Thoughts On The Notre Dame Versus South Florida Addition
How apropos in what is likely the most bizarre year ever in college football, Notre Dame has added an opponent that might have been its most surreal game ever.
The school announced yesterday that its lone 2020 non-conference addition to augment the 10-game Atlantic Coast Conference slate will be versus the University of South Florida at home on Sept. 19. The Bulls replace Western Michigan, whose season was cancelled when the Mid-American Conference opted not to play football this fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, 76 Football Bowl Subdivision schools are still moving forward with a fall season, while 54 are not. This meeting with USF is part of a three-game agreement, with future games to be announced later, one in Tampa, Fla., and the other at Notre Dame in a two-for-one arrangement.
This also adds to what I believe is the most favorable three-game opening slate in September (Duke and South Florida at home, Wake Forest on the road, and then a bye) since 1995 when the Irish began the year with Northwestern (home), Purdue and Vanderbilt (home). Of course, as a 27.5-point favorite over Northwestern, Notre Dame lost 17-15.
Regardless, everything appears to be in place for a 7-0 start prior to hosting preseason No. 1 Clemson on Nov. 7.
So how bizarre was the first-ever meeting between the Fighting Irish and USF in the season opener at Notre Dame Stadium on Sept. 3, 2011? Let us count the ways.
• Of the 1,297 games the Notre Dame football program has played, including 21 “vacated” wins in 2012-13, the lone contest with the Bulls is the only known one to have a weather delay and evacuation of the stands.
Because of severe lightning, the game was halted two hours and 10 minutes while USF held a 16-0 halftime lead. Then with 4:21 remaining in the game, another 43-minute delay occurred after a second evacuation.
The official kickoff was at 3:40 p.m. and the contest ended at 9:39 p.m. — a total of 5:59, making it easily the lengthiest game in school history.
• Notre Dame’s 508 yards of total offense was the exact double of USF’s 254. Propelling the Bulls’ win was their 5-0 advantage in turnovers.
To my knowledge, the worst turnover disparity in a Notre Dame defeat was 8-0 in a 38-28 loss at USC on Nov. 28, 1970 that cost the Fighting Irish the national title that season.
That was the game that was actually played in a far worse monsoon than versus USF and saw Irish quarterback Joe Theismann throw for a school-record 526 yards, a single-game mark at Notre Dame that still stands.
• The game’s initial series saw Notre Dame drive 76 yards in seven plays to USF’s 4-yard line — when the Bulls then forced a fumble by running back Jonas Gray that was returned 96 yards for a touchdown by Kayvon Webster.
The play was almost an exact replica — and into the same end zone — of an 81-yard fumble return by Tennessee that made it 7-0 in a 28-18 victory at Notre Dame in 1999, and a 94-yard touchdown return by Purdue’s Leroy Keyes that also made it 7-0 in the 1966 opener at Notre Dame.
Fortunately in the latter, Notre Dame’s Nick Eddy returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown in what would be a hard fought 26-14 win by the eventual national champs versus the eventual Rose Bowl champs.
Later in this same 2011 season, Notre Dame had the ball at USC’s 1-yard line when a fumbled Irish snap was returned for an 80-yard touchdown by the Trojans. That 14-point swing proved pivotal in USC’s 31-17 victory.
What are the odds ever of not one but two series in the same year resulting not only in a fumble inside the opponent’s 5-yard line but then also getting returned the other way for a touchdown?
Beyond mind-boggling.
• Three of Notre Dame’s five turnovers occurred in the red zone, including an end zone interception toss by starting quarterback Dayne Crist in the second quarter and then in the third quarter at the USF 5-yard line when a Tommy Rees pass bounced off the helmet of wide receiver TJ Jones and was picked off.
The latter sent head coach Brian Kelly into an epic rage that was captured by the NBC cameras … and eventually helped tone down some of his intense and often animated sideline demeanor.
In that USF game, an early Cierre Wood touchdown run was also called back because of a penalty, and the Irish ended up with no points on the possession.
• Notre Dame kicker David Ruffer, a Lou Groza finalist the previous year while opening his career with 23 consecutive made field goals, missed his lone attempt versus USF, from 30 yards, in the first half.
That’s when one began to sense impending doom.
• USF was coached by Skip Holtz, a Notre Dame graduate who as a senior in 1986 was a walk-on for his father’s first Fighting Irish unit.
After that shocking upset, he went 7-16 the rest of his career at USF and was fired after his third season in 2012.
Fast forward eight years later and Louisiana Tech head coach Holtz is 56-36 at his new location — 6-0 in bowl games, most recently a 14-0 shutout of Miami in last December’s Independence Bowl.
With 144 career victories as a college head coach, Holtz surpassed Alabama’s Frank Thomas’ 141 for the most by a Notre Dame alumnus, to our knowledge. Thomas played for Knute Rockne at Notre Dame.
• USF is under a new regime with first-year head coach Jeff Scott, who had been with the Clemson Tigers since 2008, the last five as co-offensive coordinator. Scott was part of the coaching staff for Clemson's 2018 College Football Playoff win over Notre Dame.
The Bulls fired former Notre Dame 1995-98 defensive line coach Charlie Strong in December after a 4-8 season and a 21-16 three-year mark.
• In an infamous three-year span from 2009-11, Notre Dame lost home games in its initial meetings with Connecticut (2009), Tulsa (2010) and USF (2011). To see the Fighting Irish 0-1 all time against those schools is surreal in itself, especially because UConn, which will not play football this year, might drop back down another level in football.
At least the series with USF now has a chance to be reversed.
• Last but not least, Scott’s offensive coordinator is a rising wunderkind in 27-year-old Charlie Weis Jr., son of 2005-09 Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis. Weis Jr. held the same position the past two years at Florida Atlantic. Last year, FAU finished 11-3 with an offense that ranked in the top 20 in scoring and yards per game.
Weis Jr. is the youngest offensive coordinator in the FBS. His Sept. 19 counterpart, Rees, is the second-youngest.
As a high school teen-ager, the younger Weis was often seen on a head set on the Notre Dame sidelines for games, which led to some derision among some Notre Dame faithful.
In one of his final one-on-one interviews right before the elder Weis was terminated at Notre Dame, Weis bitterly lashed out.
“The damage to [wife] Maura and Charlie Jr. is irreparable,” Weis told Fanhouse writer and Notre Dame graduate John Walters. “It's watching me get hammered. I'll never forgive the people who character-assassinated me without even knowing me. Those people did irreparable damage to my wife and son, and I'll never forgive them.”
When Walters asked Weis where 15-year-old Charlie would be attending college, he replied, "I know where he won't be going to college.”
A second victory by the son of a former Notre Dame head coach at the same school would be as bizarre as it can get.
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