorites.
This was vintage stuff, led by Manti Te’o and an Irish defense that bent but didn’t break, and a young quarterback that grew up in front of capacity crowd in Norman, Oklahoma. With the win, Notre Dame moves to 8-0, with a clear path to 11-0 and a date with destiny in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at the five things we learned.
1. Everybody in the stadium knew Notre Dame needed to run the ball to win. And the Irish did it anyway.
Few stats tell the story of a football game like this one: 215-15. That was Notre Dame’s dominance in rushing yards, with Cierre Wood, Theo Riddick and Everett Golson running through the Sooners, while the vaunted Oklahoma running game crashed to a halt.
Few things silence a crowd like an effective running game. And with the Sooners up-tempo offense putting the Irish on their heels early, Wood put an early dagger into the side of the Owen Field crowd when he burst up the middle for a stunning 62-yard touchdown run. The sprint pushed the Irish ahead 7-3 and gave Notre Dame the early lead it desperately needed.
From there, it was pretty impressive stuff for the Irish offensive line, with the impressive effort becoming standard fare for Harry Hiestand‘s linemen. The Sooners had only yielded 3.8 yards a carry and just under 140 yards a game. Against Notre Dame, they gave up 5.5 yards a carry and 215 yards, all of them earned against Mike Stoops‘ defense that certainly didn’t think the Irish passing attack was capable of beating them.
As the calendar turns to November and running the ball becomes even more important, Notre Dame now knows it can trust its two premiere runners. In Wood, the Irish have a slippery back with game-breaking skills. In Riddick, they have a slasher that isn’t afraid to gain the hard yards inside, sealing the game with a 15-yard touchdown that encapsulates his role on the team.
With Notre Dame needing to run the ball to win, the fact that the Irish did it when everybody else in the world knew it was coming is the next step in offensive competency. Saturday night was a huge step forward for this football team.
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2. With the weight of Notre Dame Nation on his shoulders, Everett Golson stepped up and played the hero.
His numbers don’t shine, but Everett Golson did everything asked of him Saturday night. In completing 13 of 25 passes for 177 yards, Golson didn’t light the world on fire, but he moved the chains, played mistake-free football, and was the confident leader Kelly was hoping would appear.
Golson wasn’t the most impressive quarterback on the field, but he was the one that played like the veteran. No snaps rolled through his legs, no miscommunications hurt his team. He knew when to throw it away, he knew when to tuck it and run, and he did his best to silence a gigantic crowd, helping the Irish convert seven of 15 third downs, just about all of them critical.
The sophomore quarterback still knows how to send a chill through Irish fans everywhere, whether its holding the football like a loaf of bread or taking a gut-busting hit. But after suffocating under the pressure against Michigan, Golson stood tall against the Sooners and helped deliver a win.
No time was that more clear than when Golson hit freshman wide receiver Chris Brown on a beautiful 50-yard completion, with the towering spiral falling right into the young receivers hands for the first catch of his career. It was a throw Golson missed earlier in the game, but he dusted himself off and let it fly again, completing the crucial pass when Notre Dame needed it most.
In Golson, the Irish have something Tommy Rees — and a lot of other quarterbacks across America — can’t be. A talented runner, a playmaker, and a wildcard when the play breaks down. On Saturday night, that wildcard turned into trump, and Golson led the Irish to their biggest win in a decade.
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3. Manti Te’o wrote another chapter in his legend, and forced his name into the Heisman conversation.
In a week where Manti Te’o‘s stock off the field pushed further through the ceiling after this story came to light, the senior linebacker played a game for the ages on Saturday night, making a dozen tackles, sacking quarterback Landry Jones once, and catching an acrobatic interception that helped ice the game for the Irish.
At this point, we’re running out of superlatives for Te’o, with us half-expecting him to rescues a cat from a tree at halftime. But on Saturday night, he raised the bar again, showing himself to be one of the country’s most complete players, making tackles in space, playing well in coverage, getting after the quarterback, and helping shut down the Sooners running game in Notre Dame’s biggest game of the seasn.
A Heisman Trophy candidate is only as good as his football team. Usually that’d disqualify a Notre Dame player’s candidacy, as it did with Brady Quinn in 2005. But with the Irish 8-0 and Te’o playing at his best in front of a national audience, the Heisman chatter should rightfully turn itself into a full-fledged conversation.
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4. For a program in search of a signature win, Brian Kelly cemented his place at Notre Dame on Saturday night.
For the naysayers, Notre Dame’s win might have finally muzzled those that weren’t sure Brian Kelly had what it takes to be the head coach of the Fighting Irish. On the biggest stage of the year in enemy territory, Notre Dame came out and played their best, embodying everything Kelly said he wanted to build in his football team.
The Irish played stifling defense. Notre Dame ran the football with impunity. And on a night where the margin for error was slim, the Irish played all but error-free football, with only one penalty for five yards. This was a signature win for a head coach waking up the echoes in his third year in South Bend, a season where the cream usually rises to the top.
Saturday night was Kelly’s best game on the Irish sidelines. He consistently kept Bob Stoops and the Sooners off-balance with his playcalling on offense. He was tight but aggressive, limiting the Sooners’ opportunities with the football, but not falling into the pitfalls of a conservative game plan.
Just about everything Notre Dame needed to do, they did. Offensively, the Irish cobbled together a win with a young quarterback learning how to be great and an offensive line that put the team on its shoulders. Defensively, the Irish rode their star player, stuck with a four man pass rush, and stiffened in the red zone. It was a text book performance by a head coach that clearly knows the winning blue print for his team, even if it wasn’t the one that got him the job at Notre Dame.
There will be plenty of time for national kudos and postseason accolades. But facing an identity crisis last December after falling to Florida State and ending another season 8-5, Kelly doubled-down on himself, and those changes made all the difference in the world.
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5. Celebrate tonight’s victory as hard as you want, but you’re a fool if you don’t think danger lies ahead.
This similarities between tonight’s victory and the 2002 win over Florida State in Tallahassee are uncanny. While the Irish didn’t need special teams fortune and plenty of good luck to spring the upset this evening, Notre Dame’s last 8-0 season suffered a heart-breaking failure just a Saturday later, when the Irish fell to Boston College 14-7 after a stunning implosion.
Now it’s time for Notre Dame to keep an eye on the prize. Because looking too far ahead could be intoxicating. After a win over the Sooners, the schedule opens up nicely for the Irish. With Florida’s loss, the Irish knock another SEC team out of their way, pushing them up the BCS rankings by default.
With 4-4 Pitt next Saturday, downtrodden Boston College in two weeks, and a mediocre Wake Forest team following that, Notre Dame should be heavy favorites in their next three football games. And with Arizona moving the ball at will on USC in their upset of the Trojans, the recipe has been established for beating Lane Kiffin’s talented but flawed team on Thanksgiving weekend.
In 2002, the Irish lost after donning green jerseys and getting a case of fumble-itis that will likely never be duplicated again. The Irish laid the ball on the turf an astonishing seven times, losing three. Add in an interception and winning the yardage battle by almost 200 yards wasn’t enough to beat the Eagles, who have made their name on crushing Irish dream seasons.
Brian Kelly has said all the right things when it comes to avoiding the noise and not believing the press and hype that come with playing for one of America’s most popular teams. His job will become even harder starting tomorrow, with Notre Dame feeding crow to dozens of talking heads across the national airwaves.
But this journey is far from complete. With the Irish entering the season’s final quarter, Notre Dame need to keep their head down and plow forward, continuing to do the things that got them this far.
It’s certainly easier said than done, especially after a historic win like this.
