Same old story as Irish lose another heartbreaker on Senior Day

Monday, September 19, 2005 o bserverTHE

Michigan State 44 , Notre Dame 41

player of the game

Jordan TodmanConnecticut running back

Todman rushed for 130 yards and atouchdown and returned a kickoff 96

yards for a score.

quote of the game

“The finality of that being your lastopportunity to play for the University ofNotre Dame, I think it’s gut wrenching.”

Charlie WeisIrish coach

stat of the game

6

Number of points Notre Damescored in regulation after taking a 14-0 lead with 14:32 remaining

in the second quarter.

play of the game

Jordan Todman’s 96-yard kickoffreturn touchdown in the third quarter

The special teams score tied thegame 17-17 immediately after an

Irish field goal made it 17-10.

Monday, November 23, 2009 o bserverTHE

IRISH INSIDERConnecticut 33, Notre Dame 30 (2 OT)

When former Yankeescatcher Yogi Berra famouslyquipped “It’s déjà vu all overagain,” who would have everthought he could be talkingabout Notre Dame football?Notre Dame lost on Senior

Day to a Big East team with alosing record that had strug-gled through a season ofadversity and was desperatelylooking for a signature win.Unfortunately for the Irish, itwas the second year in a rowthat this nightmare scenarioplayed out — this time with a33-30 double-overtime loss toConnecticut capped by AndreDixon’s game-ending 4-yardtouchdown run.In 2008, Syracuse came into

Notre Dame Stadium to spoilthe last home game for NotreDame’s seniors a week afterthe Orange had announcedhead coach Greg Robinsonwould be fired at the season’send.After Saturday’s game,

Huskies coach Randy Edsallcalled the win the biggest onein program history.“We’re just very, very proud

to win and know that we haveto stay humble and stay hun-gry because we st i l l haveother th ings that we s t i l lwould l ike to accomplish,”Edsall said. “But there is nodoubt that this is the biggestwin that we’ve had so far inthe short t ime that we’vebeen an FBS school.”It was also a much-needed

win for a Connecticut teamthat had not won a gamesince the tragic death of jun-ior cornerback JasperHoward. The Huskies winallows them to finally gainsome closure now that theyhave honored their fa l lenteammate with a victory.“It’s just another game, but

you’ve got to understand thehuman part o f th is , andyou’ve got to understand whatthis team has gone through,”Edsall said. “A couple of closegames, and then you lose ateammate, you lose a brother,you lose a son, and you’re try-ing so hard to honor him bywinning on the field. We had-n’t done that, so that first winthat we were going to get wasgoing to be special and whatbetter place than here?”For the Irish, head coach

Charlie Weis once again foundhimsel f f ie ld ing quest ionsfrom the hot seat after anoth-er Senior Day loss.

“I really feel miserable forthose 33 guys ,” Weis sa idSaturday af ter the game.“And as I’ve said the otherday and I ’ve never been ahypocrite before, I come inhere and start talking aboutme, I’m really barking up thewrong tree, because thoseguys are the guys I should feelfor today.”It was a bitter feeling for

Weis, who called last year’sSenior Day loss to Syracuse aregret, having to face thatreality for a second straightseason.“I feel miserable,” he said.

“No one cares more aboutthese k ids short term andlong term than me. I don’tworry about them just now,just today, or just next week. Iworry about them and theirlives, which is part of this jobright here.”In the ear ly going, i t

appeared that Notre Damewould pul l away from theHuskies . Af ter hold ingConnecticut to a three-and-out on their first possession,the Irish marched 69 yardsdown the field and scored on

an 8-yard touchdown passfrom junior quarterbackJimmy Clausen to junior widereceiver Golden Tate in just3:11 to give Notre Dame a 7-0lead. In the f i rs t quarteralone, the Irish outgained theHuskies 169-51.Notre Dame capped off an

80-yard scoring drive just 28seconds into the second quar-ter when Clausen got into theend zone on a 1-yard quarter-back sneak to give the Irish a14-0 lead.But as they had done so

many times this season, theHuskies bounced back ontheir next drive, as runningback Jordan Todman took a43-yard run to the house tofinish off a scoring drive inwhich the Huskies went 75yards in 2:41 to pull within atouchdown. A field goal byHuskies sophomore kickerDave Teggart with 3:14 sec-onds left in the half put thescore at 14-10.After junior kicker David

Ruffer kicked a 20-yard fieldgoal to put the Irish back upby a touchdown early in thethird quarter, Todman struck

again with a 96-yard kickoffreturn for a touchdown thatevened the score 17-17.The two defenses held until

the Notre Dame offense wasstifled in the red zone early inthe fourth quarter, leading toa 23-yard fieldgoal fromRuffer.Connect icut

marched deepinto Irish terri-tory on i tsensuing pos-sess ion, butjunior l ine-backer Br ianSmith inter-cepted a passfrom Huskiesjunior and former Notre Damequarterback Zach Frazer inthe end zone. The Huskies would get

another chance after a stalledNotre Dame drive, and theytied the score 20-20 with 1:10left in the game with a 29-yard field goal from Teggart.The field goal try came onlyafter a pair of holding penal-t ies negated Connect icuttouchdown runs.

On the ensuing Irish posses-s ion, junior running backArmando Allen fumbled onthe Notre Dame 41-yard linewith 58 seconds left, givingthe Huskies a shot to win thegame in regulat ion. But

T e g g a r tmissed a 37-yard field goaltry as t imeexpired toforce overtime.The two

teams tradedt o u c h d o w npasses in thefirst overtime,and on its sec-ond overt imep o s s e s s i o n ,

Notre Dame settled for a 36-yard f ie ld goal by Ruf ferbefore Dixon ran home thegame winner.With the loss, Notre Dame

has now lost i ts last fourgames against Big East foes,with its last Big East win com-ing against Syracuse onSenior Day in 2005.

Contact Mike Gotimer at mgotimer@nd.edu

By MIKE GOTIMERSports Writer

TOM LA/The Observer

From left, Irish players James Aldridge, George West, Kerry Neal and Darrin Walls sing the Alma Mater after Connecticut spoiledNotre Dame’s Senior Day with a 33-30 victory in double overtime Saturday.

Broken record

“I feel miserable. Noone cares more about these kids

short term and longterm than me.”

Charlie WeisIrish coach

B-

The Observer � IRISH INSIDERpage 2 Monday, November 23, 2009

Loss on Senior Day really hurtsOnly being a junior, I didn’t

think the emotions of NotreDame’s Senior Day would get tome. But when Connecticut’s AndreDixon scampered into the endzone and hand-ed five fifth-year seniors,including cap-tains KyleMcCarthy andScott Smith,their secondstraight SeniorDay loss —well, it got tome.It wasn’t just

about the loss,which droppedthe Irish to ashocking tosome, disappointing to all 6-5record this season, exactly whereNotre Dame was a year ago. Andwhile most Notre Dame fans areangry, to say the least, I can’t helpbut just feel sad for the NotreDame family, from the studentsand alumni to the players andcoaches.Some would argue that you can’t

hurt for Charlie Weis, a man paidmillions to coach football at hisalma mater and who, by most anystatistical measure, hasn’t livedup to expectations. But for allWeis’ shortcomings — and they’llall be discussed over the nextweek or so, until an officialannouncement about the pro-gram’s future is made at somepoint after Saturday’s game atStanford — I still have a greatdeal of respect for him. Just after Weis’ Sunday press

conference, I happened across the2005 ESPN video story on “PassRight,” when Weis famously stuckto a promise he made to a dying10-year-old Irish fan to pass to theright on Notre Dame’s first playagainst Washington, even thoughthe Irish were backed up insidetheir own 1-yard line.That was five years ago, just

three games into the Weis era thatseemed so full of promise. Thecontrast was stark between theWeis in the video — fresh, ener-getic, optimistic, well perceived —and the one who sat in front of the

media Sunday, appearing wornout, physically and emotionally,despite trying to take a light-hearted approach with the localbeat writers before the press con-ference.Weis has been the subject of as

much pointed media speculationas any figure in the sports worldin recent weeks, and it hurts tosee that happen to a man wholoves Notre Dame and has put somuch into turning his programaround.Despite his disappointing win-

loss record, the fact is he is stillpart of a Notre Dame family thatprides itself on its closeness evenin tough times, and this may bethe toughest of times for Weis andhis players. To hear the boo birdscome out for the Band’s tradition-al 1812 Overture — usually playedas a tribute to Notre Dame’s headcoach — following the singing ofthe Alma Mater as the team, andparticularly the seniors, slowlytrickled into the locker roomstung, for me at least, more thananother close loss that, unfortu-nately, didn’t come as a huge sur-prise.No, Weis hasn’t beaten USC in

five tries. He’s lost at home toNavy twice. He’s lost two straightSenior Day games. His winningpercentage is lower than those ofboth Bob Davie and TyroneWillingham at the time they werefired.Those damning statistics don’t

lie, and I can no longer believe hecould, should or would beretained. While he’s taken theright tact with the media bypolitely declining to answer thoseloaded “big picture” questionsuntil after the season, I’m not sureI believe him when he says hehasn’t reflected on the program’sprogress and how it affects his jobstatus.No, I haven’t believed in a lot of

the moves Weis has made this sea-son, and I don’t believe a lot ofwhat he’s said as the pressureturned up in recent weeks. Butwhen he says he’ll continue toprepare for Stanford, I believehim. When he says he’ll continueto recruit “full speed ahead” untilhe’s told he’s not coming back, I

believe him. And when he says hecares most about his players inthese uncertain times, I believehim.Charlie Weis is a good man. He

is a Notre Dame man. And, per-haps even more importantly, hisplayers, and especially his seniors,are Notre Dame men. It isadmirable the way they havestood by their embattled coachover the last three tumultuousyears, and the way in which theteam emerged from the tunnelSaturday — standing behind theirfour captains and their headcoach, both literally and figura-tively — made me proud to sup-port this team, even if the finalresult didn’t.Just as the struggles of Notre

Dame’s players in certain areas ofthe game — an inconsistentground game and poor tacklingfundamentals come to mind — area reflection of their head coach, sotoo is the way with which theseplayers carried themselves beforeand after what might have beenthe most painful loss for a groupof players who have endured morethan their fair share of painfullosses.Of course I wish the offensive

line played a little nastier, thelinebackers tackled much betterand the defensive backs weremore aggressive with the ball inthe air. Those are only threeexamples of concerns and criti-cisms any casual observers of thisIrish team would make, and, fairlyor unfairly, those ultimately fall onthe shoulders of the head coach,as Weis acknowledged Sunday.But if you listened to the seniors

talk about their Notre Dame expe-rience leading up to their finalgame in the Stadium, and if youwatched the pain with which somany of them lingered on the fieldafter this gut-wrenching defeat,you know these guys have given itall they could. And so has theircoach.

The views expressed in thiscolumn are those of the authorand not necessarily those of TheObserver.Contact Matt Gamber at

mgamber@nd.edu

B+quarterbacks: As usual, Clausen’s num-bers were phenomenal. But as theoffense’s leader, he deserves some of theblame for the unit’s uninspiring finish.

report card

Matt Gamber

Sports Editor

Brunning backs:Allen had a nice day with170 total yards, but his fumble on NotreDame’s last drive in regulation gave theHuskies a shot at a makeable field goal.

A-receivers:Tate and Floyd both registered atleast 100 yards and a touchdown yet again,but the Connecticut defensive backs madebig plays in critical situations.

B+offensive line: Clausen was sacked twiceand pressured in some critical situations,but the line paved the way for some goodgains by Allen.

Ddefensive line: The front four got man-handled in the critical fourth quarter,as the Huskies were able to physicallydominate with a run-first attack.

Clinebackers:Brian Smith made a criticalinterception in the end zone, but the line-backers looked a step slow and out ofposition too often in the run game.

B-defensive backs: The secondary containedFrazer for most of the day but allowed atouchdown pass on 3rd-and-9 in the firstovertime.

special teams:Ruffer made three big fieldgoals and Turk looked solid in his returnto punter. But the Irish gave up a kickoffreturn touchdown that changed the com-plexion of the game.

C-coaching: The Irish came out firing onoffense but inexplicably went away fromthe no-huddle approach that worked wellin the first quarter, and the run defenselooked lost at the end of the game.

2.59overall:Another dishearteningloss on a day when the Irishhoped to send their seniors outwith a victory.

COURTNEY ECKERLE/The Observer

Irish senior center Eric Olsen and coach Charlie Weis prepare to take the field before Notre Dame’s 33-30double-overtime loss to Connecticut Saturday at Notre Dame Stadium.

adding up the numbers

10Number of November losses during the CharlieWeis era at Notre Dame. Weis is 10-10 in theseason’s final month in five seasons.

9 Number of Notre Dame games decided by sevenpoints or loss, the most in college football. TheIrish are 4-5 in those contests.

3Number of Notre Dame field goals 0in the redzone. The Irish scored on all six red zone posses-sions but managed only three touchdowns.

4 Number of games in which both Michael Floydand Golden Tate recorded 100 yards receiving.The Irish are 0-4 in those games.

169Number of yards the Irish offense amassedin the first quarter. Notre Dame also gained163 yards in the third and totaled 452 total.

49 Number of consecutive starts by senior righttackle Sam Young, who broke Notre Dame’sall-time record by starting Saturday.

727Number of kickoff return yards for freshmanTheo Riddick this season, a school record. Hereturned three kicks for 68 yards Saturday.

8 Number of 100-yard receiving games for Golden Tate thisseason, which ties a school record. He has 14 for hiscareer, also a school record.

TOM LA/The Observer

Senior fullback James Aldridge stands on the field after Notre Dame’s 33-30 loss to Connecticut in double overtime Saturday.The Irish have now lost three straight after a 6-2 start put Notre Dame in BCS contention.

There was no snow thistime, but the rest seemedeerily familiar.The collapse of a promis-

ing season came to a climaxSaturday with an emotionalSenior Day loss to a BigEast team. And just l ikeaf ter the 2008 loss toSyracuse, players are tryingto f igure out what wentwrong. “It’s just tough,” junior

wide receiver Golden Tatesaid. “Si t t ing at 6-2 youknow we had a chance todo some special things, andthen it’s just all taken fromyou.”In 2008, Notre Dame sat

at 5-2 before ultimately los-ing four of its last five. Itwas a disappointing finishfor a team that was tryingto prove itself after the dis-astrous 2007 season.This season, the stakes

were even higher. At 6-2,the Irish were ranked andhad a chance to play in aBCS bowl. Now, after threestraight losses the Irish willmost likely not even have ashot at the Gator Bowl ,which manyhad termed afal lback forth is year ’ssquad.“I would’ve

laughed inyour face i fyou had toldme th is i swhat wouldh a p p e n , ”senior safetyK y l eM c C a r t h ysaid. The losses were games

seven, eight and nine decid-ed by a touchdown or lessin 2009. Players pointed tothe close decisions in theirsearch for an explanation.“Just losing by very little,

those are the tough ones,”

junior quarterback JimmyClausen said. “You know,it’s just really hard to swal-low.”Added Tate : “Play ing

close games, at some pointit happens, unfortunately.”

Tate andClausen haveboth put upbig numbersin the losses,but wi thnothing toshow for i t .In the lastthree games,Tate hasnotched 368r e c e i v i n gyards , andClausen is9 4 - o f - 1 3 8

passing for 1,064 yards.Stat is t ics l ike that don’tusually lend themselves tothree straight losses, butClausen said that is besidethe point. “Stats really don’t matter

unless you get a W at the

end,” Clausen said. Even though the Senior

Day loss looked similar tolast year’s, the Irish willnow look to conclude theregular season differently. “We can’t point fingers.

We can only point back atourselves,” McCarthy said.Last year, Notre Dame

traveled to USC for its lastgame and took a beating inan ugly 38-3 loss. This year, the Irish will

again head to California,but this time to take on ahot Stanford team. St i l l ,they’re hoping for a differ-ent result.“The guys are just hang-

ing their heads, but we stillhave one game le f t andneed to keep moving,” jun-ior linebacker Brian Smithsaid. “Losing wears on you,but you have to work to notlet it wear on you and justwork to win.”

Notre Dame 14, Connecticut 0Clausen 1-yd run (Ruffer kick) with 14:32remaining.Drive: 11 plays, 80 yards, 5:05 elapsed.

Notre Dame 14, Connecticut 7Jordan Todman 43-yd run (Dave Teggart kick)with 11:51 remaining.Drive: 7 plays, 75 yards, 2:41 elapsed.

Notre Dame 14, Connecticut 10Teggart 39-yd field goal with 3:14 remaining.Drive: 13 plays, 52 yards, 6:12 elapsed.

Junior wide rece iverGolden Tate set two newschool receiving records inthe loss to Connect icut .With his 39-yard receptionin the f irst quarter, Tatepassed Jeff Samardzi ja’sprevious record of 1,249receiving yards from the2005 season, and, at theend of the game, he had1,295 yards on the year. On the same catch, Tate

passed both Samardzija andTom Gatewood’s sharedrecord of 77 receptions in asingle season, and he cur-rently has 83 catches onthe year.

� Walk-on junior kickerDavid Ruffer found out thathe would start at k ickerjust before k ickof f onSaturday after freshman

kicker Nick Tausch wasscratched from the game.“It was right before the

series went off that I foundout I was going to start,”Ruffer said. “I misheard thecoin f l ip and thought wewere going totake the ball,so I s tar tedkicking fieldgoals. [Juniork i c k e r ]B r a n d o nWalker hadto yell at meto kickoff.”

� Huskiesjunior quar-terback ZachF r a z e rwalked awayv i c t o r i o u syesterday in his return toNotre Dame Stadium.Frazer, who was a fresh-man on the Irish roster in2006, t ransferred to

Connect icut before the2007 season after finishingfourth in the quarterbackcompet i t ion to replaceBrady Quinn. Af ter thegame however, Frazerdownplayed the individual

s igni f icanceof the win.“I don’t feel

like I proveda n y t h i n g , ”Frazer said.“ I fee l l ikewe proveds o m e t h i n gtoday, youknow, comingin here andgetting a vic-tory.”

� With theloss , I r i sh

coach Charlie Weis’ recordat Notre Dame dropped to35-26, for a winning per-centage of .574, below thewinning percentages of for-

mer Ir i sh coaches BobDavie and TyroneWil l ingham. Weis ’ homewinning percentage of .576ranks as the worst homewinning percentageamongst a l l Notre Damecoaches since 1975.

� Notre Dame’s red zoneof fense s truggled onceagain to put the ball in theendzone, converting onlythree touchdowns in six redzone appearances, includ-ing in overtime. Going backto the Navy game, the Irishhave scored jus t seventouchdowns in 14 trips tothe red zone. In their sevencombined red zone chancesin the Navy and Pittsburghgames, the Irish have con-verted three f ie ld goals ,committed three turnoversand missed one field goal.

The Observer � IRISH INSIDERMonday, November 23, 2009 page 3

Third straight loss comes as shock

By LAURA MYERSSports Writer

Tate sets pair of school receiving records

Contact Mike Gotimer atmgotimer@nd.edu

By MIKE GOTIMERSports Writer

1stConnecticutNotre Dame

07

2nd107

3rd73

4th33

Second quarter

Notre Dame 7, Connecticut 0Golden Tate 8-yd pass from Jimmy Clausen(David Ruffer kick) with 10:59 remaining.Drive: 9 plays, 69 yards, 3:11 elapsed.

Third quarter

Notre Dame 17, Connecticut 10Ruffer 20-yd field goal with 9:29 remaining.Drive: 11 plays, 77 yards, 5:31 elapsed.

Notre Dame 17, Connecticut 17Todman 96-yd kickoff return (Teggart kick) with9:17 remaining.

Total3330

scoringsummary

First quarter

statisticstotal yards

rushing yards

passing yards

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers2@nd.edu

Fourth quarter

Notre Dame 20, Connecticut 17Ruffer 23-yd field goal with 10:47 remaining.Drive: 11 plays, 41 yards, 5:32 elapsed.

Notre Dame 20, Connecticut 20Teggart 29-yd field goal with 1:10 remaining.Drive: 12 plays, 40 yards, 4:04 elapsed.

12-25-141

26-13020-114

4-673-332-13

30-45-329

24-1061-12

9-1238-1047-64

Clausen

AllenTate

TateFloydAllen

Frazer

TodmanDixon

EasleyGriffinMoore

receiving

rushing

passing

“Sitting at 6-2 youknow we had a

chance to do somespecial things, and

then it’s just all takenfrom you.”

Golden TateIrish wide receiver

time of possession

OT1310

First overtime

Connecticut 27, Notre Dame 20Kashif Moore 11-yd pass from Zach Frazer(Teggart kick).

Connecticut 27, Notre Dame 27Michael Floyd 4-yd pass from Clausen (Rufferkick).

Second overtime

Notre Dame 30, Connecticut 27Ruffer 36-yd field goal.

Connecticut 33, Notre Dame 30Andre Dixon 4-yd run.

“I don’t feel like Iproved anything. I feel

like we proved something today,

you know, coming inhere and getting

a victory.”

Zach FrazerHuskies quarterback

The Observer � IRISH INSIDERpage 4 Monday, November 23, 2009

Notre Dame reversed its recent trend of struggling to start games, but the

Irish could not sustain their early momentum and lost their third straight

game, 33-30 to Connecticut in double overtime. Jimmy Clausen marched the

offense down the field on its first drive, finding Golden Tate for an 8-yard

touchdown pass and a 7-0 lead. On the second play of the second quarter,

Clausen plunged in from one yard out to put Notre Dame up 14-0. A 43-yard

Jordan Todman touchdown run and a Dave Teggart field goal brought

Connecticut to within 14-10. On their first drive of the second half, the Irish

moved deep into Huskies territory but settled for a David Ruffer field goal —

which Todman immediately answered with a 96-yard kickoff return touch-

down to tie the game at 17-17. After trading fourth-quarter field goals, the

teams headed into overtime, as both Connecticut and Notre Dame scored on

touchdown passes on their first drive. But after the Huskies forced the Irish

to settle for a field goal in the second overtime, Andre Dixon ended the game

with a 4-yard touchdown scamper to give Connecticut the 33-30 win.

For more photos, check out the photo gallery at ndsmcobserver.com

A familiar story

Clockwise from top: Junior running back Armando Allen has his helmet knocked off as he attempts to cross the goal line; junior quarterback Jimmy Clausen passes toAllen; senior center Eric Olsen runs out of the tunnel before the game; Allen tries to escape a tackler; junior linebacker Harrison Smith dives to make a tackle.

TOM LA/The Observer

ANDREW WEBER/The Observer

TOM LA/The Observer TOM LA/The Observer

ANDREW WEBER/The Observer