No Doubt Left: Notre Dame Answers the Big Game Bell
Heartbreak stays with you your entire life. No matter where it comes from, you remember it, sometimes more vividly than your fondest memories.
For Notre Dame football fans since 1988, it has been heartbreak. From losing the National Championship due to AP voters, even though they beat Florida State, the team that was voted National Champions, in 1993 to the “Bush Push” in 2005. Then, going undefeated and getting obliterated by Alabama in the National Championship game in 2012, to even this season, having one second robbed in a four-point loss to BYU.
Granted, there have been great moments, like six years ago to the date, beating No. 1 Clemson in double overtime during the COVID Pandemic. But those great memories do little to cover the heartbreak of the past.
But for one night, for one game, the Irish did exactly that. Years of heartbreak and misery were flushed away.
Notre Dame upset No. 1 Miami 31-24 Saturday night in front of a raucous Notre Dame crowd in South Bend. From the start of the day with ESPN College GameDay in town, it was evident (unlike years past when a top contender visited) there would be no Miami takeover in the seats. For this game, the fans and players rallied behind Coach Marcus Freeman’s mantra for the season, “Leave No Doubt.”
Notre Dame bullied and used superior physicality against Miami in the first half to a 17-3 halftime lead. They would continue early in the second half, racing out to a 21-point lead following a CJ Carr 21-yard touchdown dart to Micah Gilbert.
Miami would come back, as all great teams do, and it appeared briefly that the ghosts of the past would haunt the Golden Domers, as Miami would get within a touchdown on multiple occasions in the second half.
Much like former Irish great Joe Montana, Carr would respond. The most brilliant was a fourth-and-three from the Miami 43-yard line; Carr would throw a short wheel pass to running back Nolan James Jr. for 36 yards. James Jr. was also a key rusher totaling 52 yards and a touchdown.
However, when Notre Dame needed him the most, Carr showed his Heisman pedigree, in a race that has become very wide open, and gave the Irish exactly what they needed.
Then, there is the defense. Much maligned following the BYU game, they showed up and showed out. Stifling the Hurricanes for much of the evening. QB Darian Mensah was good, passing for 276 yards and a touchdown, but was 24 of 43 passing, a far cry from his nearly 80 percent completion percentage on the season. WR Cooper Barkate had 92 yards and two touchdowns in a valiant attempt to make up for the absence of Miami's superstar receiver Malachi Toney.
In a must-win game dictated by where the College Football Playoff committee ranked the Irish (No. 11), the Irish were finally able to get over the hump and take down a top-ranked team in the nation.
Now, everything is in front of Notre Dame, as they control their own destiny. Win out, and they will make the playoffs. In a put up or shut up game, Notre Dame truly left no doubt.
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