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Notre Dame wide receiver Golden Tate tries to break away from Connecticut's Jerome Junior. (Daily Star Photo/KELLY SWEENEY)
By SCOTT NOVAK
Niles Daily Star
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – For the second straight season following its final home game, Notre Dame’s senior class walked off the field in defeat.
This time it was a double overtime loss to Connecticut on Saturday night.
After trailing 14-0, the Huskies roared back in the second half and then Andre Dixon raced untouched into the end zone from four yards out, the Fighting Irish had been tripped up again, 33-30.
The loss dropped Notre Dame to 6-5 on the season, a season that was filled with promise several weeks ago when the Irish were 6-2 and there was talk of a BCS bowl game.
Now, with the focus on the future of Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis and a trip to the West Coast to take on a pretty good Stanford team, the Fighting Irish are just trying to survive.
But the emotion in Notre Dame Stadium wasn’t reserved for just the Fighting Irish seniors.
On the other side of the field, there were plenty of tears as well as Connecticut finally won a football game after dropping three straight heartbreakers following the death of defensive back Jasper Howard.
“We’re just thankful that we were able to finally put together a win, so now we can take a game ball and send it down to Joe, Angela and Henry and David, and the Howard family,” Huskies coach Randy Edsall said following the game. “Because I know one thing, that little No. 6 was up there looking down on us today. He gave Blidi and Dwayne something special today, because those two kids played very, very well against some outstanding receivers.”
It didn’t look good for Connecticut early on as Notre Dame raced out to a 14-0 lead on an 8-yard touchdown pass from Jimmy Clausen to Golden Tate in the first quarter and a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Clausen in the second quarter.
But a huge play by Connecticut’s Jordan Todman got the Huskies right back into the contest.
After breaking free of a tackle near the line of scrimmage, Todman raced 43 yards into the end zone to cut the lead to 14-7.
Connecticut would get a 39-yard field goal from Dave Teggert just before halftime to make it a 14-10 contest.
Notre Dame struck first coming out in the second half, but could only manage a field goal to make it 17-10 early in the third quarter.
The Huskies (5-5) then shocked the Irish and the sold out crowd when Todman took the ensuing kickoff and raced 96 yards untouched to score.
A David Ruffer 23-yard field goal made it 20-17 in the opening moments of the fourth quarter and a 29-yard Teggert field goal with 1:10 to play tied the score after a pair of holding penalties called back Dixon touchdown runs.
Everyone expected the Fighting Irish to take the following kickoff and march down the field for a winning score, but when Armando Allen fumbled the ball near midfield, the thoughts turned to the fact that the Huskies still had plenty of time to drive into field goal range.
And that’s exactly what Connecticut did, however, Teggert missed on his attempt in the closing seconds and the game headed to overtime.
Connecticut scored first on an 11-yard touchdown pass to Kashif Moore from former Notre Dame quarterback Zach Frazier.
The Fighting Irish followed that up with a 4-yard pass from Clausen to Michael Floyd and the two teams headed to a second overtime.
Notre Dame, despite a commanding difference in total yards, couldn’t muster a touchdown in the second overtime, settling for a 36-yard Ruffer field goal.
The Huskies took over and marched the ball inside the 5-yard line and then handed the ball to Dixon, who darted around the left end untouched for the score.
“We just feel like we always can get stronger as the game goes on,” Edsall said. “I think that’s what happened with our offensive line. I think we got stronger as the game went on, and I think we might have wore them down a little bit in the second half.”
Notre Dame finished with nearly 100 yards more in total offense (452-372), but couldn’t get the ball into the end zone when it needed to.
The Fighting Irish managed just 123 yards on the ground compared to 231 by the Huskies.
Clausen was 30-of-45 for 329 yards and two touchdowns, while Tate and Floyd finished with 104 and 123 yards between them on 17 receptions.
Todman ran for 141 yards for Connecticut, while Dixon added 114.
“There were two separate issues,” Weis said about the Huskies’ running game. “I think that one they made some yards on the stretch play, not the counterplay, but the stretch play where we had the edge set and we had people in position to make the play. We just didn’t make the play, especially that first touchdown run. We had a lot of people in place to make it. We just didn’t make the play. And next thing you know, he makes a cutback and takes it to the house.
“What they really made hay on in this game was both the power and the counter series where we had penetration inside. He they’d bounce it to the outside, and on those plays we didn’t have the upset, and there were a lot of easy yards for them.”
As for the direction of the Notre Dame program and his future as its head coach, Weis did not comment directly.
“Yeah, I’m glad you’re the first one to go ahead and address that one, Brian,” he said. “Today’s not the day for me to reflect on things like that. I mean today’s the day for me to be worrying about those guys, those 33 guys.
“I really feel absolutely miserable for those 33 guys. And as I’ve said the other day and I’ve never been a hypocrite before. I come in here and start talking about me I’m really barking up the wrong tree, because those guys are the guys I should feel for today. I’ll worry about me tomorrow. But I think today I should be worrying about them.”
Connecticut 0 10 7 3 7 6 – 33
Notre Dame 7 7 3 3 7 3 – 30
ND – Tate, Golden 8 pass from Clausen, Jimmy (Ruffer, David kick)
ND – Clausen 1 run (Ruffer kick)
C – TODMAN, Jordan 43 run (TEGGART, Dave kick)
C – TEGGART 39 field goal
ND – Ruffer 20 field goal
C – TODMAN 96 kickoff return (TEGGART kick)
ND – Ruffer 23 yd field goal
C – TEGGART 29 yd field goal
C – MOORE, Kashif 11 pass from Frazer, Zach (TEGGART, kick)
ND – Floyd, Michael 4 pass from Clausen (Ruffer kick)
ND – Ruffer 36 yd field goal
C – DIXON, Andre 4 run