Jackson Leads 2nd Half Comeback, Irish Snap 3 Game Skid
by: Frank Vitovitch

South Bend, Ind. - Jarious Jackson showed, for the first time this season, why he is the lone captain of this team and has being hyped as a Heisman candidate in the pre season by Notre Dame followers.  In previous games he may have had better numbers or lead the team on a late drive only to lose it near the goal line but in those games one thing plagued him - turnovers! 

Jackson had INT's or fumbles at critical points in the Irish's first four games which ended drives, but in today's game when faced with a 30-14 deficit in the 3rd quarter, Jarious rallied his troops and put forth his best performance as the quarterback of the University of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame started the game off with a potent running attack, running for over 126 yards in the fist quarter, including a 55 yard run on the first play from scrimmage by Tony Fisher.  The Irish marched down the field and took a 7-0 lead on their first drive.

The lead was only for a brief moment however, because Brandon Daniels took the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown.  Notre Dame got the ball back and traveled all the way down to inside Oklahoma's 10 yard line, but Jim Sanson missed a chip shot 22 yard field goal and the game remained tied.

The score was still tied when Joey Hildbold lined up to punt from his own end zone.  The ball was snapped, and Hildbold bobbled the ball and knocked it out of the end zone for a safety instead of letting Oklahoma recover for a TD, making the score 9-7 Sooners.

Daniels struck again when he took the free kick after the safety back for more than 50 yards setting up a Josh Heupel touchdown pass giving the Sooners a 16-7 lead over the Irish.

Notre Dame struck right back with a 58 yard touchdown pass from Jarious Jackson to Joey Getherall.  The lead was cut down to 16-14 with that play, but the Sooners added another touchdown, another TD pass from Heupel and Oklahoma had a 23-14 half-time lead.

The second half was a different story though.    Oklahoma had the ball first and scored a touchdown, but did not score for the rest of the game.  The Irish answered with a 15 yard touchdown pass from Jackson to tight end Jabari Holloway.  On that play, Jackson ran down to his left to find Oklahoma defenders in his face so he headed back up to right and found Holloway in the corner of the end zone.

The Notre Dame defense, which played an excellent game, despite Oklahoma scoring 30 points, came up with the next big play.  Heupel dropped back to pass and Notre Dame came at him.  As he was throwing he got hit and under threw his intended receiver.  When Lee Lafayette turned to look for the ball, it hit him right in the numbers and he held on for the INT.

The offense came back on and marched down to the Oklahoma one yard line, and finished the drive off with a one yard touchdown run by junior Tony Driver.  The defense answered the call again and forced a Oklahoma punt.

The Irish offense again marched down the field to the one yard line and ended the drive off with a  Tony Driver touchdown, his second and the game winner.  Oklahoma got the ball, but was forced to punt again, but the Irish failed to capitalize when Jim Sanson missed another chip shot field goal giving the Sooners some life.

The defense, however, stepped up to the challenge and forced a four and out.  Notre Dame got the ball back and ran the ball three times killing the clock.  Earlier in the half, Oklahoma wasted two time-outs which proved extremely costly in the end.

A few domers stepped up big time in the second half.    Raki Nelson made a great catch in ND's first touchdown drive of the second half, getting injured in the process.  Bobby Brown made the next big grab of the drive, and Joey Getherall had a career day, catching the 58 yard TD pass in the first half and making numerous grabs over the middle sacrificing his body for the team.

On defense, Deveron Harper and Clifford Jefferson were HUGE.  Josh Heupel came into the game leading the nation in total offense and they held him to 168 yards passing.  The defense in general, especially the secondary played an outstanding game.  Take away the kickoff returned for a TD (since they didn't allow it), the one touchdown set up by the other great return on the free kick, and the safety and the defense gave up 14 points to a team averaging over 40 a game - not bad at all.